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Church’s gift cards aid international women, homeschoolers
Marilyn Stewart, NOBTS
November 06, 2015
2 MIN READ TIME

Church’s gift cards aid international women, homeschoolers

Church’s gift cards aid international women, homeschoolers
Marilyn Stewart, NOBTS
November 06, 2015

International women students and the homeschool community at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) have been given gift cards totaling nearly $5,400 from First Baptist Church in Minden, La.

The gifts were part of First Baptist’s month-long emphasis on “every member a missionary” and Cooperative Program giving for Southern Baptist missions in Louisiana, nationally and internationally.

Leland Crawford, FBC Minden’s pastor, and his wife Rose delivered the cards along with canvas school bags filled with school supplies for each of the 93 homeschool children on campus during the seminary’s mid-October trustee meeting. Crawford, an NOBTS alumnus, serves on the NOBTS trustee broad.

International students and student wives representing 11 countries – South Korea, Egypt, Romania, India, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, Taiwan, Argentina, Burkina Faso and Haiti – received the gift cards during a the reception hosted by Rhonda Kelley, wife of NOBTS President Chuck Kelley. The gift cards were valued at $15, $20 or $25.

“My international friends and I were super excited and thankful for the gift cards,” Romanian student Maria Tone said. “They were such a blessing and came at the right time. We praise God for always providing.”

The 218 “Cards of Blessing” marked the third year FBC Minden has provided gifts to NOBTS students. Each year the church has targeted a different group of students. In 2013, First Baptist delivered 60 home-cooked meals to seminary families. In 2014, the church distributed gift cards to NOBTS single students.

Rose Crawford said her memories of being a student wife at NOBTS and raising three daughters prompted her vision for the church’s initiative. God was faithful though the days were lean, she said.

“We struggled financially … the Lord always supplied all our needs,” she said. “We didn’t have extra, we didn’t have excess, but we had what we needed.”