Lyné and Pat are members of World Vision's National Leadership Council. This is their story.

When Lyné Brown and her husband Pat Williams joined high school students from their California church, on a mission trip to a Navajo reservation in Black Mesa Arizona, God used the opportunity to draw the couple into His love for the world. Pat and Lyné prepared their hearts for the trip by reading Rich Stearns’ The Hole in Our Gospel.

April and Kevin are members of World Vision's National Leadership Council. This is their story.

April and Kevin Sproles, now raising two preschool-aged daughters, were just twenty-five and twenty-six years old when they traveled with World Vision to Ethiopia for a Vision Trip in 2008. But God had been preparing their hearts—since long before they met each other!—to impact a world in need.

Essential human rights, liberty, and dignity are being torn from millions of people today. They’re sexually exploited, forced into labor, domestic servitude, and thrown into begging and stealing in an illicit multi-billion-dollar enterprise known as human trafficking.

Every year on July 30, World Vision observes World Day Against Trafficking in Persons by highlighting the importance of protecting vulnerable children and adults from all forms of exploitation and violence.

Every year on July 30, World Vision observes World Day Against Trafficking in Persons by highlighting the importance of protecting vulnerable children and adults from all forms of exploitation and violence.

Nearly 25 million people worldwide are trapped by trafficking, including 5.5 million children. In Guatemala, World Vision is working with parents, pastors, teachers, children, and youth to make trafficking history by ending violence and restoring hope.

World Vision is committed to helping our microfinance institution in Senegal flourish and thrive.  By this we mean that it can grow to the point that it is able to meet the critical needs for financial services in many of the areas of the country where World Vision works, and is able to pay its own costs from revenues it earns from lending.  Right now, VisionFund Senegal is not large enough and does not have enough capital to meet those goals.

World Vision continues to press forward with Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration[i], with a number of exciting developments taking place across the African continent.  This lays the natural resource management foundation for World Vision’s THRIVE program.  World Vision is pushing forward with strategic partnerships, global and regional platforms, developing an evidence base, and pushing ahead with large scale projects. 

Recent record-high temperatures across the USA have put the spotlight on how to cope with the heat. One of God’s best inventions for this is – a TREE!  Trees and agriculture can and do go together, and we bring them together in the THRIVE program through Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR).

In Niger, the encroaching Sahara Desert is a daily challenge for farmers – the wind, sand, dust, soil degradation, water scarcity, and recurring drought make it hard for farmers to provide well for their families.  Restoring and managing trees is proving to be not only a way of growing more crops, but there is a special tree that has the sweet taste of success.

Jen and Eric Wolford are members of World Vision's National Leadership Council. This is their story.

When Eric was growing up in Northern California, his family sponsored a refugee family from Laos, with whom the Wolfords shared meals, holidays, and back-to-school shopping. In Louisiana, his future bride was being raised by educators who worked to make sure all the schools in their town were strong, not just those in their neighborhood.

These early experiences were deeply formative for both Eric and Jen.

Sandy and Bob Hoover are members of World Vision's National Leadership Council. This is their story.

“So what do you want to do now that Bob has retired?”

Bob and Sandy Hoover were meeting with their financial advisor, National Leadership Council member David Hillard, when he surprised Sandy with this question.

Without hesitating, Sandy answered, “I want to go to Africa.”

Beth and Dennis Weibling are members of World Vision's National Leadership Council. This is their story.

Beth Weibling recalls, “When I was in high school I watched my mom, who was an RN, get up at the crack of dawn and drive to one of the worst areas outside of Philadelphia, where she’d give out methadone to the heroin addicts living in the community.” Many of these individuals, Beth’s mother explained to her, were then able to go to work and lead a productive life.