I created this Go Fund Me page because our friend, Mike, needs your help.

As you already know, the Lord gave me the tremendous privilege of leading Mike to Christ in May 2020 after over a year of developing a relationship with him through GVBC’s Friday Food Ministry at St. John Lutheran Church. Since then, every week on Sundays, I have been meeting with him on Zoom for an hour-and-a-half to two hours for Bible study, prayer, and sharing of our daily life journeys with each other. I have seen Christ transforming his character, from his being critical and worldly to being accepting and Christ-centered. This year, at group meetings such as the After Service Fellowship, instead of just being a silent observer with occasional comments when invited to speak, Mike has become an active participant, sharing his insights, encouraging others, and praying for those who request prayer.

I have helped Mike with all kinds of things, from showing him how to make a healthy breakfast (which he still does for himself now), to helping him get approved for the government-subsidized low-cost apartment he’s living in now; from helping him study for finals and complete assignments for his paralegal classes at El Camino College, to helping him move all his belongings from his old apartment into his new apartment; from driving him to and from GVBC when he needs a ride, to helping him get funding from the GVBC Love Fund to pay for his plane ticket to his home country to secure his property there, and for living expenses while he’s there.

Now I feel the Lord prompting me to help Mike build a wall. He needs to put improvements on His family’s property so that it won’t be considered abandoned property or a nuisance and so that it can be transferred from his father’s name to his name. The papers that Mike and his two brothers needed to sign (and he believes it was a miracle and an answer to prayer that his brothers signed them) had to do with establishing that they are the heirs, and that Mike will be the one to take control of the property. Now that his credentials are established, he needs to build a 240-meter wall.

There is a house on the property where caretakers of the property are staying. And there is another building on the property, but now only the base of it stands. He wants to restore the building as well, but the priority is building the wall.

The woman who manages the property gave Mike an estimate of the cost. She estimates that it will cost $3,000 to build the wall and $6,500 or more to restore the building.

Mike does not have the funds to pay for this. He is on Supplemental Security Income (SSI)—federal welfare—and he lives in a government-subsidized low-income housing apartment. His younger brother is in a very similar situation and has recently been approved by the managers of the building to live with Mike in Mike’s apartment. So his younger brother could house-sit and even pay the rent for Mike while Mike is gone. Whether he will or not is another story.

I asked Mike to try to get his older brother, who has his own business, to help supply the funds he will need—funds to cover all or part of those estimated costs. He said that he asked him, but his brother told him that he was unable to help. Mike said that he knows that his brother is having serious financial problems right now, and he is sure that his brother would help him if he could.

So, because Mike’s blood-related family can’t help him right now, I’m turning to his GVBC family for help. As I already mentioned, I have already helped Mike get funding from the GVBC Love Fund to pay for his plane ticket and for some living expenses. So I believe the Lord is leading me to ask individuals—people who know Mike and might be willing to help him at this crucial point in the journey He is taking him on. Everything has fallen into place, and now he just needs this last bit of help to get him over the hump.

Mike believes that if he can secure the property and then sell it, he will obtain funds that will enable him to get off SSI, obtain housing of his choice—near GVBC, secure a reliable car that he can get around with, pay off his debts, have funds that he can donate to GVBC and other charities, and help people in need. To give Mike the opportunity to realize this vision that he believes the Lord has given him, I would like to band together with those of us who know him and give him a send-off gift of $5,000. Although I am a low-income person myself, because of the Lord’s leading, I am giving $2,000 as seed money for the fund.

Please pray about how the Lord will lead you to join me and support our friend and brother, Mike. And let’s give him the love, care, and support that only those who know and love the Lord can give him.