In December 2019 we started the Starr Scholarship Fund. This scholarship fund will help supplement the cost of counseling for pastors and missionaries who are unable to afford counseling. The Starr Scholarship Fund is named in honor of Bill and Cindy Starr, friends of CBL whose dream of counseling ministers of the gospel around the world has been put on hold due to cancer.

Bill and Cindy Starr’s Story

The Lord convicted the Starrs that they should simplify their lives and commit more of their resources to supporting gospel work in areas of the world where it is very limited and difficult. They believed the Lord wanted them to retire early and spend half of their time overseas supporting young missionary families. In order to prepare well they moved to Louisville, KY to attend Southern Seminary and study biblical counseling. After Bill’s first semester of classes in 2015, they went to Athens, Greece for six weeks and worked alongside a family who serves Persian refugees. Through this, the Starrs believed the Lord had confirmed the plans that he had laid on their heart. They began to schedule other short term trips and worked hard to finish Bill’s counseling degree. A few months later, however, Bill was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. He immediately began chemotherapy and had a stem cell transplant. One of the side effects of the transplant was that he lost the immunity he had to regular childhood diseases, so travel outside of the United States became unwise.

Through it all, the Starrs continued to trust the Lord with the desires of their heart as they served their local church, did some counseling, and mentored young families. And they waited. During this time, Tom and Robyn Scott approached Bill and Cindy about helping launch The Center for Biblical Living. The Starrs were thrilled with this opportunity and jumped into planning, administration, and counseling for CBL. However, in the midst of this busy season the Lord allowed Bill’s cancer to become active again. The Starrs had planned several trips for 2019 since Bill was now re-immunized but the relapse meant that he had to go back into aggressive treatment and have a second stem cell transplant in March of 2019. Bill is currently back in remission but will continue to receive chemotherapy for the next two years, at a minimum.

Bill recently told CBL: “During all of this the Lord has remained faithful. He has never removed from Cindy or me the desire to serve missionary/ministry families. What he has done is broaden for us the scope of how that could happen and he used CBL to confirm his hand as we continue to walk by faith and strive to live in obedience to him and for his glory.”

Give Today