Shopping for the gospel
Blogger uses online finder’s fee to support Christian development work in Asia
OTTAWA, ON—Ottawa businessman Stephen Rolston is passionate about helping people achieve positive change in themselves and the world around them. Through his blog www.ResourceFreak.com he points people toward powerful resources to help them develop leadership and business skills, improve their money management and grow as Christians.
However, his blog also offers a unique opportunity to shop online at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com and, at no extra cost, have a portion of your purchase price donated for poverty relief and missionary work in Asia.
“It’s called affiliate income,” Rolston explains. “Sites like Amazon and Indigo are happy to pay a percentage to bloggers who point readers to their site because it’s a cheap form of advertising. They give a finder’s fee between four and six per cent, but the neat thing is there is no additional cost to the purchaser.”
When someone clicks on the Amazon.ca or Amazon.com links on the ResourceFreak website, a new window opens to the online store. For the next few hours, Amazon tracks any purchases made through that window and sends a percentage back to Rolston.
While other bloggers use affiliate income as an additional revenue stream, Rolston says God has already blessed him, so he donates all the revenue to Gospel For Asia (GFA) for its Jesus Wells ministry.
“I am doing this because I believe GFA has the best opportunity for us to invest in the Kingdom,” he explains. “There are more than one billion people without access to clean drinking water in the world and GFA has one of the lowest cost solutions that I have found.”
Because of the low cost of doing business in Asia and because they are providing simple, but effective hand pumps, GFA is able to provide villages with a well for only $1,400 on average. The wells are built close to local churches and inscribed with a plaque quoting John 4:14, where Jesus tells a Samaritan woman that the water He gives will become a spring of eternal life.
“The wells are always open to anyone who needs water,” says Iris Weibel of GFA Canada. “Some wells provide water for as many as 200 households, which can be around 1,000 people. The wells provide an excellent opportunity for the missionary or pastor to share the gospel.”
Rolston encourages believers creatively use modern technology and new models of fundraising to support Kingdom initiatives. Another example is a GFA campaign, called ‘My GFA,’ that uses social media and crowd funding to cover the cost of a well.
“So many people are connected today on social media that it’s quite easy to contact to 100 people. Through My GFA you can start your own Facebook or Twitter campaign and fairly easily convince 100 friends to chip in $14. So you can easily raise the $1,400 yourself to dig a well in Asia.”
As the Church learns to engage these resources more effectively, Rolston believes it will multiply the impact of our ministry. In his view, the biggest challenge is building momentum.
In the year since he first learned about affiliate income, Rolston hasn’t yet earned enough to dig a well, but he is hopeful that as more people catch the vision, it will channel more traffic through his site, pouring more resources into clean water.
“I’m so looking forward to celebrating when we reach that milestone of drilling the first well. I think that’s the hardest part, reaching that first well. After that, we’ll have momentum.”
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