Donor Stories

 

Christle grew up in Long Island, New York, going to church and Sunday school. She loved God’s Word and wanted to be a missionary. Since languages were easy for her, she hoped to be a Bible translator one day. In her early twenties, she went through Wycliffe’s linguistics training and loved it.

But Christle never made it overseas because she wasn’t able to raise enough financial support, and she eventually gave up the dream of being a missionary.

A few years later, Christle suffered an illness that left her disabled for the rest of her life. She was devastated. Why hadn’t God given her the health she asked for?

“When I was a teenager I would study the Bible,” Christle said. “But when I became disabled, I gave all that up. I lost my faith completely, didn’t go to church, wouldn’t read the Bible. I became an agnostic. I didn’t want anything to do with Christianity. I didn’t believe it.”

Nearly fifty years later—now in her late sixties—Christle was practicing meditation. During her meditation, little bits of Scripture that she had memorized as a child began entering her mind.

These verses got her interested in the Bible again. She started going to church and ultimately returned to her faith.

Last fall, Christle realized that she needed to make a will to take care of her house and property when she died. As a single woman, she had no heirs. For months she thought about who she could give her money to. Then she remembered Wycliffe and was delighted to find out that the organization was still around. So she called Wycliffe Foundation and met with a gift-planning advisor.

A lawyer from Christle’s church offered to draw up a will for her. She ended up choosing Wycliffe and two other charities.

“I’m thankful—even though forty years were wasted as far as not being a Christian, that wasn’t the end of my life,” Christle says. “The happiest part is that my life has turned around, and I will be able to do something for the Lord now and when I die.”