The Cow Story
From the Desk of Lee Bradley

Looking at the cow in this photo, you probably ask what relevance it has to the story of a theological school. For one student, whom I will call John, a cow had much importance.

While in the first year of school, John had the misfortune of having his father die unexpectedly, leaving him as the man of the family to care for his mother and sister in the village. He was only 19 at the time. Many young men in this situation would have been forced to leave school and to look for work to support the family, but he continued. This was hard financially and emotionally for all of them as he was away at ABI for days at a time, leaving his mother and sister alone. Still, his mother and sister wanted him to continue and encouraged him to stay in school, which he did. It was always tight for them financially, but they made it that first year.

The next year we got a call at the school from John's pastor. "Can you help John? The family cow has died and we as a church have had to buy them a new one. The money we were saving for his school expenses has now had to go to buy a cow for the whole family. We don't have any money now to pay the tuition. Is there any scholarship money that could be used to help pay his tuition this semester?"

The former director was taken by surprise for what to say, but impulsively agreed to try to help. He thought. "A silly cow? Why is that more important than tuition for school? This is the strangest request I've heard in quite some time."

When he thought about it some more, he realized that the family lives and dies by the cow. It produces milk, cheese, yogurt and other things that they sell to keep alive. Without the cow, they don't have a livelihood. It was now making sense to him, but the big question was where would we get $350 to pay the remainder of that tuition?

At the time, I was on the board of the school and heard about John's dilemma. A couple of days later, I got an e-mail from a friend in L.A. (Lower Alabama) from whom I had not heard in quite some time. His letter went something like this:

Dear Lee,
My Sunday School class at church has been taking up some money to help you and your ministry in Albania. Thought you might need it. How can we send it to you? It is $350.
Pastor Clark

I called up the director and told him about the gift from the Sunday School class which I wanted to donate to pay for John's scholarship.

Does God care about cows? You bet.
Does God care about our school? Certainly.
Does God care about our students, their families and the economic hardships they face? Yes!

God is faithful! He provides for every need we have at Albanian Bible Institute, using people like you and me to make it possible for young men and women to be trained for church leadership.

By the way, John graduated the next year and now pastors a good-sized church in central Albania which also has two mission churches in the villages nearby. I would hate to think of the outcome if John had been forced to quit school and go look for work instead of finishing school. This Sunday School class's investment made a great difference in one young man's life.

Will you be one of those who help keep students in Albanian Bible Institute so they can competently carry on the Lord's work for years to come?