Our End of Year Newsletter

You can read our end of year newsletter, recapping some of the ways we have seen God at work in our ministry in 2017.

Click HERE.

Blessed are those who receive: a view from the other side of #GivingTuesday

It is 1993; Tim and I are in our first pre-marital counseling session.  The questions about our views of money and debt were the next topic on the agenda.   Tim and I had this covered.  We were very like-minded about money.  We had been taught by our parents how to manage money carefully.  They trained us to not have debt, and to be thrifty.  Our counselor agreed that our philosophy was good, and our principles sound.  Then he asked “what if you have an unforeseen medical issue that is not covered by insurance, and the only way to pay the large sum is to put it on a credit card and pay it off slowly?”  Tim and I looked at each other and did not know what to say.  Then we said what seemed obvious “we’d do what we’d have to do”.  But truly, we both said later, we will never need to charge anything to credit cards and have debt like that.

A year later, Tim and I were married.  Not long after the aforementioned meeting, I began to have severe headaches.  After the wedding, they became debilitating.  By the time we had been married a year, I could only work part time.  I was having CT scans, MRIs, and all other types of medical tests and appointments.  Our meager salary barely covered our needs.  This began what has now been a 24-year journey of having exorbitant medical bills that just could not be covered by our yearly salary.  Initially, we just tried to keep afloat, but after about 10 years of this, the debt was drowning us.  We went to our church elders at the time and told them our difficulty.  We really just wanted wisdom, because we did not know what to do.  What happened was mind-boggling.  Our church, through the generosity of its members, gave money so that the entire debt load was paid off.  Only those who know anything of the terrible weight of debt can understand the joyful freedom of being released from it.  That gift changed the course of our life, and what would have been destruction for us financially, ended up being a testimony of God’s abundant provision and grace.

Thinking that we had learned the lesson of God’s providing love, we set off with a fresh start.  Paying bills each month was not a stressful nightmare.  At least for a little while, that is.  Within a year, I began a new bout of even more severe health problems requiring many tests, specialists and ultimately treatment at Duke University Medical center.  The medical bills began to increase and eventually after another 5 years, were at a critical level.  I was completely debilitated and the care of our home, children and finances all devolved on Tim.  During this time, our school and church family stepped in and provided meals, childcare, transportation, lawn care and the like.  Their gifts to us carried us day to day.  The memories of those precious people folding my laundry, cleaning my house, loving on my girls are precious, precious gifts.  Not to mention the financial gifts that often arrived in the mail unannounced or the paying of a bill by the deacons of our church.

Fast-forward a few years.  Though I was much improved, my monthly medications and old bills were 40% of our monthly income.  We were making painstaking process toward our medical debt repayment.  Then Tim’s new job ended up not working out, and we found ourselves without income.  Keep in mind that I have never worked.  We have been living month to month for years.  We have no savings.  It was terrifying.  How were we going to make it through this?  It was through gifts.  One family member paid our rent, other family members gave sacrificially to help us, several friends paid our bills, friends paid for our daughters to go to camp, govt. aid helped pay for our food, one family bought our kids Christmas gifts, my doctor provided my $1000/month medicines for an entire year from his samples closet. In that year of unemployment, we NEVER missed a payment on all our bills.  All because people chose to give, to share from what they had to bless us.  Staggering isn’t it?  If only I could tell you ALL the stories.

Now we are full-time fund-raising missionaries. That means our entire livelihood depends on the gifts of others.  On top of that, a supporter gave us money for the down payment on a home and another gave new allergy-and-asthma-friendly flooring for our entire house.  Another person has given so that our girl’s school tuitions are paid for.  A dear person gave us money for Christmas gifts, a family member paid for new brakes on our car.  A doctor recently has given me six months of samples for my expensive medicine.

On Sunday, Tim and I return to Duke University Medical Center.  My pancreas and biliary system have flared up again and I have to have surgery on December 5.  This was unexpected and comes with more bills at a hard time of year.  Amazingly, despite all the evidence of 24 years, I still found myself wondering “how”?  But then we learned this morning that a friend was to cover (give!) all the travel expenses of this trip.

Somehow, this morning’s gift finally hit me where I think the Lord has been trying to reach for years.  For as I sat humbled deeply by this person’s generous financial gift, the Spirit spoke to my heart:  “This small financial gift is not the point.  The point is that you see how the Lord loves you, and demonstrates it through providing all your needs.  What I really want you to see is my greatest gift, forgiveness of sins through Jesus, and how it comes to you in your deepest need.  All these years of need and financial struggle and radical provision are a real life illustration of your sin, need, and emptiness that are provided for and met in the gift of salvation.  So this gift is not just about you getting your bills paid.  It is about my glory.  It’s about my love for you being manifested in a tangible way. “
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The point is that you see how the Lord loves you, and demonstrates it through providing all your needs.  What I really want you to see is my greatest gift, forgiveness of sins through Jesus, and how it comes to you in your deepest need.
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I then found myself on the couch and glorying in our great God who comes to the needy and provides for our deepest need, and he humbly sacrifices himself to provide that need.  What a loving Father we have!

So today (and really every day) as you are thinking about whether you want to give to any charitable cause, remember the people on the other side of your gift.  You are not just giving money, you are giving them a tangible demonstration of being loved, a clear sign of the love of God in Jesus for them.  That is the real point of giving anyway.  Not the size of the gift, but the desire to make Jesus known through your giving.  May God get glory this #GivingTuesday.

Best, Andrea

October Newsletter - Report on Pastor Training Conferences in Northern Uganda

Our October newsletter is available to read HERE.

Training Ministry Leaders in Uganda - September Newsletter Is Out

Our latest newsletter is available HERE. This post highlights partnerships we are attempting to foster between US church partners and ABC graduates to train church planters, pastors, student ministries, and other ministry leaders for the work of God'sKingdom in Africa.

July Newsletter - Back from Uganda

You can read our latest newsletter HERE, an update on our summer in Uganda and some thoughts on missions in Africa.

May Newsletter

Our latest newsletter is out, you can read it HERE

Northern Uganda Church Planter Training Conference Video

This video  highlights the church plant of one of our ABC Uganda graduates (Solomon Okello, ABU Class of 2015).

Solomon was one of my students at ABU, now he is pastor of a church in Kole, Uganda - Kole Community Presbyterian Church. Solomon planted the church immediately following his graduation from ABU. Now his church is established and reaching the lives of many in the community, and Solomon is emerging as a leader among the pastors in his part of northern Uganda. He invited pastors, church planters and ministry leaders of all denominations in his district to attend a training conference last Fall. He and his church organized and hosted the conference, and I along with a pastor and an elder from one of our US Church partners, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Athens, GA did the teaching at the conference. They have invited us to return again each year to continue this training. This is a great example of how God is using ABC graduates to spread the Gospel and extend his Kingdom across Africa and also an example of a great way for one of our US partner churches to participate in a tangible way in the work God is doing in Africa through ABC.

February 2017 Ministry Update

Our latest ministry update is available to read HERE. 
See how God is at work through the ministries of ABC. 

In this update we are highlighting ABC's newest ministry African Business Institute.

January Prayer Update

You can read our January prayer update HERE.