Love does not...

Survivors of relationship abuse need your help this winter.

Last spring, law enforcement and community agencies around the United States reported that the number of calls for help dramatically decreased as stay-at-home orders became the norm. That’s good, right? Unfortunately, it’s not good.

I have the privilege of serving as the program manager of the Kingdom Workers health education efforts in Nigeria. I find that few people are aware of the long relationship WELS and Kingdom Workers has with this African country. The greatest joy of supporting this work comes from stories from the field.

It was a cool summer afternoon when I first met Laura, Kevin, and Michelle. We sat in a spaced-out circle on Laura’s porch. A gentle breeze carried with it a sprinkling of sawdust from the project site just to my left. “A special construction blessing,” Principal Kevin Festerling said with a smile as he brushed the sawdust off his shirt.

And that’s exactly what this project was—a blessing. A blessing for Laura, Kevin, the students at Kingdom Prep, the volunteers from Kingdom Workers, and an entire neighborhood. And it all began with Laura’s husband Matt.