As of last Wednesday I am now working full time on PrayerMate. This is a really exciting idea as far as I’m concerned, and something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. What held me back was two things:
- I really loved my job at Hubbub.co.uk. It was a truly extraordinary place to work and one that I was really not wanting to leave in a hurry. It’s a privilege to get to enjoy going to work each day and knowing that you’re going to be working on something that makes a difference to people. Now I get to do that on PrayerMate instead!
- PrayerMate was a long way from being able to financially support me and my family (which as the father of three children is a serious consideration). It still is, really, but helped by a few generous donations and another windfall my wife and I decided we were ready to step out in faith and give it a shot, trusting that our big God is well able to provide for our needs.
As I’ve started to tell people what I’m up to the response has often been a bit like this: people are generally pleased for me and can tell I am excited about it, but there’s also a bit of a look in their eye which shows they’re a little confused – after all, isn’t PrayerMate finished already? “So what will you actually do?” is often the question that follows. Whilst I know that I could probably employ a team of five for a year and still not accomplish all that I have in mind, that’s not readily apparent from the outside. Ultimately it boils down to my rather ambitious vision for PrayerMate:
It seeks to do this by using technology to:
- Help people to actually pray
- Teach people how to pray in line with biblical principles and priorities
- Providing timely information about specific needs so that they can pray informed prayers
Right now that app is barely scratching the surface of fulfilling that vision, especially when you consider the number of people who try the app once and then quickly give up on it because they’re too confused or because the effort of getting started is just too great at the moment. Obviously (and wonderfully!) not everybody needs a prayer app – and for many people the app is not for them, and that’s fine. But I know for a fact that there are many people out there who struggle to pray and for whom PrayerMate would be a really valuable tool – and I want to help them discover that! Imagine what an awesome thing it would be if more of the global church was mobilised in praying regularly and boldly for the good news about Jesus to be spreading around the world and taking root in people’s hearts – and by God’s grace I now get to be part of that as my day job. What a privilege!
How can I help?
If you’re as excited about that vision as I am, please please please consider whether you might be able to support me through regular monthly donations – or at least as a one off. You can do this in three ways depending on which country you live in:
UK Givers: Give Tax-Efficiently via Stewardship Services
If you’re a UK tax-payer then you can give via Stewardship Services, allowing you to Gift Aid your donation to make it go even further:
Anybody: Give regularly via Patreon
If you want to make monthly payments to support me (in exchange for various levels of rewards) then you can find me on Patreon.
Anybody: Donate via PayPal
You can give via PayPal either as a one off or (even better!) as a monthly recurring payment using a credit card – even if you don’t have an account with them: