I Didn't Build This Alone. So I Won't Keep It to Myself.

I grew up in a nation where food was always a challenge. Some days we ate twice. Some days we didn’t eat at all.

My mom died when I was 8. My dad left to find work on another island so he could support the four of us he left behind — me, my younger brother, and my two older sisters. My second-oldest sister quit high school so I could keep going to mine.

I didn’t get my first pair of shoes until 6th grade. Before that, broken flip-flops, or barefoot. My grandma would cut pencils into three pieces so my cousins and I could each have something to write with.

I failed my grades while my sisters brought home awards. I felt useless. Hopeless. So I drank — tuba, coconut wine — with my friends, and it became an addiction.

Then my friends and my sisters told me about Jesus. I remember our neighbor bringing us “poorage” — rice stretched thin with water and a few pieces of chicken — and telling me, every time, that God is love.

I surrendered my life to God, and he changed it. He took the alcoholism away and showed me there was hope. I became a pastor. I joined a missionary movement called Youth With A Mission (YWAM) — and that’s where I met my wife, Emily.

Today, Emily and I — along with our friends — feed 3,500 kids a month. We give them school supplies and share the hope of Jesus with them. I look at every one of those kids and see myself at their age. Our nonprofit, Kingdom Legacy Ministries, is still growing.

I also run Instant Web Tools, a web development company — and ten percent of every dollar we make goes straight to help those kids.