Janeen Aspden
I was born and raised in a Christian family in North East, PA. We were involved in the church and I spent a lot of time in Sunday school, children's church, and women's groups with my mom. When I was in high school, I started teaching Sunday school and children’s church. I have always enjoyed serving in different ministries, but never felt like I was exactly where God wanted me to be.
In February 2014 I had the opportunity to travel with Grace Church to Cap-Haitien, Haiti for a short term mission trip. We spent 9 days on the OMS compound learning about their ministries and also working with our partner church, Grace en Sion, and the Grace en Sion School which is a Starfish Kids sponsored school. Starfish Kids is a child evangelism ministry that uses sponsorship and education to share the Gospel with children in northern Haiti. On that trip, I spent an afternoon in the Starfish Kids office organizing paper work. My heart broke seeing all those names and faces of children who were waiting for a sponsor to help them go to school. I had an overwhelming desire to stay in Haiti. I finally knew what direction God wanted me to take in life.
One year later, I quit my job in the customer service department of a bank to spend 10 weeks in Haiti working with Starfish Kids. I was able to form relationships with students, teachers, and pastors of the sponsored schools. I witnessed God’s powerful work through the Starfish Kids Program to transform not only the children’s lives, but the lives of their families. God used this trip to confirm this is where he wants me to serve during the next season of my life.
I will be serving in Cap-Haitien, Haiti as the In-country Administrator with Starfish Kids, a ministry of One Mission Society. My duties will include assisting the office staff in Haiti and communicating with the program coordinator in the US as well as helping in any other areas I am needed. We have plans to expand the Starfish Kids program in the future and I pray God will use me to help this program succeed. I am also excited to work more closely with Grace en Sion Church and School. I love our partnership and I can’t wait to watch it grow.
I realize the tremendous need for prayer in a ministry like this. Join me in asking the Lord to:
- use me to communicate Christ effectively
- make the hearts of the people of Haiti receptive to Christ
- maintain my physical, mental, and spiritual well-being
- raise my support
- successfully accomplish my preparation and logistics before school starts next year
- maintaining my efforts to learn Creole to break language barriers