Welcome our newest team member

Russ, David, Elizabeth, Jerry, and Meredith Cooper

Greetings brothers and sisters,

As the newest member of the IOI team, I wanted to take this
opportunity to introduce myself to you and thank you for the
support that you give to this ministry. May God bless you richly for the sacrifices you continually make.

God has been preparing me for some time to join with Patrick and Stephen in this great work. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in management, I began ministry in the local church. For 17 years I have served as a youth minister, associate pastor, pastor, and most recently as the administrator at a church-owned retirement center. During that time, God also gave my wife, Meredith, and me a heart for missions and we were blessed to be able to go on several short-term trips. We believed God was preparing us to work in missions after retirement, but in His providence He has allowed us to live the dream now.

My family moved to Jackson from Shreveport, LA the first week of June, and we are settled in and enjoying life in Tennessee. Meredith started a job about 2 weeks ago at the Tennessee State Veteran’s Home (she’s a nurse), and our children Elizabeth (14) and David (10) will be starting school in early August. My mother lives with us as well, and has been a huge blessing to our family and to the ministry of IOI.

As school gets ready to start in Ethiopia, we are faced with some needs that are beyond the ordinary. The TLC project supports 100 children, but only 62 of them are currently sponsored. School
expenses (tuition, uniform, etc.) are $65 per child for the entire year. If you would like to help with these expenses, simply enclose a check in the envelope and mark it for school expenses. We look forward to the day when all of the children are sponsored and these expenses are covered.

Thank you again for your continued support of IOI!

Serving together,

Russ Cooper
Financial Director
russ@ioiusa.org