Patience Ajoff knows the importance of family helping family. As the oldest of four children in a family in northwest Cameroon, she went to college in Germany to be able better to support her sisters and brother. Her mother died soon afterward, though, so she had to quit school to work full-time. Her pastor in Germany told her of a school in the U.S. that offered a work-study program that would pay most of her expenses. Although she’d never heard of Knoxville, Patience (Pat) soon found herself accepted at Knoxville College.

When she got there, Pat didn’t know what a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) was, or what to expect from one. But she soon learned it was like a second family. “The professors really care about each individual,” she recalls. “Just last month, a student from Haiti lost her father. Within a couple of days, the community at Knoxville had raised enough money to allow her to return to Haiti to be with her family during this time.”

Every semester at Knoxville, Pat worked many hours. At first, this was through the work-study program, but later she found jobs in the community, often working more than 270 hours a semester at two or three jobs. In addition to paying her tuition, she was still sending money home to help her family. This work enabled her to graduate from Knoxville debt-free. Of course, it didn’t hurt that an essay she wrote on HBCUs won $25,000—$20,000 for Knoxville and $5,000 for herself.

While in Cameroon in 2004, she recognized that family helping family meant more than just blood relatives. While visiting a hospital, she saw the scarcity and expense of resources there. She started her own charity, Regional Hospitals in Africa, to help connect generous Americans with hospitals and orphanages in Cameroon.

This fall Pat began attending graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania studying the leadership of non-governmental agencies (NGOs). After completing her master’s and getting more hands-on U.S. experience, she hopes to work for the UN in western Africa. Pat believes that as a native African, her experience has both enriched and been enriched by that of her African American fellow students at Knoxville. As she said in her prize-winning essay, the diversity of students’ backgrounds allows them “to learn from each others’ cultures firsthand . . . When I graduate, I will be ready for any global economy, thanks to an HBCU that honored my dreams and my work.”

Honoring the dreams of a new generation of students is part of what our gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering support, allowing those students to discover their gifts and find ways to return them to their communities. Another part is keeping faith with those families who have shared their gifts with the church when they encounter unexpected needs. Thanks to your past gifts to the Offering, both those ministries remain strong. Please give generously that they may grow even stronger.

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