Moving Mountains

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Have you ever tried to move a real mountain in your life, following this principle? You feel kind of silly doing it, and then you wonder if you really have enough faith. It’s a never-ending spiral of failure.

Have you ever tried to move a figurative mountain in your life? Have you found that you could muster up enough faith to do so?

A few years ago we were thinking about the world’s problems. We were thinking about our friends in other countries who struggle with basic survival. We asked, Lord, how can we ever solve these problems? These huge mountains? He reminded us of Matthew 17:20—what was this thing about moving mountains? How can we accomplish that?

And then we got a vision of just how to move a mountain.

Simple Machines

It goes back to 2nd grade science class, learning about “simple machines”—you know, the pulley, inclined plane, wedge, screw, and how all these machines allow us to either multiply the force, or work, we put into something, or reduce the amount of work we need to.

The vision God gave was of the simple machine the “lever.”

If something is too heavy to lift, you use a lever to be able to lift it up. The way the lever is able to multiply your work is through the fulcrum. If you push down against the fulcrum, the object on the other side is pushed up.

That’s what we saw when we thought of moving mountains. How do you move a big object? Get a big lever. We envisioned a mountain with a lever underneath it, getting that mountain to move!

And if it’s still not moving, you move the fulcrum closer to the heavier object, which increases your ability to have leverage against the object.

That’s why we named ourselves Fulcrum Missions. We want to be part of moving mountains in people’s lives. So we help push the fulcrum closer so that there is leverage in people’s lives to move those difficult mountains.

Faith of a Mustard Seed

This isn’t without the faith part. We haven’t removed the “faith as small as a mustard seed” and put ourselves in its place. Quite the opposite, actually.

We partner with churches and ministries in other countries to help give leverage in people’s lives. We recognize that the local church—both the organization, formal church, and the Church as the body of believers—are instrumental in helping in their communities. All of our work is funneled through local hands who can help those in need in their communities. And they remain a key witness to their local community. We want people to know that, when they are hurting or need help, they can go to the church. (Learn more about Our Guiding Principles.)

Take the case of our work in South Sudan as an example. For years, Amazing Grace Community has served as a catalyst for peace in the community. For years they prayed in faith for that school building. It was certainly well beyond anything they could ever consider doing for themselves. Their faith—shown through their earnest prayers—was as small as a mustard seed. We believe God saw their faith and said, “It’s time to get that lever and fulcrum and move this mountain.”

We Aren’t Heroes

We want to make it clear that we are not the heroes of our stories. And we definitely don’t want to be the saviors, either. We simply stand here in awe of the faith of our friends across the globe, the faith that stays persistent, year after year, and we are in awe that God uses these two people to help give a fulcrum to people’s mustard seed faith. We get to watch people’s lives change through the hard work of Christian communities around the globe, we are excited that we get to be part of it through our partnerships, and we are humbled by how deeply their faith impacts ours. And we have the privilege of taking these stories of what’s happening around the globe and how God is moving in communities for his kingdom’s purpose, and we get to share these stories with you.

You know, just like faith is as small as a mustard seed, we believe there’s no act that’s too small to push a fulcrum closer to an impossible mountain to move. We know that it’s God who is the real mountain mover, but he invites us imperfect people to go about his work.

That’s what we want to do. And that’s what we want to ask you to do. 

You can donate today, or if you’re looking for more, check out how you can work with us.