Eager To Help

Rick Meigs has made us aware of an incredible opportunity to help out a fellow blogger, fellow brother, and fellow human, John Smulo. Below is Rick's entire post. Please follow the link here to his blog and do what you can to help. I am not ashamed to ask you to seriously consider giving generously to this need. (I've even used capital letters to emphasize how serious I am).

"John is originally from California, but recently lived in Australia for nine years. In Australia, John was a pastor and Founding Director of the School of Apologetics at the Centre for Evangelism and Global Mission at Morling College in Sydney. He was also part-time faculty at Morling College. John and his family (his wife is Alex and they have four boys) moved back to the States and started a new church in the Sacramento, California, area.

I don’t know all the details, but I do know that one day last fall John found that he was no longer the pastor of this new church. He was left without income, although he has since picked up a part-time job teaching at Capital Bible College and is starting a new missional church (which has no funds to support him at this point).

Still, the transition has made it very difficult to support his wife and four children and they are now in danger of losing everything, including the probable foreclosure on their home.

One of those verses that has always haunted me is James 2:15-16, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

I’ve been praying for John and his family, but this morning I woke up with him and this verse on my mind. What good is it to pray for them and not take the next step to help meet the physical needs? I certainly don’t have deep pocket, but I got to thinking that maybe together, a bunch of fellow brothers and sisters in the blogosphere might help. So I approached John and got his permission to make this post.

Here is what I suggest (with great humbleness):

* Remember John and his family regularly in your prayers.
* There is a PayPal button below where you can donate to help meet their immediate financial needs. The funds go directly to John and don’t pass through me. Do what you can and we will trust our Lord to multiply the “loaves and fishes.”
* Spread the word. Make a post on your blog and link back here.

Thanks for hearing me out. I’ll keep you posted as best I can."