Just five months into their new roles as on-site coordinators of Alabama Baptists’ partnership with Jacmel, Haiti, Tommy and Joy Schwindling know the work being done is making a difference.
“Alabama Baptists are ministering in Jacmel, and you can see God’s hand at work every day,” Tommy Schwindling said.
The Schwindlings, who quit their jobs, sold their home and moved to Haiti to live out a missions call they have had since a trip to Africa in 2009, have two responsibilities in Jacmel.
First they serve as the point people for missions teams coming to Jacmel to work.
Second they co-direct Children’s Hope Orphanage, a ministry of First Baptist Church, Montgomery, their home church.
When teams arrive in Haiti, the couple arrange for transportation, translators and meals.
They also oversee the Alabama House, a home rented by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) to house volunteers.
But serving in earthquake-damaged Haiti is no picnic. “Haiti is a Third World country. It’s not always easy here,” Tommy Schwindling said. “We’ve had challenges but the Lord always puts people in our path that we need at that time.”
Joy Schwindling added, “Our relationships with the Haitian people are the most important tools we have for sharing the Word of God.”
Scotty Goldman, an associate in the SBOM office of global missions, said, “They are essential to Alabama Baptists’ ministry partnership with Jacmel. Plus Tommy is a Mr. Fixit who can do most anything.”
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