Friends, I need your help:

I have been working on my Ph.D. for 7 years now. I have completed all the course work, the language requirements, the written and oral exams. I have completed a first draft of my dissertation, but it needs a thorough revision, about 6 weeks worth of steady work. I have put myself through this program with help only from my parents and Amy’s parents, who have been very generous. Now I am at the final juncture and I need help to finish. My school bill for the year is just shy of $10,000. I also need additional support to give me time to revise the dissertation. (Right now I am working 4 different jobs which leaves me no time to work on this.) The church I pastor wants to help me get this done, but this is beyond what our budget and resources can handle. We’re a small church and I have worked hard not to be a burden on it. I can’t allow the church to suffer for my benefit. But, the church can offer tax-deductible donation status to anyone who can help. If you can help me, please donate to the church’s Paypal account: office@vnorth.org.

“There is as little praise of man on the basis of his faith as on that of his works. For there is as little justification of man ‘by’ – that is to say by means of – the faith produced by him, by his treading the way of faith, by his achievements of the emotions and thoughts and acts of faith, by his whole consciousness of faith and life of faith, as there is a justification ‘by’ any other works. Faith is not at all the supreme and true and finally successful form of self-justification. If it tried to be this, if man tried to believe with this purpose and intention and claim, then even if his faith was not a ‘dead’ faith, even if it was a most ‘hearty’ faith, even if it was a fiduciary faith most active in love, it would be the supreme and most proper form of his sin as the sin of pride.” Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/1, 617.

(Because you need more Barth in your life.)