The Jubilee By: Robert and Jackie

Patience Pays Off

Robert and I had been holding on to the Jubilee money for over 5 months. We both felt that if we continued to pray for God's leading, the right person, family, or organization who needed this gift would be obvious. I must admit that I was starting to feel anxious about "sitting" on that much cash for so long. I wondered if we would never have a clear sign and should just pick a local organization that we thought would use it wisely. Robert encouraged me to continue to be patient.

Just a couple days ago we learned that our new neighbor was suddenly admitted to the ICU fighting for life. The family is currently without health insurance and the parent in the hospital is the "bread-winner." Praise God - it now seems they will pull through, but might have a long recovery ahead. It was emotional for both me and the spouse when Robert and I explained how we came to have the $500 and now knew that it was meant for them. What joy there is in being rewarded for patience and trust in our Lord! Thank you elders, pastors, and anyone else involved in the development of this "Year of Jubilee!"

Robert & Jackie Heider

The Jubilee By: Lane and Laura

We decided to give our $500 to a help out a young couple our age. My high school classmate/family member and his wife have twin daughters who are 22 months old. In August, one of the twins was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of pediatric brain cancer. She has already had a tumor surgically removed and now has a very tough fight ahead of her. She has started intensive, systemic chemotherapy and will likely have to follow with radiation, stem cell replacement and additional chemo. Each treatment will require a 4-5 day hospital stay. In order for her mom to provide the best possible care for her, along with her their other 3 children, she has discontinued working. This leaves the family with only one income. So, hopefully the Jubilee money will help to cover some of the family’s financial needs. We hope and pray God will take care of the rest. Lane and Laura Ischen

The Jubilee By: Paulino & Brenda

My husband's family live in Brazil. He went there for the month of July this year. They are very poor, so we have always helped them out financially. They have had several tragedy's since we have been married. The most recent tragedy was in August 2008. My husband's mother had several strokes in 2007 and 2008 and she passed away in August 2008. That was a blessing since she could not do anything on her own anymore. On the way to the funeral, the man they hired to drive them to the funeral went off the road and rolled the car. His sister, uncle, and brother were hurt seriously and his brother's wife was killed when the car rolled over her. The others had head injuries, broken ribs, and his sister is just starting to walk again. This money helped us to help them even more. The Goehring family also gave their Jubilee money to his family. They were so thankful to God and Hill Crest Baptist Church when he told them about the Jubilee money. It was a big financial burden with the two funeral and the medical expenses. We cannot express how thankful my husband, his family, and I am. I do believe God expects us to serve and help those in need and I appreciate the teachings about complete forgiveness, helping people in need, and leading a christian life. We all sin and make many mistakes, but we need to keep striving to be more like Jesus.

The Jubilee helps with School Costs

It has taken us a while to use the Jubilee money, but we finally did it! I contacted the school that our children attend in Brandon and explained what our church was doing with the Year of Jubilee. I had a meeting with both the principal and the director of nutrition and they were very excited to hear that we wanted to give the money to them to use for families in our school that had real needs that weren't being met. I also explained that we didn't want the families to know who the money came from, but that we would appreciate if they told us what kind of needs were being taken care of with the money. I did explain that we wanted the money to be used for backpack buddies, school lunch accounts and/or school supplies.
My husband and I both have thought at different times that we could use the money to meet our needs, but neither of us wanted to do it. We knew that we both would rather be a blessing to someone else, or in this situation many other families. While we could've used the money to help us out we chose not to. During our struggles over the past 9 months God has used our friends and family to provide for us when we didn't know how our needs would somtimes be met. Well, I took the Jubilee money to the school on Wednesday of last week and today as we left church a friend of ours gave us an envelope. When we got to our van and opened it we found their portion of the Jubilee money!! We will never forget how wonderful it felt to be the giver when we truly needed the money and within a matter of days be the recipient of such a great blessing! Thank you!

The Jubilee By: Daniel and Christine

Dan and I have finally used our $500 Year of Jubilee Money. It took us some time to decide where and how this was going to be helped.

I had over heard a coworker of mine- stating they needed a miracle to help them out. They are just stressed with bills….well…

We had decided to help out this family that is in debt – behind in medical bills and house payments. We bought them a lifetime membership to Dave Ramseys FPU and lined them up a class at a church nearby starting in September. We wrote them a letter this was not something they HAD to attend- but they could think about it. The membership is good for lifetime, and if it does not work in their schedule to start in Sept they can cancel and arrange another time that works for them.

So we wrapped this up and included the envelope of 500.00.
We dropped it off and told her to open it when her husband got home from work…as he works 2 jobs.

She later texted me…she wanted to call…but she was overwhelmed…stated they both cried – never thought that they would be in this situation- where they were in need.
And God provided. She thanked us. And we thanked our Church and God!

It was a wonderful feeling.
Thank you for this opportunity!!


Daniel and Christine Grosz