"Do I love God?" The question kept tossing tenaciously in Davy Woo’s mind. As he mulled over it, his thoughts strayed to the Biblical account of Jesus questioning Peter’s love for him. After three times of gentle probing, Jesus then asked Peter to feed and tend His sheep.

Davy figured Jesus was asking Peter to demonstrate his love for Him by caring for His sheep. Back to the question. "Now, if I love God, how then can I show my love to Him? And who are His sheep that I can specifically care for? In what ways can I care for them?" By now, the businessman’s mind was perking up with more questions.

He quieted his thoughts and waited. Somehow, the word "sheep" inspired a vision of pastors caring for their congregation members, being called up at all times of the day and night to tend to their problems. "This is the pastors’ love to their sheep. But I wondered about the pastors themselves – who cares for them when they have problems, when their wives are crying. How many Christians will visit their pastors, pray for them, find out whether they have material needs and meet the needs?" Davy pondered.

Restless with these questions, Davy set out to ask pastors what they need and how their lives and ministries may be improved. Whomoever he asked, wherever he went, he heard a similar cry – more adequate physical care please.

"I met this pastor who married late and who was twice the age of his wife. Now, if something happened to him that caused him to be incapacitated, will his church be able to support him, his young wife and their children long term? Will the church finance his children’s education?" Davy wondered.

The idea of a foundation to help pastors was thus sown. But before he ventured further, more questions crossed his thoughts. "Why limit the assistance to pastors? Why not extend to full-time workers and missionaries? And why limit to churches? What about para-church organisations?" After much conside- ration, he approached NECF and tossed the idea of the foundation to them.

"I went to NECF because it has a good inter-denominational network and I felt it was able to materialise the idea," he said.

Today, two years after his first meeting with NECF officials, Davy is getting some assurance that pastors and full-time workers have an avenue to turn to if and when they require financial aid with the launch of the NECF Foundation.

"Some Christians feel that pastors and full-time workers should trust God to provide for their needs. They forget that faith without action is dead. We are taking action to help God’s servants who also are our servants because they serve us," Davy pointed out.

"We can show our support to these servants of God by signing up as sponsors. Imagine how much we can raise for the foundation if every Christian gives just RM10 a year," he said.

The Foundation will be officially launched next February 29 at a fund-raising dinner.