When Dan Visser was a child in 1984, he vividly remembers watching a World Vision television special that showed starving children during the Ethiopian famine. His parents, Barney and Carolyn, were entrepreneurs of Furniture Row Cos., and they had been raising their children in a household that honored quiet, faithful generosity in the model of Jesus.

So when he saw the suffering on the screen before him, he had a single question. Dan recalls, “I think I leaned over to my dad, and I said, ‘Dad what are we going to do to help?’” In response, Barney and Carolyn made their initial gift to World Vision in 1984 to help people impacted by the Ethiopian famine, and it started a lifelong journey of generosity with us for the entire Visser family.

Many of Dan's siblings—Jodi, Chad, Tim, Ashley, Michael, and Mark—have seen the ministry of World Vision firsthand and invested deeply over the years. Like his parents and siblings, Dan has been finding his own way of generosity alongside his wife, Ashley, as they now guide the next generation. “I feel like when I’m giving to World Vision, it is like giving to Jesus,” says Dan, who today serves as president of Denver Mattress Co/Furniture Row.

Helping others has been a key part of Dan and Ashley’s marriage from the beginning. Shortly after their wedding, they traveled to Viet Nam with World Vision to see clean water work. Ashley remembers the joy the community experienced now that they wouldn’t have to walk miles for water anymore and one little girl in particular who approached her with the biggest hug.

“She was so excited just to turn on the faucet,” Ashley says. “Her face would light up, and that was before I had kids, so it was me connecting with her as a young 20-something at the time. It was just really impactful, and it made me realize it’s so easy to help. It’s the simplest thing to us, but to them it’s life-changing.”

As they grew their own family, they wanted to also grow their giving impact. While they traveled, they saw health clinics without water, and consequently, also saw women—in labor—walking to those clinics carrying their own water they had gathered so they could clean themselves and their child after delivery.

Now with seven children ranging from newborn twins to 14, they were moved to give to maternal and child health initiatives. “Having amazing healthcare in the States, God put it on my heart to want to help women in countries where they don’t have that—there’s not even fresh water,” Ashley says. “It was so personal because we have seven healthy kids, and I can’t imagine giving birth without the things we have here.”

The Vissers are motivated to continue giving because of their faith and, like their own parents did, wanting to instill their values into their children by modeling what Jesus would do. “Our faith guides everything in our lives—how we parent our children, how we live our daily lives, and also how we give,” Ashley says. “One of the biggest things is making sure they do know how incredibly blessed they are to live here and that they need to pass that on, and they need to continue to give, so we just try to model that and hope that they’ll grow into adults and continue to give and help and continue God’s work throughout the world.”

As their involvement with World Vision has grown through the years, they’ve also been in awe of how God orchestrates the work, and that inspires them. “God puts it all together for us when we have something we want to do, and things line up perfectly, but God puts it all in place,” Dan says. “Being involved so early and seeing the kids at the Ethiopian famine, you know, I feel like it’s been laid on me at that time to continue to help for the rest of my life. I think God wants me to help.”

Watch their story here: 

We invite you to explore the stories of 6 Philanthropists who are partnering with World Vision to empower families to overcome poverty.