A $250,000 Miracle

In June 2003, CanIL’s board of directors faced a difficult decision. Should they begin construction on the new Harvest Centre that year? The choice was difficult because the “Beyond Price” fund-raising campaign was still less than halfway to the $3.7 million goal to pay for the building.

A donor was offering to give $250,000 to the project if that same amount would be matched; CanIL had only raised $30,000 towards that figure.

Several months earlier, Don Fama, CanIL’s director of personnel, had talked to a couple in Calgary about creating a memorial to CanIL on behalf of their teenaged daughter. Marissa Staddon, a vibrant Christian, had been tragically killed in a school ski accident near Revelstoke, B.C.

Fama had heard nothing more from them. But at suppertime the day before the CanIL board meeting, Donna Staddon, Marissa’s mother, phoned Fama with good news—she wanted to donate $200,000 to the CanIL library.

Encouraged by the good news from Fama the next day, a board member said he and his wife would give the remaining $20,000 to secure the matching donation. Fama remembers well the board’s boosted sentiment.

“They said, ‘You know what? This is the affirmation from the Lord. It’s time to go ahead.’ And we did.”

Within a year, the funding campaign had soared and was within just a few hundred thousand dollars of the total goal.

“What an incredible God we serve,” says Fama.