History - Mike & Beth’s Story
Success:
Mike and Beth Fox made it!
Beth struggled through a brain hemorrhage that claimed her business career and nearly her life. Mike toiled away selling propane gas for years, wondering about his lot in life. Still, they remained faithful that God had a special plan for them.
Mike and Beth’s big break came in 1996. Mike and a few other entrepreneurs founded Inergy, a Kansas City based propane gas company. They forged an innovative and unique strategy to develop their company, and it worked in a huge way. The company boomed. Mike and Beth really made it!
As Inergy soared, with the Fox family squarely headed to “easy street,” God intervened as only He can.
Success to Significance:
Through their church, Mike and Beth met a missionary, Pastor Terry Wiese. Through Pastor Wiese, Mike and Beth learned about the plight of the Karen people in Myanmar and Thailand. Mike and Beth met another missionary desperately struggling to care for 19 abandoned and dying Karen children. For $750, the Fox family could build a shelter to house the children. For $350/month, they could fund the basic life needs of all 19 children. It seemed impossible. A moderate monthly car payment would fund the care of 19 children! The missionary sheepishly made “the ask”it was so much money to him. The decision was a no-brainer. This $750 shelter would become the first of many C3 orphanages, although Mike and Beth did not know it at the time.
A moderate monthly car payment would fund the care of 19 children!
In July of 2003, the roots of C3 consisted of a $350 monthly check for the 19 Karen orphans. In August of 2003, C3 started to bloom. Driven by Acts 1:8, Mike visited the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and China for a first hand glimpse into the lives of the world’s forgotten children. Mike and Beth had no idea what horrors these children face. Little children all around the world live orphaned, in poverty. They’re starving. They’re malnourished. Little girls who’d go to kindergarten in the U.S. turn to sexual predators to find some survival angle. They’re dying in the worst ways. They live without hope? Until they die without hope.
God convicted Mike and Beth to do more to help these children. In 2003, with the blessing and support of his business partners, Mike and Beth exited the business world and started C3. (C3H8, commonly referred to as “C3″ in the propane business, is the chemical symbol for propane). The Fox family committed God’s financial blessings from the propane business to fuel the C3 operations.
Mike and Beth have committed their personal resources to fund the operation and overhead of C3 Missions, so that 100% of your donations go to the children.
God has called C3 to bring His care and hope to abandoned children of the world. Through a unique partnering strategy, C3 builds and funds orphanages all over the world. C3’s singular mission is to reach as many of the world’s 140,000,000 orphans as possible, one at a time.
Ordinary People; God’s Extraordinary Purpose:
C3 is not a story about Mike and Beth Fox. It’s a story about God’s plan, the redemptive power and grace of Jesus Christ, and how the Lord uses ordinary people for His extraordinary purposes.
