Burt and Patty Forney

Our first experience with Third-World poverty hit us like a brick wall in 1985, when we witnessed firsthand the horrors of post-war Uganda—starving bodies, empty-eyed orphans, bombed-out buildings—while we were there as part of a ministry called Agape Force. We would never take the blessings of life in America for granted again.

We actually got engaged on that very trip and have raised our three daughters in Texas, but we never forgot the suffering we had seen.

We first learned of Heaven’s Family through staff members, Bob and Carole Collins, and when David Servant spoke at our church. Patty traveled with Carole to India and China to visit those afflicted with leprosy, and was then asked to consider taking over the directorship of the Victims of Sexual Violence Ministry, which she did for 3.5 years. When invited to take on the Human Trafficking and Slavery Ministry, Burt came on staff and they now direct both ministries together.

Though we know we cannot alleviate all of the suffering in this world, we are grateful that, as directors of Victims of Sexual Violence Ministry and the Human Trafficking and Slavery Ministry, we can have a part in making a difference for many who have suffered the emotional, spiritual, and sometimes physical scars of sexual violence and human trafficking.