Help Us Bring Back LOVEboldly's ED to Full-Time Ministry

A Message from the LOVEboldly Board

Dear Friends,

You’ve heard a lot from Ben about the struggles LOVEboldly has had with fundraising, but it’s important you hear from us too. Simply put, there’s a dynamic here which we know Ben would never discuss publicly, yet it needs to be said.

In the current climate of our country we have found it incredibly difficult to find funds to not only uplift the resources that you have all come to know and love, but to continue to support our Executive Director, the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp. Ben has had to cut his hours from full-time to only 10 hours per week. We only have one staff person and a mostly new board currently and with these changes and the decrease in donations, partners, and grants we are not able to provide a full-time salary to Ben.

With the current cost increases of items and the decrease in employment, etc. we find that the first place that people cut costs are their donations and tithes. With these changes precious important resources like the ones LOVEboldly offers suffer.

We are asking that you not only help to support the mission and vision that we have but also help support our Executive Director, Ben, to be able to go back to his full-time status and continue to work and bring forth the faith and spiritual connection that we all need. Many people in our community think that they can’t be a person of faith and also be LGBTQIA+, LOVEboldly shows that you can be both and be loved exactly the way that you are. We are asking that you consider a monthly donation and/or a one-time donation and be the change that we all have needed one time or another.

But we can only do this work with your support.

Here’s how you can help right now:

Make a gift today. Every dollar gets us closer to our goal.

Set up a monthly gift. Recurring support helps us plan and sustain our work throughout the year. Even $10/month makes a difference.

Spread the word. Share this email with friends, post on social media, restack it, or text someone you know who cares about this work. Here's a QR code you can share with them.

Help us reach our goal. If you’ve been thinking about making a year-end gift, now is the time.

We have 11 hours. We need $7,605. And we need you.

Sincerely,

Cass Helm, LOVEboldly Board Treasurer

On Behalf of the LOVEboldly Board

P.S. If you’ve already given this year, thank you. If you can make an additional gift in these final days, we would be deeply grateful. If giving isn’t possible right now, sharing this message with your networks would mean the world to us.

A Blank Calendar

January 1, 2026 - New Year's Day

Greg

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Quote

“See, I am making all things new.”

~Revelation 21:5 (NRSV)

Devotion

There’s something both terrifying and exhilarating about a blank calendar. All those empty squares stretching out before us, waiting to be filled with appointments, celebrations, heartbreaks, and ordinary Tuesdays. On New Year’s Day, we stand at a threshold, caught between what was and what might be.

For many of us in the LGBTQIA+ community, the concept of “new” carries extra weight. We know what it’s like to shed old names, old pronouns, old ways of being that never quite fit. We understand the vulnerability of stepping into a truer version of ourselves, even when the world isn’t always ready to receive us. We’ve experienced the grief and the freedom that come with leaving behind relationships, communities, or pieces of ourselves that we’ve outgrown.

When the writer of Revelation proclaims that God is “making all things new,” it’s not a promise of easy renovation or surface-level change. This is the God who creates something from nothing, who brings life from death, who sees the possibility in what others have dismissed as beyond redemption.

What strikes me most about this verse is that it’s in the present tense. God is making all things new, not “will make” or “has made,” but is actively, continually engaged in the work of renewal. Even now. Even in us. Even on this ordinary January morning when the holiday decorations are coming down and regular life is resuming.

This year, you don’t have to be a finished product. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You are allowed to be a work in progress, held in the hands of a God who delights in transformation and who sees the beautiful thing you’re becoming.

Reflection

1. Where in your life right now do you sense God’s ongoing work of making things new, even if it’s uncomfortable or incomplete?

2. How has your understanding of yourself or God been made new through your identity and journey?

Action

Write a letter to yourself to open on December 31, 2026. Include one hope you have for who you’ll be by then, one thing you’re grateful for right now, and one promise you want to make to your future self about how you’ll care for yourself this year.

We’ll Drink a Cup of Kindness Yet

Wednesday, December 31, 2025 - New Year's Eve

The Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp (he/they)

Executive Director, LOVEboldly

Queer Christian

Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot in the days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear! For auld lang syne! We'll drink a cup of kindness yet; for the sake of auld lang syne.

Auld Lang Syne—the traditional toast to the old year and welcome to the new year across much of the English- speaking world—is at once a confusing Scottish folk hymn and a reflection on everything the past, present, and future hold. Each of us spends December 31 differently. Many of us gather with friends with alcohol flowing and assorted food set out for the celebration.

Some of us hold vigil, reflecting on the trials and successes of one year and the unknown character of the year to come. Others treat the night as any other night and go about our routines without distraction.

When LOVEboldly began the plans of producing this devotional it was early January 2024, nearly two years ago now. As you read these words now, written more than a year ago, I hope they find you experiencing some form of peace and safety. I hope that your New Year’s Eve 2025 allows you the space to plan and prepare for all that 2026 has in store for you.

Reflection

What went well for you in 2025?

Where are you looking for improvements in 2026?

Action

Whether you make resolutions and whatever those resolutions might be, resolve to put positive action into the world every day. Your action will multiply and be an example to others.