Deborah, born and raised in Philadelphia, is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ and served for 24 years as pastor of a congregation in Warminster. She is currently an Associate Professor of Old Testament at Palmer Teological Seminary of Eastern University in St. Davids, PA. Deborah has been teaching virtually since March 2020 and is hoping to teach in person again this fall.
Gary was born on an 80-acre farm in Reinholds, PA, where he spent his childhood running the hills and valleys with his dog, Nellie. In 1976, he built a home on an acre of his family’s original land and lived there until this year. Te couple says their biggest adjustment to the Landis Homes campus is that it feels like flatland compared to the rolling hills they were accustomed to in southern Berks County.
Deborah says the Landis Homes guiding value community has resonated with her. She says their neighbors, whom she calls their new “floor family,” are making them feel welcome already. In addition to getting to know each other through small encounters, Deborah says, “We often find cookies left anonymously at our door. We find that people show their Christian faith and service in multiple ways.”
In 2000, Deborah and Gary founded a nonprofit organization called God’s Precious Children, created to help children in Liberia, West Africa, receive their education through Christian charity.
It started in 1997, when Gary went to Jamaica for two weeks to help with maintenance of a school for the deaf. He had a very good experience and looked for an opportunity through his Lutheran denomination to serve elsewhere. Te church invited him to go to Liberia in 1998 as a mechanic. “When I returned from that trip I was shell- shocked,” said Gary. “It was much different from anything I had ever experienced before and was a totally different culture. I said I would never go back there.”
Enriching
Lives, Together
However, through a series of events beyond his understanding, he did return. In 1999, he offered to help with a hurricane relief program in Puerto Rico. On that trip, he reconnected with people whom he first met in Liberia who told him that he belonged in Liberia. After a short time back home, Gary was on a plane to Liberia for a 5-month commitment to help rebuild a nursing school damaged in the civil war.
During that time, Gary became aware that there were students who desperately wanted to go to school but could not afford the required tuition, which by Western standards was quite low. Gary connected with persons back in the US who donated enough to send 135 students to school that first year. Twenty years later, God’s Precious Children provided tuition for 1,500 students in 40 different schools across Liberia. Some students who graduated from the program in the early years are now on staff or serve as volunteers with the charity, which continues to grow and expand.
Providentially, Gary’s daughter and a young family with ties to Deborah through the seminary, are partners in the work for the past several years. Plans are underway for them to take leadership for the mission in the future. It is Gary’s hope to share more with others on the Landis Homes campus about the work of the charity as opportunities arise.
“In my life, there were instances where I wanted to force things along but couldn’t, and looking back now, I am glad things turned out the way they did,” says Gary. “God does not make mistakes, and God’s timing is perfect.”
To find out more about God’s Precious Children visit:
GodsPreciousChildren.com
Landis.org | FLOURISH | Summer 2021 • 19
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