Author Archive

GoServ Global Needs Your Help

December 12, 2019
Blog

GoServ Global needs your help as we end 2019. Currently, we are 20% toward our year-end goal of $600,000. Your year-end gift TODAY will allow us to continue serving children, widows and families in great need around the world.

 

If you have given to GoServ Global on Giving Tuesday or have already provided a year-end gift, we sincerely thank you for your continued support! We invite you to pray with us that others would be moved to come alongside all of us in this ministry.

 

If you have not yet given, there is much to be done and we need your help. Please consider a one-time gift today or sign up to be a monthly giver.

 

Become a MONTHLY DONOR

Sign up for an automatic gift through your debit or credit card at goservglobal.org/give.

 

Give a ONE TIME GIFT

Your one-time donation will help us continue to transform lives around the world.

 

MAIL IN Your Donation

GoServ Global

PO Box 193

Eagle Grove, Iowa 50533

 

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Haiti Crisis Update

October 21, 2019
Blog

Thank you to everyone who has given toward the Haiti crisis and also those who continue to pray. Unfortunately, the protests and demonstrations continue in Haiti. The road between Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes remains cut off with very little if any traffic getting through. This adds to the lack of food and other needed supplies.  We have looked at getting bigger planes into Les Cayes to deliver more food, but that hasn’t worked out. I might take another load down in the plane, but it doesn’t last very long.

We plan to ship a container of food on Wednesday and will pray that a quick door will open to get it through to the children at our orphanages. Although the food and supplies have been donated for the container, $15,000 is needed to cover the shipping for the container of food.

WE NEED YOUR HELP. To donate, click https://goservglobal.org/give/. Choose “Haiti Projects” in the dropdown, check “Additional Instructions” and write “Haiti Crisis”.

As of now our kids seem to be safe, but we need to continue to pray for this and for the ability to get food in. Thank you for your ongoing support.

–Ken DeYoung, GoServ Global Co-Founder

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Ambassador Spotlight: Ashley Smeby, Haiti

September 3, 2019
Ambassadors
Before traveling to Haiti, a family friend who had gone before told me I shouldn’t go unless I was prepared to have my entire previous way of thinking washed down the drain, and there is really no better way to explain it. I’m not sure there is a day that goes by where I don’t find myself thinking of the beautiful faces of the kids I’ve met in Haiti.
I think the biggest way that my mission trips have changed my life is opening my eyes and heart outside of my comfort bubble. Going on a mission trip to Haiti opened my eyes to poverty, and got me thinking about how I could help during the time when I was back in the States. After serving in Haiti in 2017, I saw the leather earring trend, and I have always been creative so I decided to make a few pairs for myself. I posted them on social media and they were a hit! I decided that this could be the opportunity to market them as “Handmade for Haiti” and this project would allow me to share the story of GoServ Global while also raising funds for projects in Haiti.
You can purchase my earrings on Etsy & follow me on facebook: @HandmadeforHaiti.
My Life
I live in Ames and work for an agricultural cooperative as a Grain Marketing Advisor and also makes T-shirt quilts through Custom Quilts by Ashley.
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Ambassador Spotlight: Sheila Willms, India

September 3, 2019
Ambassadors
My husband Rob and I have had a heart for missions for many years. Looking back, God was prompting us to get involved beyond just financial support, but we had no idea several years ago that He would lead us half way around the world to India. I guess His purpose for us was bigger than we could have ever imagined.
I previously taught at Waldorf University with Dr. Kristen Berg (GoServ Global India director), training pre-service teachers. When Kristen returned from taking some University students to India in 2016, she told me about Kuni (principal at Emmanuel School) who had been in prayer about someone coming to train her teachers. This small seed was planted, but I readily dismissed it for so many reasons. One of the main reasons is that I have a communication disorder called Spasmodic Dysphonia, or SD. My disability can sometimes be a barrier with communication, and I thought maybe someone else would be better equipped to fulfill God’s plan.
Despite my “foot dragging,” God began to send me many messages through various people and events that made it clear that He wanted me to travel to India with Dr. Berg.
My husband Rob and I were led to support two young women at Emmanuel School. One of them, Pannina, is now in college (equivalent to our grades 11 & 12). She and another girl, Amni, walk down the long dirt road each morning to catch a taxi and attend college. I was able to walk that road with them this last December and speak with them about their educational aspirations and hopes. They are able to stay at Emmanuel School, receiving room and board and continuing their education because of sponsorships through GoServ Global. Another girl, Tappaswini had given me a note as I was leaving from my first trip. Because of her note, Rob and I were led to support her also. We are in prayer for her education, and most of all for her faith in Jesus.
On my first trip to India, the children and people that I met continually asked that I remember and pray for them. Many of them wrote their names in my journal. I printed off all of the girls pictures from the GoServ Global site in order to memorize their names. God reminded me that what they desired most was to be known. I knew it could be challenging as faces and hairstyles change but when I stepped foot into their dormitory unannounced and began calling the girls by name, I could see just how much it meant to each of them. Pannina, who had urged me to learn as many names as possible in 2017, had tears in her eyes and exclaimed, “You remember us!”
I’m thankful for GoServ Global, as this organization provided the scaffold that allowed me to meet people around the globe and move beyond my comfort zone! These experiences have truly changed my life and grown my faith in ways that I could not have imagined!
My Life
Rob and Sheila farm and raise purebred Angus cattle near Crystal Lake, Iowa. Rob recently retired from 33 years of banking and Sheila recently retired from Waldorf University. They have 2 children and 9 grandchildren, one of which was adopted from China.
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Domestic Fundraising Update

July 23, 2019
Blog
God has blessed GoServ Global with the opportunity to share our story at 8 events with attendance of 3 million people in the next 2 months. However, we are in need of some resources to make this happen. We need $20,000 very quickly to pull off these events productively. We have already raised $8,750, so the remaining need is $11,000.
We have seen how God powerfully uses these events in the past. One example – our Birthing Center in Haiti is a direct result of a conversation with an attendee at a promotional event.
Here are our needs:
Camper
Our staff will be spending a considerable amount of time on the road including 3 weeks in MN. The purchase of a camper will save GoServ more than $4000 in hotel costs just for the remainder of this season. The camper will also be used at domestic disaster sites in the future.
Heavy duty truck and utility/tool bed
Recently GoServ was blessed to purchase a 2005 Ford F550 cab and chassis at a reduced price. This truck will be used as a service truck and to pull trailers to promotional events and disaster sites. The utility/tool bed will provide a secure yet assessable place for tools at promotion events and disaster sites.
We need to raise these funds in the next 2 weeks. Would you help GoServ take advantage of sharing God’s story over the next 10 weeks and be prepared and more effective for the next natural disaster?
Give today – https://goservglobal.org/give/ & Choose “Domestic Disaster Relief” in the dropdown.
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God’s Ripples

July 18, 2019
Blog

How big are the ripples your life makes?

I have thought a lot about ripples before coming to Haiti. Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works, and glorify the Father who is in heaven”. And I saw today the true embodiment of people creating ripples that in turn create ripples. And those people have yielded their life, no they have abandoned their desires for God’s will, and ripples are the natural outflowing of that attitude.

A young boy is in an orphanage – a pretty common occurrence here. The difference is that someone in that orphanage took an interest in that boy and put a crazy notion in his head. A notion that God loved and valued him and could use him if he abandoned his will for God’s.

And that boy grew up, got married, and started an orphanage of his own. A place where little girls could learn that same crazy notion for themselves. And as they did God used them and the ripples multiplied.

And one of those little girls grew up to be a young woman who now has a singular desire for her life – to be someone who puts the same crazy notion in people’s heads – so God can change them – and so God can use them to create more ripples.

The man is Eddie Constant – the director of the Consolation Center in Haiti. The young woman, pictured below on the right, is Charline. A young woman who has planned and is running VBS for 250+ children at her orphanage. So that those children can hear about that crazy notion.

And I wonder about ripples.

How big are the ripples your life makes?

–Gene Petersen, GoServ Global Board Member

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Ambassador Spotlight: Jim Loonan, Domestic

July 5, 2019
Ambassadors
I was first introduced to GoServ Global at a mini home show in Colfax, Iowa in the fall of 2017. GoServ had a Sukup Safe T Home® set up, so I started asking questions and took some information.
When I retired in January of 2018, I contacted Paul at GoServ Global to tell him I was interested in doing some volunteer work, so he invited me in for an interview. During our discussion the topic of safety came up since my former job was a safety coordinator. By the end of my visit I had become the “Safety Director”of GoServ Global.
While I was there, we also did an online chat with Dennis Anderson, who was in Dallas working on some flooded-out houses. It was determined that it would be a good idea for me to go to Dallas to see how the Disaster Relief group operated.
Joel and Linda Zwiefel were planning a trip down there in February so they were kind enough to provide me with transportation there and back. I was in my element when I was able to construct a built-in cabinet in one of the houses.
Back home, I was able to assist Dennis constructing (and tearing down) a few Safe T Homes® for different shows in Iowa.
Then came the floods of Iowa in July 2018. Working with Dennis and different crews, we helped move appliances and other things from flooded basements.
We finally landed at a house in Des Moines that had 36 inches of water on their main floor. With the help of various crews, we gutted most of the house and started insulating and dry walling. My wife Juanita and I made many trips there to work on various aspects of the reconstruction. It finally reached a point where the family could see the light at the end of the tunnel and took over the project themselves.
At one of our visits to the house, (the wife) Yolanda asked my wife and I how she could ever repay us. We told her to just “Pay it forward” when they were back on their feet. At Christmas this past year, they did just that. Instead of buying presents for themselves, they bought presents for people less fortunate.
Also, during the time of the floods, the tornadoes hit central Iowa. GoServ Global to the rescue. My wife and I spent a few days assisting this very professional group of volunteers clearing trees from the streets and from houses.
I will try to assist GoServ Global whenever possible. I would like to get involved with the construction of a Safe T Home® out of country sometime. My wife and I are already involved with mission work through our local church. In fact we will be going back to Africa for the third time this summer and back to Red Bird Mission in Kentucky for the third time.
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