The Eliza Broadus Offering is more than just another offering to me. It is our state missions offering and has been making a difference in Kentucky for over 100 years.

Over the past month, EBO grant applications have been coming into the Kentucky WMU office. Each application must tell about the ministry and how grant funds will be used if approved. If the ministry received funds in the prior year, the application must also include an accountability form which tells how the money was used and how lives were touched through the ministry. Here are just a few stories shared.

“I remember when one of our clients came for the first time. She was absolutely broken and could barely lift her head when I spoke to her. She had just found out she was pregnant and scared to death. She felt all alone and didn’t think she could do this. We met for a few times and I saw her start to change. She would come in with her head up and would smile some. The longer it went, she got even better and looked like a different person. As of today she is the proud mother of a toddler and that lost and broken girl is gone. She is back in church and doing great!”

“One of the sites for the Toy Project last year was a new church plant by the name of Commonwealth City Church, located in a low-income neighborhood, that shares its space with a Congolese church plant. I watched as these two churches worked together to provide for families in their congregations. One special memory was seeing the pastor of the Commonwealth City church meet the mother of a few of the children he had grown to know as part of the church youth ministry. The Toy Project provided an opportunity for the pastor to meet families that wouldn’t typically come inside the church. I saw the mother’s face light up as the pastor helped her shop for her children, one of which was to take home a bicycle.”

“A young mother with a baby on her hip came to our annual Back to School Bash, bringing her other children in order to receive free school supplies. One of our pastors led her to Christ and she was gloriously saved! After she had finished praying, she looked at the pastor with tears in her eyes and asked, ’How did you know?’ Of course, we knew. The Lord had drawn her to us and we had prayed for someone to get saved that day. How exciting to see prayers answered!”

Your gifts and prayers make these and many more stories possible. If you would like to make a year-end gift for state missions, go to www.kywmu.org/givenow.

Joy Bolton is executive director-treasurer of Kentucky Woman�s Missionary Union, P.O. Box 436569, Louisville, KY 40253; (502) 489-3534; kywmu.org