May I share a story I rarely tell? When I was a child, my parents and I lived in rural Mississippi. Our nearest town was Ovett, which was about ten miles from our home. We had no motorized transportation. I remember riding to Ovett with my father when I was about eight years old in a horse drawn wagon. This particular time we took some shelled yellow corn to be milled into corn meal for my Mama’s cornbread and other uses.
Until that day I had never seen or shopped in a general store. My eyes were wide and searching all the new things I was seeing. I noticed a hatchet on a shelf. I picked it up and admired it while Papa was in another part of the store. I chose to put the hatchet in my overalls pocket and took it outside and hid it in our wagon.
As we left Ovett in our wagon, Papa saw the hatchet and stopped the wagon. He asked me how and where I had gotten it. Then he told me I had to return it and apologize to Mr. Dennis, the store owner, a wonderful man of Lebanese descent. I panicked at the thought of having to confess my sin, repent to Mr. Dennis and return the hatchet. I was broken and humiliated. Papa never mentioned it again. He didn’t need to.
Upon graduation from high school, I desired to attend college and get equipped to achieve good things in life. There were 12 in my graduating class. The academic quality was not good. I went to Mississippi State, but upon arrival I was assigned to remedial courses. I chose instead to join the United States Air Force. I could attend college classes while serving in the USAF and have academic funding after serving for four years. The USAF was my only “sponsor” through my B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Louisiana State University.
In 1955, I went to the Philippines for 18 months in military service. In 2001 I found myself again in the Philippines, this time as a minister of the Gospel. I ministered in a church near a huge city dumpsite in Lapu-Lapu City on the island of Cebu. At that garbage dump I saw little girls and boys scavenging through the trash of a city with a population of about 225,000 at the time. It broke my heart to see them all smudged with dirt and soot, wearing tattered and dirty clothing. But all had bright smiles on their faces.
GOD SPOKE to and through my heart and said, “Ras, you will spend the rest of your life seeing to it that these children reverse the cycle of poverty from their heritage.” I felt He also said you will send them to school because education is important for their future. Just as I needed a sponsor to get an education, so do they.
That was in 2001. Today, our sponsors help us send almost 900 children to school, feed them and provide Christian pastoral spiritual care through 24 carefully chosen and proven pastors and churches. To God be the glory.
This is part of the story of “Why I do What I Do” and without you Partners, Sponsors and Friends, we would not be able to do this. Thanks and God bless you.
I humbly ask for your prayers as we are no longer satisfied with 900 children and 24 pastors/churches. God has spoken and His vision for us now is to increase to 10,000 children and 240 pastors/churches. Please add this new vision to your prayer list. Put a note on your fridge and dashboards: 10,000 children. 240 Filipino pastors. 10 facilities to care for widows and orphans. Transformation of a nation. Pray. Fear not. Only believe.
Thank you, thank you,
Ras Robinson
If you feel led to respond, contact us at fcm@fullnessonline.org . Are you led to give to this? Go to http://fullnessonline.org/donate
Ras and Bev Robinson Blog 