$4,000 Raised—and a Life That Almost Ended

Family,

We wanted to give you a quick update on our 10 for $10K Campaign. Since our initial email, we have received $4,000 of our $10,000 goal!

We are incredibly grateful. But before I tell you what those dollars will help us do, I want to tell you about Mike.

Because Gathering Place meets on Saturday nights, I’ve started visiting other churches on Sundays. My heart is simple: meet pastors and church leaders, build relationships, bridge some of the gaps that exist here, and hopefully help foster greater unity within the Church.

Last Sunday, I was sitting in one of those churches when my phone buzzed.

I ignored it.

Then it buzzed again.

For some reason, I had this overwhelming feeling: “You need to take that.”

So I looked.

It was a message that had come through one of our Facebook ads:

“I’m hanging on by a thread here and need some guidance.”

His name was Mike.

What I quickly discovered was that Mike wasn’t simply having a bad day. He was contemplating suicide and believed he was moments away from ending his life.

What followed were messages, phone calls, prayer, and simply being present.

Mike is still here today.

But there’s more.

Today, Mike is beginning a new life in Christ. Gathering Place is walking alongside him, helping him take his next steps and reminding him that he doesn’t have to walk through life alone.

In his own words, he “feels loved for the first time in a long time.”

So why does this matter to you?

Because Mike originally found us through a Facebook ad we ran months ago promoting one of our outreaches, At The Movies.

Think about that.

An outreach happened. An ad was placed. Months passed. And then, on a Sunday morning, a man who felt he had nowhere else to turn remembered there was somewhere he could reach out.

That is missions.

Mike isn’t here because of Russ and Lisa alone. He’s here because people like you have prayed, given, encouraged, and invested in God’s Knot Dead Ministries and the work of Gathering Place.

Every outreach. Every advertisement. Every piece of equipment. Every gathering. Every conversation.

Your investment helps make those moments possible.

And there are more Mikes out there.

This Saturday, our team will be meeting to discuss our outreach plans for the remainder of 2026. We believe God is opening doors across Inverness and the Highlands, and we want to be prepared to walk through them.

That brings me back to our 10 for $10K Campaign.

We’ve raised $4,000. We have $6,000 to go.

I’ll be in Florida from September 21 through October 6, and I would love the opportunity to sit down with you, your pastor, or your missions team and share what God is doing here in Scotland—and how you could become part of it.

It can be easy to look at Scotland and assume, “Isn’t that already a Christian country?”

The reality on the ground is very different.

Every day, we meet people who have little or no meaningful connection to Jesus or the local church. The mission field may look different from other parts of the world, but the need for the Gospel is just as real.

People like Mike remind us why we came.

There are people here who are hurting. People searching for hope. People who may never walk through the doors of a traditional church—but who might respond to an outreach, see an ad, send a message, or encounter someone willing to tell them that Jesus has not forgotten them.

We want to be there when they do.

Thank you for praying. Thank you for giving. Thank you for believing in this mission.

$4,000 down. $6,000 to go. And every dollar represents another opportunity to reach someone like Mike.

Love God. Love People.

Russ & Lisa Weaver God’s Knot Dead Ministries | Gathering Place

*Mike has given his permission and blessing to use his story.*