Shipping Address: Galilean Children’s Home712 South Fork Church Road

Liberty, KY 42539

Galilean Home Ministries, Inc.PO Box 880 Liberty, KY 42539galileanhome.org

606-787-5120VOLUME 29 ISSUE 2

A Foundation of Love1 Corinthians 13 is filled with statements like, “Love is patient” and “Love never fails.” Mom coined the phrase, “Faith, Hope and Room for One More” from the end of the same chapter. Every single aspect of our ministry is founded on love.

FORBIDDEN LOVE Jerry and Sandy Tucker were married in 1963 and had only met four months prior at the urging of a mutual friend. The two knew from the start that they were in love and just had to spend their lives together. Sandy was 18, Jerry had just turned 22 and tension at home forced them to elope if they wanted to be together. “I had always dreamed of the white dress and walking down the aisle,” Sandy said. “But, being with Jerry was more impor-tant. We were in love and I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man and to be the best wife in the world.” Eight months after eloping, tensions eased with Sandy’s family and she got her church wedding after all, but adversity for this couple’s dreams had not yet run its course.

LOVE OF CHILDREN “A one-in-a-million chance,” that’s what doctors told Sandy her chances were of having a baby. Years of trying to adopt through agencies failed. Broken hearted and almost out of hope, a friend stopped by with an option that changed their lives forever. A baby with a few medi-

cal needs was up for adoption without going through any agency, Jerry and Sandy jumped at the chance. When it was official, Jerry went running through the streets yell-ing, “I have a son!” A year later, a miracle happened! Sandy had a baby girl against all odds and now they were a family of four. Shortly after there were two little girls that need-ed a home, and when they were settled in it was only natural that the baby boy needed a brother. So, Sandy found a young boy that needed a family and found out that he had three siblings and no one wanted to adopt all four of them – guess what Jerry and Sandy did to

keep them all together? Yup, now a fam-ily 10 just like that and only 10 years after they had been married and told they would never have chil-dren. Another mir-acle baby, a little more than ten years and a move to Ken-tucky-to-Mon-tana-back-to-Kentucky-again later and they were a family

approaching 50 and were just getting started. Sandy ex-plained the way God’s calling developed in their lives, “We believe God called us to care for the least of these by taking in children that others didn’t want or couldn’t handle.”

LOVE TURNS TO MINISTRY As the family grew and grew . . . and grew some more, Jerry and Sandy Tucker decided to expand their

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.” 1 John 5:2

Our Co-Founders - Jerry & Sandy Tucker around 30 years ago.

February 2014

G A L I L E A N H O M E

SHEPHERDBread of Life Café Hours:

Monday–Thursday–10:00am-8:00pmFriday–10:00am-9:00pmSaturday–7:00am-9:00pm

Closed Sunday(All times are Eastern)

Call for Reservations 606-787-6110

Bed & Breakfast

Planning on visiting our area?Do you need a place to stay? Call for reservations at the

A log home nestled deep in an Amish/Mennonite Horse & Buggy community.

For reservations call: (606) 706-7488 • (606) 787-6612

You’ll be glad you did!

Just A reminder: You can designate your United Way contribution to us. (Our agency # is 7003). You would need to fill out an application with your employer.

VOLunteers neededWe are in need of mature ladies (18 years or older) to volunteer their time in service at the Galilean Home. We would need at least a 3-month commitment. You would be caring for the handicapped residents as well as the babies in the Angel House. Please contact our volunteer coordinator, Dawn Shultz, at 606-787-4697 for more information.

YOU WILL BE BLESSED!

email: dshultz@galileanhome.org

Galilean Home Ministries, Inc. keeps all donor information private and secure. We keep information under physical, electronic, and procedural control at all times. We do not sell or trade a donor’s confidential information to any other entity in existence. This policy covers all ministries and businesses affiliated with the Galilean Home. The Galilean Home Shepherd is issued monthly and is published by the Galilean Children’s Home. There is no charge for this publication to subscribe, contact information is on the front page.

✓ Organic Toddler Snacks ✓ Sugar Free Snacks✓ Gerber Good Start Powdered Baby Formula (soy and gentle)✓ Toilet paper & Paper Towels ✓ Cleaning Supplies✓ Baby Diapers (Size 1) ✓ Ibuprofen ✓ Bleach✓ Adult Size Diapers – Size M (not the pull up type) (Orders over $50 on diapers.com get free shipping)✓ Fruit Juice & Drink mixes (no sugar added)✓ Cream Rinse & Body Wash for sensitive skin

FeBruArY needs List

More on our needs list at www.galileanhome.org/get-involved

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Return Service Requested

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 1478Lexington, KY

GALILEAN CHILDREN’S HOMEPO BOX 880LIBERTY, KY 42539-0880

As I sit in the warmth and comfort of my cabin with pen in hand and a pad of paper on my lap, my mind drifts as I attempt to start February’s

newsletter. This is the 29th year of the Shepherd newsletter. Of course, for most of those 29 years, mom took on that task of writing, but for her, it was not a task as much as a labor of love. For me, writing is not my cup of tea. The most current news is the polar weather. My ther-mometer reads -2 degrees and in anybody’s book, that is COLD! 51 years ago today (January 21st) it was cold in De-troit, Michigan. However, temperature did not matter. It was our wedding day! We had eloped and were standing in the living room of the local judge exchanging vows. As I think back, my mind is flooded with so many good memories of the 45 years we spent together. They in-clude: 2 biological daughters, 32 adopted children and 60+ grandkids (I think). Besides all of our own children, WELL over 1,000 more have passed through our doors and have called the Galilean Home their home. Some stayed for just a short time though for others, it has been years. We were childless our first seven years and thought that would be our lot in life. Boy, were we ever surprised as God had other plans for these two young, immature city kids! From where I sit in our cabin, I can see Mom’s gravestone. Someday, that stone will have both our names on it. But for now, there is work to be done. A LOT of work! Babies keep coming and going at the Angel House, which is always a bee hive of activity. The population of Galilean Christian Academy is up this year (60 students Pre K-12) as we have offered trans-portation for Liberty and Russell Springs, which keeps two 15-passenger vans busy! There is also a possibility of a third van running a route into some towns east of us. The Blessing House is full and busting at the seams. As I write, we have an interview tomorrow with a poten-tial placement for the Blessing House. We have an excel-lent staff in both the Angel and Blessing House. Some have worked for us for over 20 years, in these two arms of our ministry. The Girls Dorm is also full with 7 girls calling the dorm home. Miriam Showalter from Virginia is their dorm mother who does a tremendous job along with her sister, Anna. I fill in my spare time with 3 boys under my wing, namely Levi, James, and Josh - the 3 stooges! Or is it 4? The Cafe’ and Trading Post both had a very busy year in 2013 and it looks like 2014 will be even better. One

of the big blessings of the Café is that it provides employ-ment for some of our residents who are able to be out and work. Our V.S. coordinator, Dawn Shultz, does a phenom-enal job taking care of the V.S. program and running errands for the ministry such as shopping trips with the Girls Dorm and Blessing House. Also, she organizes all the work teams we have in the summer. Usually, 4-6 dif-ferent teams throughout the spring and summer arrive to help. She arranges their housing and meals and various jobs in the community to be done by the teams. Her teen boys are also a very big help. Her husband, Jeff, takes care of all our bulk mailing here from the house, all ex-cept the newsletter mailing. Every month the school stuffs the newsletter going out with a return envelope. They do all 30,000 newsletters in about 45 minutes, quite a sight to behold! This is one very busy place, to say the least. Everything we do is only possible because of all our supporters who provide the funds to keep us trucking. Without the faith-ful support of so many, we would not exist and that’s the bottom line. We are not state licensed or supported, yet for 40 years have relied on the Lord to supply all our needs. He continually gives me and all our devoted staff and volunteers the strength and courage to keep pressing forward. Before I forget, I want to mention Becky and Jessica. They co-manage the Cafe’, and Becky has really taken over Mom’s roll as I realize and feel that I am not as young as I think I am (73). She (Becky) says she will wear Mom’s shoes, but could never fill them. I could go on and on about all our staff. The 5 girls in the office, our laundress, all the maintenance men, cooks, school teachers and principal, and Quincy (our Public Relations and Fund raising man) - all of them, and I mean ALL really take a huge load off my shoulders. The largest, most challenging task they have (especially the 5 office gals), is putting up with Papa’ Oso (Daddy Bear). I’ll close and try to catch a wink or two. It is 3 AM!

Still focused & committed,

—Jerry, Dad, Papaw or Papa’ Oso

P.S. We would be honored to have someone come and share about our ministry with your church or organization. Call 606.787.5120 or email quincy@galileanhome.org - Jerry is available on a limited schedule.

A Wagon-load of Babies at the Angel House.

From the Comfort of Dad’s Cabinhome to be able to accommodate tak-ing in as many as they could. Sandy described the transition to becoming a non-profit. “We wanted to be in posi-tion to increase our ministry to include more unwanted children and others whose families were unable to care for them.” Galilean Home Ministries was born. It wasn’t long before there were children of “all” ages roaming the acreage of the rural Liberty home that Jerry and Sandy had cultivated. A few short years later the Galilean Christian Academy opened its doors. Not too long after that an incarcerated mother needed someone to care for her baby so she didn’t lose it – Born Free Ministries began to keep families together. In the mid-90’s our Christian bookstore was failing so Sandy decided we should add a few tables to serve soup and sandwiches which later became the Bread of Life Café’. It was also her vision, several years later, to give back in the community by launching The Liberty Trading Post providing gently used items at extremely affordable prices.

THE LOVE CONTINUES Today, the same mission holds true – we serve children of ALL ages, worldwide. We still do not take any government support as we rely fully on donations, grants and events. It is because of you that we can continue this labor of love

We have available upon request with any donation: A. Both of Sandy’s books B. Our 30 minute documentary “The Story”

on DVD C. A DVD of a recent 30-minute TV episode on

our ministry

that began so many years ago with something as simple as an introduction of two people by a mutual friend. Their love that turned into a family and the love that turned that family into ministry is the same love that is the foundation of everything we do today.

We Are stiLL sAVing sOup upCs And BOxtOps!

Remember to send Campbell’s soup UPCs and General Mills Box Tops (not Betty Crocker points), and make sure the Box Tops are not expired. We can earn much needed equipment and cash for our school. Every little bit helps!

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