Mission Compassion: Money Well Spent
“Honey, I bought something today,” said the husband with a nervously large smile. For those who are married, words similar to these have started many a lively conversation. Each couple has their own approach to joint money management, but those who prefer peace and harmony know that conversation and agreement needs to happen before large purchases are made.
Thankfully, we have some clear and helpful guidelines to govern how to spend church funds. Most of our expenditures are authorized all at once when the congregation approves the annual budget in January. When large unbudgeted expenditures are needed, we communicate ahead of time and arrange for a vote, like we did for the batch of mission projects two months ago.
However, today I want to tell you about an expenditure that did not require a vote, but it was an important expression of mission compassion from all of our church family. Evergreen has been involved in ministry in the Philippines for many years. We supported Gary and Melita Root who served with Action International near Manila with wonderfully effective vocational discipleship programs.
Throughout their years of ministry there, they partnered with an incredible Filipino pastor by the name of Mel. Mel loved Jesus, shepherded multiple congregations, taught the Scriptures well, discipled young men, had compassion for the poor and hungry, loved to laugh and have fun, welcomed accountability and served tirelessly with his wife Tess and their daughters Harmony and Centralyn.
Tragically, Mel passed away last month from COVID. He was in the hospital for several weeks and he looked for a time to be recovering, but then suddenly died. His loss is simply devastating for so many people in that community, and especially for his family.
Christians connected with their ministry are working together to help cover the large medical bills, funeral expenses and ongoing living expenses for Pastor Mel’s family. EBC’s Mission Team proposed a gift of $10,000, the Leadership Team approved and it was sent through Action International at the beginning of May. Thank you for being part of this beautiful expression of mission compassion. Please pray for Tess, Harmony and Centralyn and the countless people who are grieving.
Pastor Toby
PS. You can read the tribute and see some pictures here that Gary and Melita Root sent the day after Pastor Mel died. Many who took part in EBC’s two mission trips to the Philippines would have met Pastor Mel personally. Some at the church helped them with the adoption expense for Centralyn who was found on the street as a small abandoned child. The picture above of their family was taken the last week of the Roots stay in the Philippines on the day the adoption papers finally came through. She was one happy girl to be officially a daughter of Mel and Tess (Harmony is 24 and Centralyn is around 16-18 years old, as they do not really know when she was born).
Categories: Evergreen Connection