As 2022 nears its end (can you believe it?), it feels like the right time to take stock of what God is doing through this ministry. Reflecting on the work being done here makes me grateful, particularly because we’ve come a long way. Twelve years ago, I started this blog with prayer, hope, and more than a bit of naivete. I started adding staff, we opened social media platforms, and then…the ministry grew stagnant. Readership declined. And I started making plans to close the site, thinking that this had been a great project and we had an excellent run, but that it was now time to move on.
But God wasn’t through with us. Since then, he’s continued to carry the ministry and create growth each and every year. The numbers support this, especially during this past year, but more importantly, we’re seeing people impacted by the gospel, making deep and meaningful relationships, and developing a community where people trust us even though they know that we’re all about our faith and that our goal is to point them toward Christ.
It’s a beautiful thing to see God work in ways that are beyond both our means and our dreams.
And as he tends to do, God is using people to reach out to people. We have a wonderful staff of volunteers that puts their heart and soul into this ministry, but we also have other partners who support us in different ways. And among them are our givers, those who donate from their finances to help us continue to do the work we do.
Beneath the Tangles is not a non-profit, but the funds given to us don’t go into our pockets. They’re all used to directly support our mission. This is how financial gifts are primarily used:
- To fund social media campaigns that inform others about our ministry
- To pay for website and other digital expenses
- To help our staff create content through subscriptions and reimbursements
- To fund giveaways and contests
While we depend most of all on prayer and the effort of our staff, financial contributions also help us reach more widely and deeper with our audience as we look to dream big and spread the gospel to all otakudom. Today and for the next two weeks, we’re conducting a campaign, with the hope that folks like you will become givers! We don’t have much to give you in return—no pledge gifts, no special statuses, no great rewards—but our hope is that you’re giving for the same reasons that we’re participating in this ministry: to be part of something unique and great in God’s redeeming plan for the world, including for us nerds and geeks that love our anime!
Please consider giving through these platforms:
- Patreon: Our patrons give monthly. We do offer several tiers with small rewards, and are encouraged by those that are able to donate regularly to us, which helps Beneath the Tangles plan for the future.
- Ko-Fi: A great platform for a one-time gift, Ko-Fi is where we fund individual projects but also just an easy place to send us a donation if you’re so inclined!
- Instagram: We recently added the Instagram subscription service to our IG platform. You’ll get a little more inside look at our thoughts if you subscribe, as well as access to a few fun extras. This is also a monthly donation and is set at $2.99. You can subscribe by heading to the account and hitting the subscribe button.
We have two goals for this fall campaign. We want to raise our monthly donations from $174/month to $225. That increase will help us bring our message to tens of thousands more otaku!
Our other goal is to raise $250 through first-time gifts, counting all new donors and those giving through Ko-Fi by Friday, November 18th.
Would you help us reach our goals and further our ministry? We encourage you to pray on this and donate if you’re able. May God bless you, whatever you decide, and we hope you’ll continue to be a part of our community and of what God is doing here at Beneath the Tangles!
