Dear CCW family,
Just a few years after we married, we decided we would never ask for support for our work or for our personal expenses, or for any CCW ministry expenses. Rather, we would look to the Lord alone for such provision without telling anyone about our needs. We wanted to demonstrate through our dependence on Him how God loves His children and answers prayer.
This decision to live life this way didn’t come out of nowhere. There was a journey to that lifestyle which we have now practiced for nearly 40 years. The amount, $833.33, was an important part of that journey.
I was pastoring a church in Orlando, Florida. The church was easily our most difficult one, yet equally one of the most delightful in terms of relationships and formation of concepts that would stick with us up to this very day. On the hard side was the huge debt the church carried. Up to 70% to 80% of the income of the church went toward the bond payments to be paid every Friday. We always lacked enough money on Monday, but IN EVERY CASE God provided what we needed of the $1,388 by Friday. Pam and I had decided to be the last to be paid. This meant that often we didn’t receive our salary on time. Sometimes this shortage continued for weeks while we were entertaining guests regularly who loved to eat and rest in an air-conditioned home. We would still see God’s hand in paying all the bills without speaking to others about our need.
It was in this period, before God amazingly led the church to pay all the debt off including the huge impending balloon note looming over us, that we had our $833.33 experience.
I was asked to minister at the church of my earliest memories where my father had pastored, First Baptist Church of Fordyce, Arkansas, to conduct a few days of meetings for the church. Not only was I invited, but also my two brothers, my father, and my grandfather who actually lived in town. What an experience, unlike anything we had participated in before!
When I left, I was behind in income from the church in Orlando. The amount was sizable to us, representing far more in today’s buying power than it seems now, especially for people who didn’t have any savings. We were precisely $833.33 behind. We had not mentioned our dilemma to anyone.
A few days after returning to Orlando, we received a call from the pastor of the church in Fordyce. Much to our surprise he said that we were going to receive a check from the church. It was an equally divided amount with the others who led in the meeting. My portion, he said, was $833.33! By the time it was sent to us, someone added another $50 to that figure so that we could say that the Lord met all our needs to the penny, with a special bonus added.
We were amazed at God. Think about it. There was no other way to construe what had happened but to say that God who knew our need arranged for just this amount, to come. He watches after the concerns of His children with love and to stimulate our faith for the future. It was guidance like this that caused us to make our decision about provision and to begin CCW.
We’re thankful for several faithful team members who help us at CCW and trust the Lord as we do. Below are the three “communicators” for the ministry. Please pray for us as we carry out our responsibilities to teach this year. Note that Marco Scouvert has joined our team recently.
Steve Burchett
2025 started out so enjoyable as Patty and I and another married couple traveled with nine college-aged members of our church to a conference of approximately 15,000 young adults. We had to miss the final day of Bible teaching in order to get home before the blizzard. We barely beat the snow, but the majority of us caught the sickness that was going around. Once home, I was to depart within days for an annual trip to India to teach in a seminary (and speak for a church), but had to postpone two weeks due to illness. I leave for Mumbai soon and am excited to see old friends and serve the students as they study through 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. I’m also anticipating ministry trips to Tennessee, Ohio, New York, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri in 2025. One big writing goal in the new year is to finish a short book tentatively titled The Most Powerful Words: A Primer on the Public Reading of Scripture. Please pray!
Marco Scouvert
Laura and I are thankful to have joined the CCW family and look forward to serving the Lord alongside the team as he leads us in this new work. We are focused in the home on getting back into good family rhythms and homeschool routines as we begin the new year. I have a trip to South Africa at the end of February to do an evangelism seminar and bible intensive with a couple churches, preach and teach in a few settings, and also wrap up logistics on that side. On the writing front, I anticipate developing more as a communicator and I hope to finish a catechism that will be helpful for families with younger children.
Jim Elliff
I’ll be leaving soon with Pam for Shreveport for a Bible Intensive and a Sunday of teaching in a fine church. Please pray for us as we travel by van on this trip, stopping along the way to visit some ministry friends. This year we ended our pastoral work at Christ Fellowship and will focus solely on CCW writing and travel. We are thankful to continue to use our gifts and share our love with this amazing church in the years ahead. We’re settling several dates for ministry in these first weeks of the new year. Right now we hope to drive to most of these for a change, in order that, if possible, we can stop to see various friends, and perhaps share with other churches along the way. Let us know if interested. I have three significant writing projects ahead of me this year, if all goes well. We believe this will be an important ministry year for us. Please pray for us when you think of us.
With Joy,
Jim Elliff, Steve Burchett and Marco Scouvert