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| Bev, Tammy, Jerry, and our dear friend Marni Dodd |
She was swinging through our area, speaking at the University of Georgia Wesley Foundation. We caught up with her on her way back to Atlanta where she’s been for six months of rest before heading back to the other side of the world.
We’ve known Tammy since her days here as a student at the University of Georgia where she attended the Wesley Foundation Student Ministry. Previously a self-proclaimed atheist, she fell in love with Jesus at Wesley. She was later our children’s pastor for a time, then after UGA, she graduated from Asbury seminary. At that point, she’d had the opportunity to visit several countries around the globe, and felt called to work with children in a specific location in Asia.
Ignoring the standard “raise your support before you go” protocol, she packed a bag and went. She was twenty-seven years old.
Tammy has now rescued forty-six precious girls and boys from some of the meanest streets on planet earth. She’s clothed, fed, and schooled them as well as purchased land and built four buildings to house these children. Tammy has seen miracles of God’s provision and blessing in the almost twelve years she’s been walking in obedience to the call of God for her life. But more importantly, she’s embraced these children with a transformative love, which she found herself as a child of the God who is love.
I’m sitting here in the wake of watching a powerful video she left with us which pictured every child in some way. With a contagious joy, each spoke of the love and grace they receive in their home. I remember many of their stories and can’t believe that some who came to her as small children are now in college. Every child has a heart-wrenching past, but one particularly moving one is of a girl whose mother literally threw her in the gutter to die. With love, nourishment, and medical care at Tammy’s home, she’s now thriving.
Tammy’s vision is that God might use her children to transform a nation and usher in revival.
I love this verse from Habakkuk 1:5, “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.”
God would love to use forty-six children to change the course of history.
The time passed way too fast yesterday, and it may be years before we see her again. I could grow sad about that, or I could just up my prayers for Tammy and her kids. And one day in heaven, we’ll have all kinds of time to catch up on every single detail.
I love being “utterly amazed.”
We love you, Tammy.