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Like my grandfather and father before me, I believe that every
person in
this world has a God-given right - a birthright - to hear about the life of
Jesus Christ, what He has done for them, and how they relate to it - not
just to hear it, but to hear it in a language intelligible to their culture
and circumstances, such that they can make their own choice of Him.
For over thirty-five years my dad gave himself to making Jesus
Christ known
to people who didn't know Him. He focused on the high school crowd and
named his work "Young Life." Jim loved teenagers in a special way, and
they
loved him too. Over the years, Jim probably knew as many kids as Dick Clark
does. And that's saying something!
Jim and his work were one and the same. He didn't go to work,
as we think
of it - he was his work. Jim planted the first seed of his labors in the
fertile fields of the great state of Texas and it took off from there. Jim
watered that seed daily with undying loyalty. Soon, it sprouted, and in
time became a young tree. Jim loved that tree. He pruned it, fed it,
covered it, prayed for it, and poured out the energies of his life for it.
He asked all of his people, and his family, to do the same.
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Through Jim's prayers and those of many dedicated people who
threw their
lives in with his, that young sapling grew into a mature "tree of life"
for
hundreds-of-thousands of America's teenagers. From the Rayburn family, a
most heartfelt thank-you to all the people who made it happen, and those
who continue to make it happen around the world.
This world's young people are precious resources; they are worth
dying for,
and we must not lose them to the violence and insanity of these times. The
Jim Rayburn Foundation, as God enables, will be a beacon of support,
encouragement, help, and love to the ongoing work of Jim Rayburn, that
which I've called the "Mother Tree."
Over the years, seedlings have fallen from my father's tree and
scattered
in the wind. Most were scattered through the fifty states, some were blown
abroad - out to every region on this globe. Many seedlings sprouted, some
have taken root. Around the world there are young shoots and offshoots of
Jim's work, struggling to survive. Many of these saplings go unwatered -
unassisted, call it. As God enables and directs, the Jim Rayburn
Foundation will also be a blessing to those labors of love that are
inspired by God and directed by His hand. Won't you
prayerfully consider joining us?
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The Jim Rayburn Foundation has been birthed to be a blessing, not only to the mother
tree, but to saplings that spring forth from her as well - a foundation sowing more than financial blessings, as
God enables us, but, in the words of St. Francis of Assissi:
Where there is hatred... let us sow love
Where there is injury... pardon
Where there is doubt... faith
Where there is despair... hope
Where there is darkness... light
Where there is sadness... joy
May we not so much seek to be consoled... as to console
To be understood... as to understand
To be loved... as to love . . . . for
It is in giving... that we receive
It is in pardoning... that we are pardoned
It is in dying... that we are born to Eternal Life.
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