Guiding Principles

We have nine Guiding Principles:

Partners, not Recipients

We view nationals in each area as partners in our endeavors, not merely recipients. While we reserve the right to direct our energies and resources as we believe God directs, we enter each ministry field as servants – not dictators. We seek, and highly value, the perspectives and direction of the people in each community where we minister.

Community Ownership

Once a project is completed, we seek to quickly relinquish control and ownership to responsible persons or organizations in the community.

Orchestration

We make the work of others matter more. We identify others who have already developed valuable skills, knowledge and competencies and introduce them to communities with great need. Often, these individuals and organizations are like individual musicians that are glorifying God, but when brought together with others playing different instruments, the result is a symphony that could not otherwise be played.

Self-sustaining

We give priority to projects that are self-sustaining. While we are certainly willing to offer temporary assistance in areas of dire need, we always seek to minister to people in ways that empower them to meet their own future needs rather than cultivate an environment of perpetual dependency.

No Strings Attached

While we desire everyone to have a relationship with Christ, we guard against offering help in ways that would encourage superficial or constrained faith commitments.

Unapologetic Faith

While we purposely refrain from offering temporal inducements for faith commitments, our personal commitment to Christ is public and unapologetic. We will not participate in projects that demand or constrain us to deny or hide our faith.

Stewardship

We seek to be good stewards of any assets entrusted to us and generally give precedence to those activities that will bring the most significant return on investment for the communities we serve.

Credit to God

We acknowledge that every good and perfect gift comes from God and seek to give Him the glory for anything we accomplish. This does not mean we refuse to give credit to whom credit is due, but our mindset in each endeavor will be to deflect praise and honor towards our Heavenly Father.

Responsibility

We accept the responsibility that being a faith-based organization implies. We expect persons associated with our ministry to conduct themselves within biblical parameters of integrity, ethical conduct, moral responsibility, and spiritual faithfulness. While we always seek to function in an atmosphere of grace and restoration, personnel accept that certain behaviors or attitudes may disqualify them from service.