The Beginning of it all

This journey of mine started about 2 years ago. The KidzZone ministry supports several Compassion children and I wanted our congregation to get involved more broadly. I knew we had several families supporting Compassion children. So why not foster a partnership between our church and Compassion International? A trip to Colorado Springs to visit Compassion International's headquarters with the church's lead ministry team began the process of strategically developing a partnership with Compassion. The next question was how would this partnership look? We prayerfully decided to focus on two countries- Haiti and Togo. Haiti because the need is so great with it being the poorest country in the western hemisphere and so close to the United States. And Togo because we had the privilege of helping fund the first ever translation of the Bible for the Moba people of Togo, west Africa. Things have been moving at break-neck speed ever since. And maybe that's why I am trying to discern ALL that God has in store for me personally and for the congregation of Faith.

My first trip to Haiti came last October as a part of a Compassion Vision trip and we decided to explore another ministry that is working in Haiti to see if that would be another ministry we could work with on the ground in Haiti.

Let me frame Faith's vision for making a difference in the country of Haiti. By the grace of God we feel called make a difference in Haiti by saving babies, serving orphans, feeding and clothing children, making sure kids get an education, strengthening churches, developing leaders and sharing the gospel. By partnering with Compassion we fund a lot of these types of programs, but that doesn't give us a way to send people to Haiti. So in seeking out another partner, we were looking for the right fit with our vision and having the ability to send our people to serve in Haiti.

During our visit to Port-au-Prince I had the opportunity to meet the girl that my family sponsors. The bonus was meeting her mother and grandmother. We had a lot of fun as we spent an afternoon hanging out together playing games, talking (through a translator) and going for a walk.

Upon returning from Haiti, we were planning to send a team to Haiti during Spring Break and then on January 12th, the world changed in Haiti with a 7.2 earthquake. Life in Haiti went from bad to horrific...