Today I finally reached my first original destination, the small village of Malapa, accessible only via a 30-minute ride in a motorized canoe down the Ngoko River. As our canoe approached Malapa’s riverbank, its citizens were singing and dancing in celebration of our arrival. Just a few months ago, Heaven’s Family’s Safe Water Ministry funded the drilling of a well and installation of a durable hand pump. Before that, the villagers had no option but to drink the muddy, contaminated water of the Ngoko River.

A major part of the vision of Heaven’s Family is not only to serve the “least of these,” but to serve those who want to serve the “least of these.” The value we try to provide to our donors is to give them an efficient, trustworthy means to invest their hard-earned dollars for the benefit of the world’s poorest people, and particularly the poorest among our spiritual family, and to expand Jesus’ kingdom. We do for our investors what most of them would have a very difficult time doing themselves, and we do it for much less money than they could do it themselves. But it isn’t easy or cheap for us, either.