Since the start of Summit Church, we have wanted to be a community that is known for how we love and serve others. We didn’t want to have service as an afterthought, or just the grateful result of success in other areas. We wanted it to be core to who we are. That is why 15% of the church budget has always gone to serve others, and why we took a mission trip in the very first year of our existence.
We have also felt a call to be specific and focused in how and where we serve in missions. In 2006, we came to the clear conclusion that God was calling us to partner significantly in stopping the AIDS pandemic in Africa. How we got there is a winding story, the summation of which is this: God gave Isaac and me very clear direction in how Summit can be part of turning the tide in a pandemic that has no hope outside of Jesus Christ working through his church.
For me, God used the personal experience of adoption to break through the crust and let me see that He is powerfully at work on a continent where there is desperate need. For Isaac, God used the television show ER (of all things), and an experience at the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church to convince him to personally engage in Africa.
From that conference, Isaac decided to do the following things: Pray, Get Educated, and Go. He immediately began working through that plan. When the strategy for Africa moved from a deeply personal experience for Isaac and me to a whole church movement, we decided as a community to together Pray, Get Educated, and Go.
As we walk through this, we hope to form strong partnerships with existing ministries in Africa where we can unite together as individuals and organizations to put a stop to the worst humanitarian crisis in the history of the world. God has always been on the side of the poor and needy. As His hands and feet, it is our honor to take our place in history and join the work he has already started in Africa.
John Parker, Executive Pastor
