Dear ABR Family,
On behalf of the Board, Staff, and Associates of ABR, we thank you for helping us finish our fiscal year well, with a strong surge of giving up to the very last hours on June 30. Our very real concern of cutbacks in staff and staff salaries was avoided, and we are deeply grateful to all of you. Sometimes people wonder what a “faith ministry” looks like and all I have to do is explain to them how God provides for ABR year after year. Thank you for listening to the prompting of the Lord as He called you to participate in the grace of giving. The threat of staff reductions was real and your generosity has launched us into the new fiscal year on solid ground.
I’m grateful to our Staff who sacrificially give of their time, donating countless hours of expertise and skill to ABR for the sake of the kingdom. Our staff has been called together from diverse backgrounds of training and ministry and all have unique stories in experiencing the provision of the Lord in their lives. In my life circumstances the Lord has allowed me to pastor New Hope Bible Fellowship in Lancaster PA for over 20 years. This precious family of believers has shared their pastor with ABR so that I could provide executive and strategic leadership for the ministry. Their sacrifices and support opened the doors for me to serve at ABR. My life story is just one of many among our professional staff where God has made provision so that we can serve Him in this important ministry.
Our Associates serve ABR in voluntary roles and share their extraordinary expertise by networking closely with us in research and writing, magnifying and multiplying our ministry. This amazing group of scholars and friends contribute by serving on our excavations in Israel and on the ABR Board and Committees, in contributing articles, and by encouraging others to serve and support ABR. Together, we serve the Lord in following the vision given to our founder Dr. David Livingston, a vision to uphold the authority and reliability of the Bible so that Christians the world-over will proclaim the full-counsel of God with confidence and power. We seek to lead the spiritually hungry to the life-giving water that Jesus provides and to strengthen those whose faith is weak, or who have fallen victim to the poison of skeptics and cynics in our corrupt and duplicitous culture.
It is your prayers and gifts that sustain the ministry of ABR. We serve as partners together to reach the world for Christ and we are so very thankful for you. You have opened up to us greater fields of ministry, and we ask for your continuing prayers and support throughout 2018 and 2019.
With a grateful, thankful heart,
Scott Lanser
ABR Director