Dick Dill — Pastor, Past CWO Board Member, Traveler to Haiti, Short-term Team Member, Advocate for CWO, Teacher for Leadership Development in Haiti, Feeder of Children — reflects on his involvement with CWO over the last 40 years. CWO is grateful for people like Dick who continually help CWO make a difference!

In 1979 I was putting together a short-term mission team for a Project Serve trip to Lima, Peru. The team wasn’t coming together when Dean Yoder, my Youth for Christ Regional Field Director and friend, invited us to join his team headed for Haiti. Having never been out of the country, I thought “why not?” That trip changed my perspective on the world and my life.

It was July 16th when we arrived (my birthday) and 120 degrees on the airport tarmac. The heat percolated the aromas of tar, charcoal and rotting trash. My first reaction was “what have I gotten into?” Then I met the beautiful, gracious and welcoming people of Haiti, who immediately and forever found their way into my heart and life. We worked, we worshipped, we prayed and we experienced God’s great grace together. After our final service at a church where we had done a VBS and painted the interior, a tiny Haitian woman, probably a deaconess, gently but firmly led each member of our team into a small room where they had COLD Coke and some cookies for us. Here we had come to serve and now we were being served!

Over the years, with some breaks, I have returned to Haiti more than 20 times, most recently as part of pastor teaching teams. In that time, my heart was knit to that of Papa Dean, Mama Ellen and their Haitian, African & American families. I was also privileged to serve on the CWO Board for many years. I was inspired by CWO to establish a satellite of Kids Against Hunger, now working with Harvest Pack, to feed starving people in the third world.

I have not met finer, more loving, dedicated people in all my years as a pastor. Christian World Outreach intentionally and lovingly continues to make a difference for the Kingdom of Christ. I have full confidence that the next 40 years will bring more and more of the same, should Christ tarry.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of those who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:8-9

In Christ,

Dick Dill