In our monthly appreciation letters to donors, we usually tell a story from Swaziland.
This letter will be different. We’d like to relate two stories about American donors who have already reached heaven.
One is Nedra Rettig. Her grandson Joseph, a Wright State University medical school student, traveled to Swaziland in the summer of 2008 to volunteer his services with The Luke Commission.
Joe was changed, moved, energized… He came home to Ohio and started working for TLC on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, even while pursuing his physician’s career. His grandmother caught Joe’s enthusiasm about Swazis receiving free medical help and The Luke Commission’s influence in their spiritual and physical lives.
When Nedra passed away, the Jon Sr. and Ellen Rettig family decided to donate Nedra’s memorials to TLC. More than $1,000 was given by 25 church friends and family members.
Also, this month a check for $1,000 arrived from Scot and Carol Jahn in Oklahoma. Last March this couple met Harry and Echo and the boys in Swaziland.
Carol’s mother died two weeks after their return to the U.S. She had been confined to a wheelchair and a nursing home for 10 years.
“Whatever your greatest need, please apply this gift toward helping the amazing Swazi people,” wrote Carol. “If there is not pressing need, I would love for this money to be applied toward a shipment of wheelchairs.”
Oh yes, and about God’s perfect timing… The day the Jahn’s check was received in Idaho was the very day that a $1,000 check was written in Swaziland to cover TLC’s portion of a 40-foot container of 181 bush wheelchairs which had arrived the previous week!
As Paul declared in Philippians 3:14 – “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
To all our other donors who are still pressing on, especially those who contribute every month or give sacrificially, we say thank-you, too.
The Luke Commission treated 20,000 medical patients this year and provided 67,000 medical services to the most needy and the sickest in a tiny south African country. You did it!
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Janet Tuinstra for Dr. Harry and Echo VanderWal