Recently I spoke with Jameel, an Egyptian who worked for many years with Brother Andrew in Salt. He soon said: ‘I really miss him’. And I responded with the phrase I still hear often when talking about Brother Andrew: ‘I still miss him too.’ Today he would have been 75 years old. It’s been almost four years since he passed away…

On one of our many trips in Jordan, Brother Andrew always told one of his beautiful stories. And he often said to me: ‘We stand on the shoulders of giants’. By this he meant that we owe a lot to those who have gone before us, as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and who have delivered exceptional achievements on which we can continue to build.

Brother Andrew himself is now such a ‘giant’ for the generation after him, enabling people to build in their own way on what he has left as a legacy. I am referring, for example, to Ahlam’s work with her team to make Jordanian Sign Language available in an online dictionary. But certainly also to the summer camps of the deaf club Peace Dove for the Deaf, which makes the gospel accessible to deaf people in Jordan and Egypt. And the cooperation and exchange between employees of the Jordanian Higher Council for the Rights of People with Disabilities should not be missing from this list.

Brother Andrew’s humour was also of giant proportions. He couldn’t resist exchanging his walking stick with the shepherd’s crook for this statue of his beloved ‘Carpenter’… The Carpenter’s Son Foundation is celebrating its five-year anniversary this year. We have been able to build on Brother Andrew’s work and see it being blessed. For though we stand on the shoulders of giants, there is One who carries the world: the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on his example, Brother Andrew served, may we do our work and may you also help.

On behalf of the board, a giant thank you for your involvement!

René Kolsters