The Reverend Homer and Lorraine K. Yearick Endowment Fund<\/em><\/strong> is a permanent fund of Wider Church Ministries, established at the request of Homer and Lorraine Yearick\u2019s family. Fund distributions support the work of the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in Japan.<\/p>\n Homer Yearick was a Navy chaplain on the island of Tinian during World War II. Tinian is the island from which the B-29 aircraft were launched carrying the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. God\u2019s children in Japan held a special place in Homer\u2019s heart for the rest of his life. He returned to the U.S. after the war and served local churches in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The Yearicks had four children with whom Homer shared his compassion for brothers and sisters in Japan. \u00a0Following his death, the family chose to establish an endowment to benefit the Asian Rural Institute.<\/p>\n The purpose of the Asian Rural Institute is to build an environmentally healthy, just, and peaceful world, in which each person can live to his or her fullest potential. This mission is rooted in the love of Jesus Christ. \u00a0ARI trains and nurtures rural leaders. \u00a0Leaders, both women and men, who live and work in grassroots rural communities primarily in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific form a community of learning each year together with staff and other residents.<\/p>\n This Fund provides an opportunity for donors to make contributions to a permanent fund that will provide the Asian Rural Institute with revenue for its programs in a permanent way. The resources generated from the Reverend Homer and Lorraine K. Yearick<\/em><\/strong> Endowment Fund<\/em><\/strong> are sent to the Asian Rural Institute designated for use in the programs and institutional life of ARI.<\/p>\n