My Story

My interest in India began as a child when my great aunt Mary Geegh, who was home on furlough, told stories about her life and work in India.

Mary served in India from 1924-1963 as a Reformed Church in America (RCA) missionary to the Arcot Mission area. The old Arcot Mission area is approximately the size of New Jersey and Rhode Island and encompasses Vellore, Rayalaseema and Madras Dioceses.

In 1998, when Mary was 100 years old, I had the privilege of bringing donations to a nursery school she had started. Soon after this visit I became involved with other development projects on the mission compound. What struck me most was the fact that there were 2,200 poor children attending the mission schools, just on this one compound. Many of the mission institutions are over one hundred years old, and their buildings are in deteriorating condition, with leaky roofs, broken window frames, and cracked foundations. There are many such compounds in the former Arcot Mission area where thousands of the poorest of the poor children today still receive an education.

(Photo of Mary Geegh)

In the years following my first visit to India, I volunteered as a liaison between donors in the West and in Madanapalle, South India; our goal was to rebuild the mission compound. This also included working in partnership with the Church of South India (CSI) to help develop sustainable, indigenous, income generation programs for the poor, since unemployment in this region was and continues to be over seventy-five percent.

In 2002, I founded Mission Partners International, Inc., 501(C)3 tax-deductible non-profit organization to support the on-going needs at Geegh Nursery School and other project work, through partnership support.

In 2003, the RCA asked me to work in their Volunteer Services Program as a business consultant for the CSI’s ministry to the poor, at the request of the CSI General Secretary. This was a continuation of the work I had already been doing in partnership with CSI. I currently serve as an RCA consultant to CSI through Mission Partners International (MPI) in the very same mission field where my great aunt Mary Geegh had once worked.

The primary focus in the partnership work with the church of South India is to “come alongside” in their ministry to the poor and to assist in a shared vision to build sustainable indigenous programs through job creation and skills training, which promotes dignity among the marginalized of Indian society.