Note from the Board – Rod Robison – November 2026

A lesson from an old barn

Rod Robison

Unite 4 Africa Board Chairman

Imagine moving a church building two miles along dirt roads, using logs as rollers, propelled by a team of horses lunging against gravity and inertia each and every step of the arduous journey.

My wife Jeannie’s great grandfather John R. Yoder headed up that move near West Liberty, Ohio in 1877. A newer building had been built by the local congregation, so he bought their old, vacant church building, dreaming of turning it into a home on his newly purchased farmland. Even with the help of the muscular equines and hardworking family and neighbors who pitched in to help, it was a monumental undertaking. But dragging the structure to the home site was only the beginning. Once the building was relocated, a second story was added and eventually — three generations later — became the farmhouse Jeannie and her six brothers grew up in when her father farmed the land. It’s still in her family nearly a century and a half after the cross-country move.

Once John R. had the building relocated he built a small barn to store grain. Jeannie and I visited the farmstead this past summer. Although the house is still standing and occupied by a fifth generation of the Yoder family, the original grain barn has suffered the ravages of time and weather. It’s no longer useable — little more than a pile of ancient lumber. So, to preserve its memory, Jeannie asked me to saw off a piece of the beam that once held the barn together so we could take it on the plane with us back to our home in Arizona. The rough hand-hewn timber has a carved out block at the top with a hand-drilled mortise hole where a matching tenon from another beam once fit snugly with a wooden peg to secure the joint.

The venerable segment of beam now stands ramrod straight on our fireplace hearth as a testimony to the salt-of-the-earth legacy passed down by my wife’s ancestors. It speaks of the resilience, patience, work ethic, and deep Christian faith that have been hallmarks of her family’s generations past. The old beam may be rough and weathered, displayed unassumingly in our home, but it reminds us, and hopefully will remind future generations, of those intangible values that built not only a multi-generational home and farmstead but more importantly a legacy. A testimony of principles that are infinitely more valuable than today’s material “shiny new objects” that too often grab our attention, our time, and our treasure.

When I see that piece of the old barn I’m sometimes reminded of what really counts in this life. Even though the barn was once brand new, rich with the aroma of freshly sawn lumber, eventually, as with all material things, it deteriorated.

Jesus talked about the tenuous nature of material things when he admonished us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21

Investing in the lives of others — particularly those whose lives and eternities will benefit greatly from our generosity — is something that will last well beyond our time here on Earth. In fact, as Jesus made clear, that’s the kind of thing that lasts forever.

Those who partner with Unite 4 Africa with their generous financial gifts invest in the eternal lives of those in desperate need by bringing hope to the hopeless, water to the thirsty, families to orphans, love and dignity to the abused, medicine to the sick, empowerment to the poor, and the light of Jesus to the darkness.

I want to invite you today to make an eternal investment by visiting www.Unite4Africa.org/donate. Your gift will be used by God to change lives tomorrow and for eternity. And you’ll be leaving a legacy that no amount of time will erase.