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| Jake & Danielle Darnell |
I'm currently in grad school at Western Michigan University, getting my Master's degree in International Development Administration (think U.N. or USAID training course). My fellow students are a bunch of people like me who are interested in why societies break down, why they struggle with poverty, corruption, etc., and how they can move in the direction of stability and health. And thankfully, there are a few of us who follow Christ and add the knowledge of economic policy, international relations and development theories to an understanding that this is God's world, a God who is righteous and just and cares deeply for the poor and oppressed. So it shouldn't have been a surprise to me when Danielle Darnell caught me after class one day and said she'd love to talk more about "that organization you keep mentioning".
Danielle and her husband Jake are originally from Saginaw, MI, where they had gotten deeply involved with their church mission program. Excited by the vision of helping orphans and widows internationally, they used their administrative and technical gifts to assist an African community their pastor had connected with. Unfortunately, the program stalled out and when they moved to Kalamazoo to further their education and seek God's will for their lives, they kept their eyes open for a new opportunity. Thankfully, Danielle kept her eyes open in class (not that that would be difficult, Prof. Clements!) and took an opportunity to ask me about OJM.
OJM was just what Jake and Danielle were looking for. They scoured our website, read our Governing Policy and articles, such as The Orphan's Cry, and saw in us a real desire (and a game plan) for fulfilling the orphan justice mandate given by God. They have fully engaged and have been a great addition to our team.
Jake has an incredible technical skill set and has worked in international communications (in Uganda, even) and is working with Danielle to revamp our website. He's also been helping with research on several of our proposals as well as setting up helpful cooperative technologies like video conferencing. Danielle is assisting in various administrative ways, such as grant research, tax issues and most of all program upkeep by standardizing our project protocol and updating notes and staff communications. In the several months they've been with us, they've already made major contributions.
In addition to Jake and Danielle, Mike and Haley Hogoboom are assisting with the PenPal Program and are considering longterm volunteer positions in the area of Remote Care Partner development. Kelly Sanders continues as our Director of Evaluation and Measurement as she works full-time for a non-profit in Washington, D.C., and Ted Manning, now in part-time retirement in Schoolcraft, MI, is assisting us in various ways. I'm thankful to all these individuals, plus our various Remote Care Partner church volunteers for helping us our brothers and sisters around the world care for orphaned and vulnerable children.