Help A Neighbor represents individuals acting on the moral and ethical principle stated by Jesus in Matthew 22:39, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  There are many ways and means for people to express that love.  Help A Neighbor is one way to facilitate that ethical principle within perimeters set by the I.R.S. of the federal government allowing donations to be tax deductible.

Some charity funds are set up by people who have large amounts of money to distribute to various worthy causes, but that is not the case with Help A Neighbor.  The Help A Neighbor fund depends purely on donations of individuals and is not based on any reserve resources or nest egg.  I have no independent or personal means for generating funds.  Furthermore, I cannot divert time from my duties as an evangelist to become a charity director who constantly travels and contacts wealthy donors.  How then does this fund have resources?

Help A Neighbor is simply a legal mechanism under U.S. law which allows individuals who donate funds to my Philippine work to file a legal tax deduction for the amount given.  While some need here at home in the U.S. may occasionally be included, that represents a small fraction of the work being done.  For instance, a child had cancer and some folks wanted to donate funds for medical expenses, which fit within our perimeters.  Church funds are never requested or accepted because Help A Neighbor facilitates individual action not local church action.

Here again is the main point:  Help A Neighbor is nothing more or less than a means to facilitate individual donations reaching worthy Christians in need under guidelines defining a legal charity by the I.R.S. for tax purposes.

Occasionally, someone asks me to consider some additional project or need beyond the scope of my Philippine work, and I am willing to help in proportion to available time and funds (if someone is able to donate such funds).  Therefore, if anyone wishes to write an appeal explaining a project, stating what has been done and how much spent, and outlining the cost of the remaining work, it may be possible to circulate this report to see if there are people who have available funds for this purpose.  Even this possibility depends on other factors such as time constraints and legal guidelines.  In cases where it is possible to circulate a reported need, there is nothing I can do beyond sharing information with individuals who may or may not be able to help.

Help A Neighbor concentrates on the Philippines because I go there often enough to know the men and observe the work personally.  This makes it possible to form some reasonable assessment of needs and to assure U.S. brethren that their funds are being used exactly as requested and intended.

Yet, the requests for help from the Philippines alone far outstrips my ability to find needed funds, not to mention appeals from other nations.  In other words, sad to say, I am so overwhelmed with requests that funds can be found for only few of them.  I have worshiped with saints in the banana grove and under the mango tree, as well as in homes, without having resources to help solve their problem.  In one case, I visited a church on the Philippine island of Negros about five years ago where brethren had been sacrificing for seven years building their meeting place little by little, and I have not been able to provide funds to help these saints complete their building.

My heart is willing to help worthy brethren in any place, but I have no sufficient means to meet the vast needs on every hand.  Only when there are able donors, Help A Neighbor can do something within the limitations of moral, ethical, and legal guidelines.  No one person can do it all in reaching out to neighbors in need, but each of us can find ways to do what we can, whether utilizing Help A Neighbor or other avenues at our disposal.

I only know to depend on the grace and guidance of God’s good providence as we try one day at a time to do our best in serving Him.

God’s eternal plan of salvation is summed up in Christ and the church. “All spiritual blessings” are “in Christ,” who is “the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:3, 22-23). This is “according to the eternal purpose” which God “purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:11). All men must be members of the universal church to be saved. Jews and Gentiles are reconciled “unto God in one body by the cross” (Eph. 2:16). The universal church has no earthly headquarters or other institutional organization on earth with officials, a treasury, and assigned missions. It simply refers to our spiritual fellowship with Christ as our Savior and head, nothing more, nothing less.

Christians must be active, faithful members of the local church. The first thing we read about the first Christians is this: “And they continued in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). When the newly converted Saul came to Jerusalem, immediately “he assayed to join himself to the disciples” (Acts 9:26). The local church has its own organization to do its own work: elders to oversee, deacons to serve, and all members to participate (Phil. 1:1).

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