Healing Hands International: when hope takes over
Chris Pepple |
Randy Steger
A Lipscomb University marketing professor hoped to teach his class how to use their talents to help those in need. Twenty Lipscomb students hoped to make a difference. Hundreds of donors hoped to help the cause. When hope took over, a small class project grew to become Healing hands International (HHI), an international nonprofit humanitarian relief organization that touches thousands of people’s lives every year.
In 1991, Randy Steger, professor of business administration, asked his Marketing Management students to consider marketing a relief program for their class project. The class agreed and decided to market the needs of children’s hospitals in the former Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations. The students first researched the needs and presented them to hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies and other potential donors by organizing in-person informational presentations, designing brochures and creating videos.
“I recall the first day of our marketing class when Dr. Steger let us know that we had a choice of two different projects to take on,” states Craig Chumley, a 1993 Lipscomb graduate with a major in psychology and minors in marketing and management. “The first opportunity he talked about was a business related project for a local Nashville firm as I recall. The second opportunity he discussed was one that pulled on all of our hearts. We were asked to consider providing medical supplies to orphanages in the Ukraine. We were 100% in favor of taking on the medical supply project. Everyone in our class was a senior and I think we all wanted to make a real impact in the world. We had no idea that our class project would become what today is Healing Hands International. It’s amazing to see how God has taken a class project and turned it into a ministry that has blessed so many.”
Chumley served as the student “mouth-piece” for the project which meant his role was to take on speaking engagements for the project. “I spent most Sunday’s speaking to various adult classes throughout the local Nashville church community. The most memorable speaking engagement was presenting our project to our student body during chapel. What made the event so memorable was the overwhelming involvement across the student body. We had received so many medical supplies throughout the first couple months of the semester that we had filled up all of our temporary storage areas and needed to move all the supplies to more permanent storage facilities on campus. After the presentation every member of the student body took the time to walk up to the stage, grab a box of medical supplies and walk it across campus to the new storage area. Everybody lent a helping hand that day,” Chumley adds.
Many people across the nation still lend a hand to make this organization a means of bringing hope to people around the world. Along with continuing his responsibilities at Lipscomb University, Steger currently serves as the president and chairman of the board for HHI. He comments, “Because of the talents of the people who work for us and the generosity of the people who support our organization, we are able to send healthcare assistance to over 60 countries, provide emergency food and relief supplies for international disasters, help bring clean water to the world through a water well drilling program and offer agricultural and educational programs designed to teach communities how to become self-sufficient.”
Many Lipscomb University alumni assist HHI with various projects. Kent Birdwell graduated from Lipscomb in 1999 with a double major in finance/economics and management. He received his MBA from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). His took on his first project with the organization in 2005. “I volunteered to help conduct a feasibility study of building a factory to produce a vitamin fortified infant formula substitute. HHI oversaw the construction of a food processing plant to feed orphans ages 3 and up. Our goal was to complement with a milk-based formula for infants under 3,” Kent Birdwell states. “With my studies in Africa and my investment/economic background of global trade and regional economic conditions, I also offer advice to HHI on how to help African missionaries become self-sustainable as well as locate investment opportunities that have spiritual and monetary returns that circulate in local environments. Our latest observation is the need of structuring an organized co-op and micro-credit program to assist local farmers in tying them into new market opportunities in Zambia. Our goal is to help them compete against larger players and import markets.”
Jake Birdwell in India after the tsunami
Kent’s brother, Jake Birdwell, a 2000 Lipscomb graduate with a double major in finance/economics and marketing, also took on his first project with HHI in 2005. “I was part of a five-member team conducting a three-week financial assessment of the damages from the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka and India. My duties vary with other projects. I am excited to be launching my third project with HHI since 2005.”
David Goolsby, a 1966 Lipscomb graduate who majored in Bible and world history, works with HHI as the director of international agricultural development and relief. Part of his responsibilities include designing workshops and vocational education to teach community leaders around the world how to help fight the devastating hunger overwhelming many areas. He teaches communities to work together to build an efficient and lasting agricultural economy to provide for their own needs by practicing simple sustainable technologies. This collective effort among local community members and volunteers fosters both economic and spiritual development.
One method for successful agricultural development Goolsby passes on in his training programs involves a drip irrigation system using simple materials easy to provide to communities around the world. HHI has introduced survival garden training to at least five countries. After the first ten preacher-farmers went through the training in 1999 and the first fruits of this method became evident by early 2000, a nationwide interest in drip irrigation grew all across Ethiopia. As a result of drip irrigation and survival garden training, families are now able to provide more than enough food to sustain them and to share amongst their communities. Thousands of people have started to use this method of gardening in Ethiopia and in several other neighboring and regional African countries, as well.
Don Yelton, director of White’s Ferry Road Relief Ministries in West Monroe, La., served as an advisor to the marketing class beginning the project and currently serves on the board of directors for HHI. “When I heard of the original class plans,” he states, “I had immediate hope that the class project would grow. The need was there and the desire to address that need was there. The class worked on the principle that we should care about people as Jesus did, have compassion for people in need. The real need, though, is spiritual. HHI puts the physical and spiritual needs together as Jesus did when he was on earth.
“When you speak of Healing Hands International, the word is development. It is a building process—building relationships with others in the humanitarian relief effort, building relationships with missionaries and churches around the world, building relationships in communities in over 60 countries. God is honored and glorified through the process. It is life-changing for all involved.”
When hope took over, a small idea spoken by one professor blossomed into a thriving international nonprofit humanitarian relief organization that touches thousands of lives every year. The projects sponsored by HHI are extensive and go beyond what words can easily describe. Everyone involved from the beginning class through the present staff and volunteers have had hope and live out their hope through their planning and service to others. Daily that hope touches people around the world.