Greetings,
Over and over again God continues to show His faithfulness to us
here at Hebron and Grace Home. His steadfast love is new every morning.
Every day we look at the needs before us and we wonder who will
God use this time to meet these needs? Then we began to focus our
prayers toward our Heavenly Father and the calming peace of our
Lord assured us that He is faithful and He uses those who are faithful.
The wonderful promises in God’s word continues to guide us
in all that we do here at Hebron and Grace Home.
One of the great promises is found in John 12:24-26 where Jesus
teaches; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it
die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it
unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where
I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will
my Father honour.” The benefit of dying to ourselves and our
things allows us to be used by our wonderful King in His great Kingdom.
When we recognize that God has called us to become united with others
who are seeking to fulfill the call to take the gospel to the whole
world, we finally begin to fulfill our purpose.
Many of you take very seriously the call to be involved. This is
evident by your faithfulness to pray and give from what you have
been given. When we understand how blessed we are, we then can give
from a heart full of joy and thankfulness.
In July of 2006 we were in debt $230,000 due to the shortfall of
three major projects; and we were also needing about $50,000 to
make some very important structural repairs to our recreation building
here at Hebron. So we began to pray that God would provide $300,000
above our regular monthly needs. He began to faithfully provide
more thant we needed just to continue our daily ministry, so with
the excess we paid about $80,000 against our debt. In the fall of
this year a wonderful gift from the Cannon Foundation was granted
to us allowing us to repair the recreation building. Before we could
stop rejoicing about these blessings, God provided a $10,000 gift
through the Horatio B. Ebert Foundation and he also spoke to the
hearts of two of His faithful servants. Through them He provided
$150,000 to allow us to now become debt free. God is so good!
We certainly have much to be thankful for but we rejoice together
with you. You are just as important as we are in these blessings,
but none more important than our Lord. All that we do should be
done to God’s glory.
Thank you for your incredible faithfulness.
Until He Comes,
Rev. Don Holder
Executive Director
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Isaiah 40:31
states: “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow
weary, they will walk and not be faint.
The Lord provides the ladies of Grace Home with hope. He plants
them firmly on the 41 acres that was graciously provided to the
ministry. He provides them pastoral teaching and care from the community.
He provides them the desire to learn and live in His Word. He provides
shelter, clothing and food so that they may have the strength to
work. The Lord is gracious. A seed is planted from the time a student
makes her initial phone call for entrance into the program. A seed
is planted from their first steps onto the property. A seed is planted
with each new Bible memory verse and each new Bible study workbook
lesson. Yes, the Lord plants the seed. Yes, again I exclaim - The
Lord is gracious.
Just like the seed, this is a time at Grace Home of renewal and
rejuvenation. We are desperately looking forward to spring and the
planting of our vegetable garden. We are very excited about the
upcoming installation of a deer fence on our upper garden. A 28'
x 50' greenhouse has been graciously donated to the ministry; and
we are looking forward to the installation within the next few weeks.
Who says you can’t have fresh tomatoes in December?
We had a very blessed Christmas season. The community within the
Grace Home area was very gracious. Several churches adopted Grace
Home as their Angel Tree Project. The community also heard that
we were interested in bicycles - and at Christmas we received 15
brand new road bicycles. The girls have really been enjoying their
rides down “the long dirt road”. We also, for the first
time, participated in the Santee Christmas Parade. As we rode on
the float, Foster Boone (Clara’s husband) serenaded while
we sang Christmas Carols.
As in Isaiah - we are renewed in strength daily by the transformation
of the hearts and minds of the ladies in residence. Our strength
is drawn from the Lord and He continues to give the staff and the
ladies the hope - that was once absent from our lives. Yes - the
Lord is gracious.
Nita K. Smith
Director-Operations
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