The Journey of World Servants

Our story begins in 1986 when, Jack Larson, who at that time was the Caribbean Director of Youth for Christ's "Project Serve", had a vision for a new kind of short-term mission trip. He envisioned churches mobilizing entire mission teams, rather than individuals from around the country making up the team.  His experiences proved to him that short-term mission teams were making a significant impact on impoverished communities in foreign countries, and he began to visualize the impact those teams could also have in their own churches and communities as a result of their service.

Jack believed that if the people of a particular church would invest in a mission trip together - preparing together, going and serving together, being challenged together, and coming home to the same community together - something radical would happen.  The mission trip, experienced by some, would inspire others.  It would have the potential to further unify a congregation, increase their value of and commitment to serving, broaden worldviews, increase support of long-term missionaries and so on.  He also believed that through this approach to missions, participants themselves would have the support system needed to integrate the learnings from their experience into their lifestyle.  This vision, to see the "mission" of short-term teams broadened, as Christians seek to further the Kingdom of God, birthed World Servants.

The first mission trips were facilitated in the summer of 1986 with 200 Senior High students passionately serving in the Dominican Republic.  That year four churches were built and children's ministry was provided in multiple communities.  By the next summer teams were going to Belize, Mexico, Jamaica and a Native American Reservation in the United States.

There was so much momentum from these teams that a gentleman from the Netherlands, Joop van der Meer, recruited Europeans to participate on the U.S. teams.  In 1988, Joop founded World Servants Europe and became its Director.  Over time, an international mission statement, core values, doctrinal statement, and philosophy were established to guide the two organizations.  The established structure formed a foundation, allowing both organizations to develop their ministries individually.

Beginning in the early 1990's, God paved the way for several unique partnership opportunities.  Although World Servants, Inc. is an independent, non-denominational organization, the opportunity arose to partner with American Baptist, Missouri Synod Lutheran, and Christian Missionary Alliance churches.  Since then other partnerships have included Compassion International, Life Touch Photography, World Vision, and various Christian radio stations around the country.  Later, partnership opportunities expanded to include for-profit businesses; enabling employees to participate in a mission experience in order to raise awareness of poverty, increase commitment to community service and build employee morale.

This continual expanse of ministry fostered the evolution of two distinct elements of ministry for World Servants: training and mission experiences.  Both revolve around our desire to develop people as both servants and leaders.  Through our trainings, the concept of leadership mobilization became a working reality.  Our Cross-Cultural Orientation was developed to train participants in cultural sensitivity and to simulate experiences they will encounter once they enter a community.  We also recognized a need to utilize a base of volunteers to lead our growing mission teams and the creation of Mission Leader Training began.  Third was the concept that leadership mobilization along with the values of serving others extends beyond the mission field to many places of business.  Today a variety of curriculums are now used both domestically and abroad in the form of seminars, forums and academic courses.

Our mission experiences have seen significant growth and change over time. We now offer various types of trips to our participants.  Over the years our participant base evolved from youth only trips to include adult only, intergenerational and family style trips.  We are especially thrilled to be forerunners in cross-cultural experiences specifically formatted for families.

The early years of the new millennium halted our growth cycle due to the terrorist attacks of September 11.  World Servants and many other non-profit organizations suffered a lack of participation and financial support in the aftermath.  Just as we began to gain momentum again, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast in August of 2005.  As was necessary, American's generously focused their financial resources on relief work and rebuilding in affected areas.  Many churches responded to the massive need by sending teams into the Gulf on a regular basis.  We were also fortunate to establish two partner communities in the Gulf and sent over 500 participants to New Orleans and Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2006.  Our commitment to these devastated communities is to partner for five to ten years as they continue to rebuild.

In the past 20 years World Servants, Inc. has mobilized more than 40,000 people who have served in over 50 individual communities globally.  We now have four international country offices, which include: the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and the Dominican Republic.  In addition to these, an office in Brazil is currently in its development stages in hopes to be established by the end of 2007.

                Serving changes everything. Lead the way.