Almost every day that I’m in the country and working at our ministry office, I sign letters thanking folks for their contributions that help the “least of these” among our spiritual family around the world. Although I know many of Heaven’s Family’s supporters, I often find myself wondering about those contributors I don’t know. And because I feel a special affinity with those good people, I’m sad that I don’t know them! I’ve often found myself wishing that I could meet them.
So I’ve decided to try to do something about this. I’ve asked one of our staff members to find geographical clusters of Heaven’s Family friends across the United States (and other nations as well). Once they’ve been located, she’ll do her best to contact individuals within those clusters, in hopes that some will open their homes on a weekend evening for a gathering of Heaven’s Familyfriends from their area. I was thinking that, not only would it be fun for me to meet supporters whom I’ve never met, but fellow Heaven’s Family friends might find it fun to meet each other. And I thought that perhaps some who joined us might also want to invite some of their friends who are not yet Heaven’s Familyfriends. We could enjoy some coffee or tea and fellowship the night away! A little taste of heaven!
So if you live near a cluster of other Heaven’s Family friends, don’t be surprised if Karin Trotter contacts you in the next few months. If you want to contact her first, she would welcome your email at Karin [at] HeavensFamily [dot] org, or your call at (412) 833-5826.
A Mission Team to Haiti
And speaking of friends, about a dozen friends of Heaven’s Family are traveling to Haiti this month for a week of service. They’ll be working at the Christian resettlement camp that we’ve been assisting since Haiti’s January earthquake. Specifically, they’ll be helping Haitian believers build small, permanent houses. Gifts to the Disaster Relief Fund have helped make this possible.
Retiring for Jesus
And still speaking of friends, some wonderful old friends of mine have just joined our Pittsburgh staff. Dick and Patti Samuels have both just retired—Dick from a management position at a large Christian book distributor, and Patti from teaching at a Christian school for thirty years. Both are ministry-minded servants who have proven their love for Jesus by decades of sacrificial Christian service. They’ve taken foster children, unwed mothers, and refugees into their home, and have ministered on short-term mission trips to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Dick graduated from a local Bible school one year ago, and has been serving as a pastor of a small rural church.
Both Dick and Patti are excited to be a part of Heaven’s Family. Among other things, they will be relieving other over-burdened staff members by taking over administration of our Micro-Loan Fund, Christian Refugees Fund, Bibles for Believers Fund, and Critical Medical Needs Fund. And they’ll be traveling to Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in September to initiate some projects to serve the “least of these.”
