God's Provision

We feel that God has led us to take this trip, so we are trusting that He will provide financially. I'm very much an "inside the box" thinker when it comes to finances, so God has had to work on me a bit in that area. He has shown me that His provision is probably NOT going to be in the form of a check in the mail for the exact amount of the trip. But, with His grace and guidance combined with some old fashioned belt-tightening, we're slowly making progress toward covering the cost of the trip. My idea is to document this provision as both a step of faith and as an encouragement to others.


$1,550 - Unexpected scholarships for two of our children
Within days of finding out the prices of airline tickets had hit a 12 month low, we found out about an opportunity to obtain partial scholarships for two of our children who are enrolled in private school. A relative took advantage of this opportunity on our behalf and voila, fifteen hundred dollars was freed up from tuition expenses. This money can now be used toward the Uganda trip.
$ 650 - Unsolicited sales call that actually paid off
I really hate unsolicited sales calls, especially when they come on my cell phone. I almost hung up on the Allstate agent, but am really glad I didn't! By switching our home insurance to Allstate (who we already had our car insurance with), we reduced our total insurance cost by $650/year.
$ 96 - Netflix
We were on the 3 movies at one time plan with Netflix. Switching to the one-at-a-time plan will motivate us to stay on top of our "queue" and save us almost one hundred dollars over a year.
$2,000 - Unexpected Gift
Shhh...we can't say who it's from, but you know who you are and so does the Lord!

Scholarships

In 2008 the Georgia legislature earmarked $50 million of tax money to be used for qualifying private institutions for school scholarships. It was their compromise to a voucher system. Last year, only about $3 million of that was used. The state oversees about 50 privately run Student Scholarship Organizations, or SSOs which process the actual funds. The SSO Bill (HB1133) enables tax payers to put a portion of their Georgia taxes towards particular schools which can set up a scholarship pool to draw from, for students in need.

The tax payer can receive a dollar for dollar tax credit (Married up to $2500, individuals up to $1000) on their Georgia taxes and a federal deduction for the same amount, as a charitable gift. Corporations can also give, 75% for a “C Corp.”, less for S or LLC Corporations. The process is pretty simple. Giving can be done all at once, or several times throughout the year. We utilized the Pay It Forward Scholarships through Corporate Giving for Education which is one of the Georgia Department of Education's approved SSO's.

1) Fill out a one page form, Georgia IY-QEE-TP1 which goes to the state to verify the funds (of the $50 mill.) are available.

2) The Dept. of Revenue approves the amount and notifies the taxpayer.

3)Within 30 days, payment from the taxpayer must be sent to the SSO, with the amount stated in #1, specifying a qualifying school ("Heritage Academy", Braselton).

4)The SSO sends the funds to the school, to be used as they see fit, for scholarships. (The SSO has to obligate 90% of funds and keeps 10% for expenses.)

If you'd like more information for your student or would like to help us offset some of our trip expenses using this method --which will benefit us, but will not ultimately entail any out of pocket costs for you-- please let me know.