Good Samaritan Ministries

With the Prize funding, I would create international teams to go into the countries that we are in to teach, train and equip indigenous leaders.  My goal is to inform old and new generations of men and women to develop and  modernize the value of women within their own culture, where traditions have marred the joy of what it means to be a woman. We would then employ them in each country to carry on the training when we leave, but continue to support the ongoing work in each country.

My passion is to create working, international teams to address domestic violence, genital mutilation and sexual abuse in the countries we are working in. The internet has opened up new pathways to introduce a whole new generation how to create educational and work opportunities for women, who traditionally have been oppressed by archaic cultural constructs.

Good Samaritan Ministries started in the home of Bettie Mitchell where many people came to her for help and counseling when their lives became unmanageable. As people found healing and help they began to train to "go and do like wise". Many of us who came, began to be trained and then turned around and began providing the same service in our communities.

Good Samaritan Ministries is in the core of my being, I found help and the courage to complete my education to make a difference in the world. Coming from poverty and severe dysfunction myself, I know that it is within us to overcome even the most difficult of circumstances when given the education and empowerment needed with the right support. 

I am deeply concerned about the domestic violence and rape culture of many  of the countries that we are working in. There is a great need for training and mindset changes concerning how woman are valued and how women and  men are acculturated to hold onto traditions that are destructive to the people and the culture as a whole.

Good Samaritan Ministries (GSM) is based on the Biblical story and answers the question "am I my brothers keeper"? We teach and train people to make sacrifices and to live in relation with one another, meeting and loving them exactly where they are in life.

In this way people find their purpose, value and learn to be community healers. GSM provides counseling and education in the communities they are in on a donation basis. We do not turn anyone away regardless of ones ability to pay, in any of the countries where we work. 

People from various countries have come here to learn what we do and have returned home to teach their people to care for one another and be the solution to their own communities problems.

There are over 5,000 children in schools across these countries due to the generous support of people. Countless lives have been changed due to the work of GSM in the countries. The problem remains that as we work closer with the people we are identifying the underlying issues that keep many from moving forward in their lives. Domestic violence is prevalent in almost all the countries we are in.

Good Samaritan thrives on donations from ordinary people, and has trained people to operate utilizing volunteers for over 43 years.

We empower every person to do what we do through counseling, education and transformational understanding of what it means to be human. People learn to volunteer, give financial resources and listen to the stories of those who have been traumatized by life's adverse circumstances.

People learn to be responsible for their neighbor and use what is in their hand to help each other and build community together. We train people to give in ways that creates an interdependence and not to look for outside resources but be the resource that people need.  

In Liberia we listened to the child soldiers pour out their pain as they were  sharing their stories of a 14 year civil war. People began to recognize the healing that came as others cared about what had happened in their lives.

In Rwanda we listened to the widows and the children who survived the genocide, we began to teach them about the value they still have and how their grief has equipped them to care for their neighbors.

As volunteer counselors and teachers we work with individuals to bring healing and help to their lives. As these individuals grow and heal, this profoundly impacts their families and friends. This last year we had over 5,000 counseling sessions in Beaverton alone.

Every country we are operating in has had great success in raising up schools,  counseling centers, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs as well as widow and orphan outreaches.

It is literally impossible to count the number of lives changed and people touched by this organization. We go to these countries, we teach and train indigenious people who have become our friends and create strong relationships of trust. These individuals then return home and continue the positive cycle of training and healing to better serve our neighbors.

We travel to their homes and are treated as family as well as hosting their families when they visit in return. We learn each others ways and rejoice in our differences without needing the other to change anything for us; all while loving people just as they're created, as people.