Why I Give

by Susie Zieglar

I recently had the opportunity to watch the President of the United States present military’s highest honor, The Congressional Medal of Honor to Ronald Shurer, a former United States Army special forces staff Sargent and medic, honoring his actions while caring for our military wounded in Afghanistan. While participating in a joint US-Afghan raid his team suffered many casualties and was pinned down on a mountainside. Shurer ran through enemy fire and scaled a mountain side in order to get to a number of his team that had been wounded. In the process he was under severe enemy fire and was able to reach several wounded soldiers and treat them for their injuries. He helped to evacuate the wounded down a mountainside under heavy enemy fire to waiting Medic helicopters. His story of bravery was just monumental. He disregarded his own safety in order to scale the mountain and provide aid to so many that were under heavy enemy fire. Many of these wounded soldiers would have bled- out if they had not been rescued.

I could not believe how this bravery moved me so immensely. Is this something any of us would do? Could I do this? But after attending a Mt.Bethel dinner recognizing the mission that Mt. Bethel partners with Project 82 Kenya, I realized that many of our own Mt. Bethel members are doing not quite the same exact thing that Ronald Shurer did, but they are following God’s direction and lead to help those in need. They are not scaling mountains of rock and dirt and dodging gun fire but they are scaling mountains of pain, death and disease and hunger and homelessness that the people of Kenya are experiencing. In 2009, after making several mission trips to Kenya a small group of four ordinary people began sensing a call from God on their hearts. They began to feel that God was calling them to walk deeper in responding to the needs they had witnessed. To put simply, “doing nothing was not an option.”

At our Project 82 Kenya dinner we had the opportunity to hear first hand accounts of the suffering and pain that many of the children and adults, our brothers and sisters in Christ, are experiencing. We learned of the wonderful partnership of Mt.Bethel along with the P82 Kenya project to help fulfill God’s command to help widows and orphans.

Since the very beginning when the members of Mt. Bethel heard God’s call that “doing nothing is not an option” there has been so many inspirational stories of help and improvements in people’s lives in Kenya. However, there is still more children that need to receive the proper education at all levels and there are still children being abandoned and families that are still being torn apart. So the Project 82 Kenya work will and needs to continue. The improvements have been many, but the needs are still many and God is reaching out to all of us that have so much to help His children in need.

So we need to be as brave as Ronald Shurer. God certainly does not require us to scale a mountainside of Afghanistan with a rifle, but He does expect us to have a willing and giving spirit and to open our eyes and our ears to the call for need from our brothers and sisters. And God does expect us to put ourselves in the position of those less fortunate and He does demand that we help in any way we can, to Unlock the Door to your heart and hear the voices of those in need.

My husband and I were both very moved at the dinner to see the beautiful partnership that Mt. Bethel has with the Project 82 Kenya, and the hand of God that has touched all of those that give of their time and efforts to help so many in need.