HISTORY
After I gave my life to Christ, one of the things I and my friend involved in so much was online Bible courses. We studied the Bible with Lamp and Light publishers, World Bible School, SOON Bible course, the Voice of truth; we also received and read Biblical newsletters/devotionals from our daily bread, 700 club, Grace and Truth etc. Sometime around 2006, my friend and I discussed about starting a club, he suggested we use the name “
true message club (TMC)”, patterned after organizations we studied online Bible course with and those we received Biblical newsletters/devotionals from. Through the club we had the mind of reaching the teenagers and youths for Christ while at the same time encourage reading and creative writing among them. We therefore sectionalised the club into two namely
true message writers’ association (TMWA) and
true message pen pals’ club (TMPC). Through true message writers’ association we planned to publish periodical newsletter through writings of willing club members, while we planned true message pen pals’ club to provide chatting platform for club members. We sketched out our plan and developed working strategy. Unfortunately, our plan didn’t get to the implementation level.
Later years I started working on our original plan to accommodate other things which will position true message club to become like the organizations we received devotionals and newsletters from and studied online bible courses with. Occasionally, I discussed what I had done with my friend and listen to his own point of view. Sometimes around 2012, I discussed my plans with some friends in Oyo where I was living then and we met occasionally to give structure to true message club. Then we had structured TMC to provide correspondence courses codenamed
true message online bible school. We couldn’t take our plans to implementation level then also; however, it was then that I started posting daily devotional named:
true message for today (TMFT). The tempo/frequency of posting the devotional later reduced around 2015, however in September 2015, I discussed my plans about true message club with another childhood friend, then a burden which God had always put on my heart right from childhood namely
help foundation, had become a priority, hence the name
true message foundation was adopted. We brought in the pioneer friend we got the vision together and the three of us have been operating true message foundation since then till 2018 when we had a break after developing the framework and some manuscripts for the Bible correspondence course. Also, we made some contributions details of transactions are still intact till date. We compiled all previous plans and gave a structure to the guidelines of operating true message foundation as follows (
note: editions have been made four times since 2015 and all previous editions are still available).
VISION (*)
- Soliciting and rendering helps and happiness to the deprived thereby raising lowly little men and women out of the miry clay and placing them in position to stand before kings and not before mean men (cf. Prov. 22:29).
MISSION
- To do this, we will:
- Select partners that will join us
- Establish platform to take little men and women through practical Bible study
- Establish platform to train little men and women in certain arts and crafts.
- Establish platform to distribute periodical newsletter to nurture little men and women to destiny fulfilment and inform partners of latest development.
- Make donations to help financially incapacitated little men and women especially in their academic pursuit.
- Partner with other missionaries in very remote villages and other help foundations such as orphanage homes, centres for visually impaired (e.g. blind) and hearing impaired (e.g. deaf) etc.
- To discover and incorporate better ways of positioning the organization as a standard help foundation that will stand the test of time.
PARTNERS
True Message Foundation partners are people who shared the vision and mission of the organization and voluntarily indicated possession of the following characteristics/requirements and/or show interest to accept the following responsibilities:
Characteristics:
- Must be a child of God.
- Must have passion for the vision/mission statement which forms the organization terms and agreement.
Responsibilities
- To contribute non-refundable periodic amount to help in carrying out the organizations mission statement.
- Members can be selected on tenure basis to become member of the board of directors.
- To carry out other duty as informed by the board of directors.
- Selection to be included in group visitation to help centres (e.g. orphanages and mission fields).
- To select and train little men and women in the partner’s locality on a small scale and seeking help from TMF as the case may be.
- To make necessary contribution in form of ideas as per positioning the organization as a standard help foundation.
PARTNERING MONTHLY COMMITMENT OPTIONS
- Executive members - N10,000.00,
- Diamond members - N5,000.00
- Gold members - N2,000.00
- Silver - N1,000.00
- Bronze- N500.00
Partnership status may be changed with 2 months prior notice and partnership commitment may be revoked (in which case the partner is allowed to discontinue contribution, however, without payback of previous contributions) at any point in time by writing to the board of directors. Also, there will be occasional review of contributory amount of partnering options.
TRAINING PLATFORM
TMF shall develop ways of training students, every member will be encouraged to build team of little men and women in certain arts and crafts in their localities and refer to the organization as the need arises, and these training will cut across:
- Computer (software/hardware)
- Theatre and performing arts etc.
- Photography etc.
- Talent discovery
This will be done through organization of free training workshop. Any member may require TMF to organize such workshop in his/her locality which upon deliberation (sometimes including vote cast) by members and/or board of directors may be accepted or declined. In addition TMF website will maintain both textual and video training materials whereby little men & women can download training materials.
HELP BENEFICIARIES
HELP ACCESS
Little men and women (with proven academic performance if individual) that are financially incapacitated may be referred to TMF for help by any partner(s) of the foundation. The referral by the partner(s) will be put into writing and forwarded to the board of directors that will make necessary consultation/deliberation before approval or disapproval of the financial assistance.
Little men and women that may also access financial assistance from TMF include:
- One that is financially incapacitated to start a business
- Rehabilitated single mother that has been proven help worthy
- Orphans
- Rehabilitated youths that has been proven help worthy
Consideration by the board of directors for help referral will be subject to:
- Reliability of the referred
- Spiritual conviction of the board of directors
- Perception of the board of directors about the usefulness of the venture the referred is pursuing to the society
- Academic performance of the referred
- Commitment of the referee to the organization and duration between the last time referees was granted referral and current referral application.
MODE OF SELECTION OF HELP BENEFICIARIES
Help beneficiaries selection involves requesting every member (or board of directors in the future) to vote for or against rendering help to help beneficiary whose CVs will be sent to the voters. Voters count will be based on partnering commitment of the voters in which case a bronze member has one (1) point while executive members has five (5) point.
MEDIA MANAGEMENT
PERIODICALS AND NEWSLETTER PRODUCTION
A bi-annual or annual periodical titled: TRUE MESSAGE FOR THE SEASON will be published online and/or in prints by TMF. This can be subscribed to by little men and women across the globe. Articles and testimonies from TMF partners, ‘privileged’ writers and in fact the little men and women will be welcomed and reviewed by the board of directors (Editors) before been published.
BLOG TYPE NEWSLETTER
Youth Enlightenment Zine (YEZ) will also be published electronically from time to time. This may include latest development in the organization, visits, photos and memoirs from organized programs, schedules etc.
TELEVISION PROGRAM
TMF will anchor television program which will be used to enlighten the entire populace about the suffering masses and TMF role in reaching out to them. It will also feature intellectual talent display, drama series specifically acted by little men and women, etc.
ONLINE BIBLE SCHOOL
TMF will maintain an online Bible School to teach and train students in the Bible. Students will be tested as at when due. On completion of the Bible course, certificate and other incentives (e.g. Bible, scholarship, free training, etc.) will be issued to graduates. The courses offered will be reviewed from time to time by the committee that would be set up for the purpose.
TRUE MESSAGE FOR TODAY
In other to promote daily Bible study among the little men and little women, TMF will maintain TMFT which is a daily devotional guide.
TRUE MESSAGE WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION (TMWA)
In other to inculcate writing skills in our little men and little women, TMF will maintain a platform that encourages the members to write and gets their write-ups published and disseminated to audience that they wouldn’t deem they could reach with their write-ups.
TRUE MESSAGE PEN PALS’ CLUB (TMPC)
TMF would maintain platform to allow for social networking among the little men and little women from various geographical locations.
PROSPECTS & FUTURE OF TMF
TMF is set to be positioned as full blown help foundation/orphanage that will help linkup with or include similarly visioned entrepreneurial training schools and secondary schools. In other to take TMF to achieve this vision all plans and strategies will be reviewed from partners from time to time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Little men and women refer to toddlers, children, teenagers, youths, orphanages, and mission fields etc. that require help.
- CVs refer to brief introduction of little men and women that require help which will be performed by the partner that recommends them.
A-O.J.O.
(CONVENER/CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS)