After leaving Bainbridge Christian Church in March, I knew there was only 1 thing for me to do. Although I have been a local church pastor for 29 years, I knew that was not where God was calling me. God had opened my eyes to world missions in the early 2000’s. This is what ultimately led me to Indiana, where I oversaw the world missions ministry at Hazel Dell Christian Church. In 2010, I launched Sotiria International — an evangelistic ministry that uses micro-finance as a tool to reach the lost. As our mission statement says: “We seek to improve the lives of the world’s poor (now and into eternity) by empowering individuals in impoverished communities to become self-supporting through the implementation of micro-enterprise opportunities, small business development, vocational skills training, and Christian discipleship.” Since launching the ministry, we have been raising funds for micro loans and training. Thanks to the faithful support of a small group of friends, we have helped over 200 people to start or expand a business. Ultimately, it is my desire is to be full-time with this ministry, but I have not focused on my own personal support, but instead have been trying to help those living in extreme poverty. Since I currently do not receive my support through SOTIRIA, I’ve had to find work to try and supplement our income, in order to support our family. A wonderful blessing was finding a job with McDonald’s. Since I have restaurant experience as a cook, prep cook, and manager, I was hired in as the Kitchen Manager. Although the pay is not much (less than 1/2 of what I made as a pastor), with the additional help from my parents, we have been able to scrape by. That is a blessing.
But it is also a curse. As many of you may know, I developed open wounds on my lower legs in 2015. The doctors were never able to figure out what caused it. My veins are good. My arteries are good. I don’t have diabetes. I’m sure that if I had insurance, they would have run more tests in order to figure it out. After 6 months of treatment, and $50,000 later (which I still have bills to pay), the wounds were healed. The solution was for me to wear compression socks the rest of my life and I should be ok. And this is where the curse from my job comes in.
As a manager, I spend 9 – 16 hours per day
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This is a current open wound
on the inside of my left leg
that needs to be treated. |
on my feet. Although I wear compression socks, they are not able to help the blood pump its way back up my legs. Instead, it pools in my lower legs. As a result, the legs begin to open up. I currently have 1 open wound on my lower left leg that is 2″ x 2″. The pain from this open wound is excruciating when I am on my feet for so many hours. I am need of getting off my feet before I begin to develop more wounds and I end up where I was 2 years ago when I almost lost my left leg.
Although I am searching for a desk job, that is not ultimately what needs to be done. Whatever job I have, will still keep my away from the ministry of reaching the lost and empowering the poor. The budget for Sotiria is over $9,000 per month. $6,000 of this is for the ministry — loans, training, etc. — and the other $3,000 is for our own personal support. I have been focused on the ministry support, but currently need to raise our own personal support. If I do not get our own support raised, so that I can get off my feet and let my legs heal, then I eventually will not be around to do the ministry and all those who would have otherwise received financial help and the message of Christ, will not receive it. We are only trying to raise $3,000 per month for our personal support.
