Michael & Linda Whitener have served together doing short-term international medical and humanitarian work for more than 15 years. Michael’s background includes art, photography, videography, woodworking, computer programming, financial services, construction, eyeglass ministry, and wound care.  He served 48 years in Scouting. He currently owns a drone/photography business. He has a heart for helping others, utilizing his many God-given skill sets. His style of photography in mission work is a combination of humanitarian and photojournalistic:

• Bringing people’s stories to life, through visual imagery
• Breaking down resistance to serve internationally through awareness
• Documenting the expanding Kingdom work
• Creating a glimpse into the everyday lives of the poor, vulnerable and marginalized

Michael’s “life verse” is Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men”  (NIV) Linda is a Family Nurse Practitioner with more than 30 years of nursing experience. She holds a post-master’s certification in International Nutritional Development from Tufts University. Ambassador of Women’s Health for “Days for Girls” – empowering women and girls worldwide through sustainable menstrual care and health education. Master trainer for “Helping Babies Breathe / Helping Babies Survive” – an initiative of the American Academy of Pediatrics and WHO. Her passion is to teach and empower others to care for their health through education and preventative medicine. Linda’s heart is to show the love of Jesus through her gifts and to emulate His compassionate example of addressing people’s immediate physical needs (healing) in order to reach their hearts and spiritual needs (salvation). Matthew 15:30 — “Great crowds came to him bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.“  (NIV) Their medical and eyeglass ministries have taken them to:

• The jungles of central Liberia
• Slums of northern India
• A women’s shelter in Mexico
• Remote sugar cane villages (“bateys”) of the Dominican Republic
• Syrian & Iraqi refugee aid in Lebanon
• Human trafficking rescue homes in Thailand and Burma
• Humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide

Their focus is developing in-country partnerships with self-sustaining health care initiatives that empower local communities.  Their emphasis is on assisting community health care workers to problem solve what they identify as needs and assist them to work out solutions -and- own the outcomes.