Since I tend to be a bit critical I wanted to take a minute to commend two ministries that recently ministered to our family.

The first is [1] HSLDA. After being members for 17 years, we didn’t have the money to renew in August because of Tim losing his job. I got a call a few weeks back and HSLDA offered to pay our fees for the first 6 months of the school year and let us begin again in January. That was completely unexpected. A big thank-you to HSLDA.

As we were leaving for our vacation I got a call from [2] Focus on the Family. We used to be big Focus supporters but over the years we have drifted away from that ministry. In spite of the fact I don’t agree with everything they promote, I do believe Dr. Dobson still has two things going for him that many other mega-ministry leaders have lost: integrity and humility. I suppose those two qualities work as garlic around the neck in keeping sin at bay.

As we were leaving for Gatlinburg, I recieved a phone call from Focus. Call it a ploy but the girl asked if she could pray with me about anything. Since I am living my own version of [3] Facing the Giants these days I was more than happy to share a few things with her and then she prayed a simple, humble prayer for me. It lifted my spirits immensely and she didn’t ask me for money.

Call us jaded but we have become completely callous towards ministries begging for money. We still give to certain small groups that send us personal letters asking for assistance but we pretty much ignore any ministry that uses paid non-christian callers to drum up support.