Throughout the ages God has used ordinary people like you and me to accomplish things for His work.  Jerry and I are just as ordinary as you can be.  We are simply “sinners saved by grace.”  We are living proof that God is still changing lives!  I think the words to a song best describe what He has done with our lives: “If you see what we once were, if you could go with us, back to where we started from I know that you would see, a miracle of love that took us in His sweet embrace and made us what we are today, just old sinners saved by grace”…  
We live in a Kansas town of about 400 people.  I still cook from scratch, hang clothes on a line, we plant a vegetable garden, and home-can our vegetables together. I love to work in my flower gardens when I can, and Jerry loves to fish when he can! Together we gather needed items for the Lord that we call ‘gifts’ and place them into the hands of ministries and missionaries working in the nations.

We were both raised in Southeast Kansas, grew up on small family farms with our parents and grandparents in the home, and we are both better people because of this.  Our families were not fully devoted to Christ families, but they took us to church on Sunday so we could learn about Jesus. I have known the Lord since I was a child.  We were both baptized into Jesus as teenagers, but did not dedicate our lives to the Lord until five years ago when I turned 40 and became ill.  I’m thankful for the prayers of all those who faithfully prayed for our salvation for many years.  Yes, God’s grace is Amazing!

Jerry’s family ran a dairy and farmed in rural Mound Valley where his folks still live. I grew up nearby in the Old Parker area, east of Coffeyville, Kansas. My father, having no sons of his own, taught my sisters and me all that needs to be done when living on a farm. You simply learn to do everything that has to be done.

Jerry graduated in 1965 from Labette County High School, in Altamont Kansas.  God has gifted him to be an excellent welder in trade school.  He is nearing retirement, recently changed jobs after the closing of a plant where he worked nearly 20 years as welder, machinist and shop foreman.  He is currently working as a welder in a nearby town.  He is gifted through his hands.  He hauls, packs, fixes, builds and restores.  He truly is a ‘helping hand to the Lord.’ He’s not a speaker.  He is meek, not weak, and he stands very supportive of the roll the Lord has asked me to do in GFTN ministry. 

I graduated from Oologah High School, in Oologah, Oklahoma in 1978.  I married Jerry, then went to work as a bookkeeper in a bank, until our children were born.  Later I worked in a deli and even in a family restaurant and at a plant farm on the side.  Most of my life I worked as a real-estate, commercial and agricultural appraiser for the department of revenue.  Yes I was a tax collector.  I love to talk and sing. I love life, my family and I love the Lord.   I study His word at Ozark Christian College in Joplin Missouri.  Jerry and I hope to attend my last semesters together as Jerry looks forward to working full time for the ministry when the Lord provides through GFTN Ministry. He plans to audit some classes with me while I finish.

We will be married 29 years this December. We have been blessed by the Lord in so many ways. The greatest is through this ministry and our children:  twin sons, Craig and his brother Gregg who is in heaven, sons Travis, and Jerrod, and twin daughters Amber and Alyssia, nicknamed Faith and Hope. 

God uses all that we learned growing up on the farm and what we have done through our various jobs throughout the years to enable us to do this ministry.  He truly has been preparing us through the years to gather Gifts for His Nations. 

We invite you into our lives through Gifts for the Nations Ministry,

 Debbie and Jerry Cramer