Give the gift of education

The Richards Memorial Fund for Education

By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ

I shared in a message for my home church, Hope Lutheran in Rochester, NY, about a young woman from a Muslim family whose fundamentalist father did not believe women should go to college. But God gave her musical gifts and a dream to study music.

After I mentioned this in September 2019, I was approached by a sister in Christ who I had never met. This sister, Helene McMurray, is a college professor with a PhD. Her husband Jason is a high school teacher. Their son is in college. Education is very important in their home.

The Holy Spirit stirred in this wife and husband, simultaneously as I was speaking, a desire to help those we work with who do not have access to education.

As a result of this conversation (and others in the weeks that followed) we established The Richards Memorial Fund for Education. This fund honors Helene’s late brother Jimmy Richards.

Helene with her late brother, late mother, and father after receiving her PhD.

We have been blessed through the years to help a few young people receive their college education. We paid for Damson Samson, our East Africa Kingdom worker, to go to school in Malawi, and are supporting C4C (Haiti) New Generation leader Gilbert Lindor in medical school in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. These are two of my sons from distant shores. Some Project 1:27-sponsored children in Nepal also have grown to college age and continue to receive assistance from Climbing For Christ.

The McMurrays would like to see more people get involved and help send younger brothers and sisters in Christ to college in places where it would not otherwise be possible. We praise God that they answered the call that He put on their hearts when they heard the sad story about that young lady. Through them we hope to give the gift of education.  

To give to this effort, please send contributions to Climbing For Christ, c/o The Richards Memorial Fund for Education, P.O. Box 16290, Rochester, NY 14616. Or CLICK HERE to give online through PayPal. Email info@ClimbingForChrist.org with any questions.