Sweet Potato Donuts Children's Curriculum Training Women In Sewing Scripture Coffee Table Book
Welcome to the Global Institute For Transformation (GIFT),
a cross-denominational, 501(c)(3) ministry supporting material and spiritual needs, domestically and globally.
GIFT's mission involves supporting the material and spiritual needs of people around the world, by working collaboratively with the Church, ministries and the Christian community. GIFT seeks to advance transformative solutions to unmet needs.
Here are updates on our global development work from one of GIFT's partners, Arpin-Strong:
https://arpin-strong.org/a-gift-that-changes-and-shapes-lives
As the United Methodist Church notes, "The Mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."
GIFT helps all Christians fulfill the calling articulated in the Document on the Laity, Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: "All of the baptized are called to work toward the transformation of the world... All of the faithful are called in various ways to share in the Church’s mission of announcing the reign of God and transforming the world in the light of Christ.”
As Pope Francis indicated in his first Palm Sunday Mass, "With Christ, we can transform ourselves and the world."
To help achieve these goals, GIFT prayerfully seeks to provide Spiritual Support; Material Support; and Church and Ministry innovations via a cross-denominational ministry that unifies the Church in the selfless love of Christ for the good of humanity.
Archbishop Elden Curtiss endorsed GIFT as “sorely needed” for our innovations in spiritual and material resources. GIFT has also received multiple Catholic Church Imprimaturs.
Nazarene Church District Superintendent, Larry White, encouraged the creation of GIFT while GIFT's founder was serving as a Licensed Minister in the Nazarene denomination.
Excitedly, the Vatican's Laudato Si Action Platform just published a GIFT document on two faith pillars, GIFT and TRANSFORMATION, as a "Resource" for their network of organizations concerned about and supporting the "Cry of the Poor" and the "Cry of the Earth." This resource encourages focusing on these two faith pillars as a way of keeping the spirit and joy of Christmas alive all year long.
GIFT'S FOCUS IS ON HELPING OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND MINISTRIES IN TRANSFORMING LIVES AND IN TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD
GIFT researches, vets and deploys innovative solutions for impacting lives and addressing global issues. To date, GIFT has been working in partnership with organizations in Haiti, Malawi and Philippines in enabling and advancing such highly efficacious and transformative solutions as:
Farming of nutrition-smart, water-smart and climate-smart Orange Flesh Sweet Potatoes and their Edible Leaves which provides the most nutrition per hectare/acre of all crops (and can still increase in yields 10-fold on average, per FAO) and which can replace up to 60% of wheat at 1/3 the water requirements -- which is important given the loss of wheat exports from the war in Ukraine and given the growing water scarcity world-wide
Farming resources, including solar irrigation, supercomputing for agribusiness management and optimization, soil testing, greenhouse provisions, food driers and value chain creation to feed the hungry and lift poor farmers out of poverty. (Note: God has even shown us a strategy to enable biofuel and bioplastic production from crop damage and processing waste to address climate concerns and provide greater income to farming communities.)
Water filtration to address the 50% of all hospitalizations which are caused by impure water -- including for the record level of Cholera in Malawi
Solar and battery storage systems for an ecological reserve and community center and for an orphanage serving AIDS-impacted children
Sewing machines to enable currently illiterate women living in poverty to help them establish a trade so they can feed their families, which is accompanied by education in reading, accounting and business
Mobile-phone-enabled, digital educational content -- including new projectors to bring school curriculum, skilled trades instruction and digital books to support communities in poverty and enable inclusion
Community facility construction, across such structures as a greenhouse, a library and a community gathering place
GIFT supports ministry and other organizations involved in sustainable development with innovations and resources. Beyond our work supporting organizations in Haiti, Malawi and Philippines, Lord willing, we'll soon be expanding into India in order to support the poorest of the poor who also suffer much and need transformative relief.
GIFT focuses on deploying innovations in both spiritual resources and material resources.
For example, our work supporting farmers with soil testing is aligned with our having been asked by the USCCB office of Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs to conduct a Bible study on the Parable of the Sower. What we learned and share in GIFT's "Spiritual Transformation Path" is that, to produce much fruit, the soil needs to include humus -- which means earthly, good organic composition -- which is also the root word of humility. For us to lead a fruitful, transformed and transformative life, we, too, need humility, especially appreciating that all we are and everything we have is a GIFT from God.
GIFT seeks to create exciting innovations in Spiritual resources to encourage and help people grow in their faith and share Christ's love with others in tangible ways. GIFT has developed multiple Spiritual resources used in both Catholic and Protestant ministries, including a number of which have received Catholic Church Imprimaturs and have even been covered twice on Catholic TV.
GIFT seeks to help all Christians fulfill the Lord's call that His Church be united as one in His love, for the spiritual and material wellbeing of our brothers and sisters (JN 17:21).
GIFT is always seeking God's wisdom to innovate and meet unmet needs. GIFT researches, develops and provides access to what we pray will be high-impact ministry and development resources -- to help the Church body continue to build and live-out a more loving, just, equitable, joyful and sustainable world to benefit all.
GIFT works to support communities already serving God and our brothers and sisters around the world; and we seek insights from these organizations regarding critical needs to be met. We also seek to work in partnership with them, securing and providing resources to meet those identified needs.
We utilize the accepted social justice strategy: "Act (on and issue)... Reflect (prayerfully about the root cause)... Transform (the issue at the root cause).
God has blessed GIFT leadership with decades of experience working in strategy, innovation and technology, which we have been able to learn from and use to create new solutions.
From a material perspective, God has helped us connect the dots from work in the corporate world to support the developing world. This experience has even included being asked to advise the White House National Economic Council on growth, a challenge which has specifically enabled us to also identify significant, recurring needs and opportunities facing our brothers and sisters in Christ here and around the world, and to research and seek out the most efficacious solutions for these unmet needs. This experience also encourages us to take on big challenges -- like the UN SDGs referenced below -- consistent with the Lord's encouragement, "Verily truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, as I am going to my Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (JN 14: 12, 13) This focus has also enabled us to secure organizational partners and resources to assist the poor.
From a Spiritual perspective, we've been blessed with experiences serving as a CEO of a Haitian ministry conglomerate; serving on the boards of social justice, ministry and church organizations; and serving in a pastoral position. These experiences have enlightened us to the pressing needs of our ministry partners.
We thank the Lord for His many blessings, and we seek to be good stewards of all the gifts He's given us.
Our goal has been to appreciate all these material and spiritual experiences as incredible gifts from God... to reciprocate to our loving God for these experiences by allowing Him to transform us, through the workings of the Holy Spirit, to become more like Him and to become the face of our selfless, loving Lord to the world... and ultimately to regift these gifts to transform the lives of His children here and around the world -- spiritually and materially.
Supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals
"17 Goals To Transform Our World"
Based on all the insights God has enabled us to gather, Global Institute For Transformation (GIFT) is now working with individuals, churches, ministries and the business community to advocate for and fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals -- deemed "17 Goals To Transform Our World -- by deploying efficacious innovations to critical, unmet needs.
In 2015, all 193 nations in the UN and the Vatican committed to achieving radical goals of eradicating poverty, ending hunger; providing universal clean water and energy; assuring well-being; advancing industry and jobs globally; enabling inclusion; all while fixing the planet; and more -- and all by 2030!
This is exactly what the Body of Christ is called to do in Matthew 25 and elsewhere in Holy Scripture.
The key to fulfilling the SDGs will be to affect both cross-cutting initiatives as well as collaborations as recommended in SDG 17-Partnerships.
Through this, we're enabling both cross-cutting societal impacts and inter-disciplinary, cross-sector collaborations to make a big impact.
As just one example: GIFT is leading a global farming program growing sweet potato and leaves to bring "the Mother Teresa of of the dinner table" to those in dire need of nutrition and farming income. We're blessed to have access to Supercomputing from the Pozan Supercomputing & Networking Center, Poland -- an incredible resource -- to support this and optimize yields. It's an example of our work fulfilling the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- deemed "17 Goals To Transform Our World" -- such as we're called to do in Sacred Scripture and through recurring Church teachings.
"I want you to pray dreams and visions of what it will be like when you help eradicate poverty and hunger by 2030,"
expressed Monsignor Jim Carini in encouraging our work on the UN SDGs.
If you have the time, you may want to read the following blog post on fulfilling the SDGs -- including through twinning efforts -- written by Tim Maurer, GIFT's founder. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/everyone-can-benefit-we-take-steps-now-fulfill-un-goals-tim-maurer? Check out this video, too, and join us in something so meaningful, so impactful, so wonderful and so worthwhile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpqVmvMCmp0/.
GIFT Works Directly With Faith Communities Encouraging
Active Faith Engagement In Transforming Lives
GIFT resources and leadership have been tapped by multiple churches to encourage active spirituality, including providing biblical insights on addressing unmet physical and material needs.
GIFT Has Aligned With Honey For Haiti
"Something Sweet for Sustainable Change"
Honey For Haiti has developed an array of services to help a wonderful orphanage in Haiti, and now Honey For Haiti is part of GIFT.
Honey For Haiti has designed and implemented innovative sustainable development projects for Maison L'Arc-en-Ciel d'Haiti Orphanage, benefiting children affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS. H4H's goal has been to assist the orphanage in creating sustainable sources of income through agricultural and livestock based projects, in addition to providing technical training for the children to develop their skills for their eventual reintegration into Haitian society. This model plan and operation can benefit others.
By aligning with GIFT, Honey For Haiti's tremendous works, model and success can be transferred across Haiti and to other communities in need globally. For more details on Honey For Haiti's work, visit Honey For Hait's website.
GIFT supports Christian unity
GIFT has received endorsements from both Catholic and Protestant leaders, in recognition of the potential in the innovations we're advancing to address people's spiritual and physical needs.
GIFT has developed Spiritual resources to encourage and equip Catholic and Protestant church communities in their faith journeys and in putting their faith into action in exciting new ways, as the unified body of Christ.
GIFT leadership has been engaged to conduct transformative faith formation seminars for Archdiocesan and local church communities. GIFT stands ready to work with your organization in helping to advance fervency of faith to transform lives.
GIFT encourages everyone to reflect upon all the wonderful gifts our loving God has bestowed upon us (including life itself and all God's provisions) and to reciprocate with love to God for his incredible provisions and love by engaging in the transformation of the world. GIFT asserts that there's much comfort and joy in knowing that we're all brothers and sisters in the family of God, and GIFT encourages everyone to love one another as Christ loves us.
GIFT encourages reflecting on two key faith pillars, GIFT and TRANSFORMATION. Consider:
1) Everything's been given to us as a GIFT from our loving God and Creator. We've brought nothing to this world we enjoy -- we owe our lives and everything we have and do to God.
2) Based on everything being a gift to us from our Creator, we should be open to collaborating with God to TRANSFORM our lives and our world in accordance with God's love.
As such, we should reciprocate back to God for his incredible GIFTS and seek to know and do His will, and allow the Holy Spirit to TRANSFORM us to have the mind of Christ and to be the face of Christ to world -- and then reGIFT the many GIFTS we've received to help our brothers and sisters in need, nearby and around the world.
GIFT enables global solidarity by addressing hunger with smarter sweet potato farming
GIFT helps Churches and Christians across the U. S. affect greater solidarity with our starving brothers and sisters around the world, by growing orange flesh sweet potatoes and their leaves as highly efficacious and nutritious crops.
GIFT has forged collaborative efforts with Faith-Based Organizations in Haiti, Malawi and the Philippines to provide tons of sweet potatoes, "The Mother Teresa of the dinner plate," to hungry people, and to create farm incomes. GIFT also supports parish twinning and teams with a local Knights of Columbus Council in Tolland, CT.
GIFT has been working in Haiti with Wynne Farm Ecological Reserve, L'Arc-en-Ciel orphanage and Father Joseph Network; in Malawi with the Daughters of Wisdom; and in Philippines with Ecogenesis a community development organization. Through GIFT's support, Daughters of Wisdom, Ecogenesis and FJN have grown tons of potatoes and edible leaves each of the last few years for their starving communities.
GIFT is also working with Poznan Supercomputing & Networking Center, Poland, seeking to bring smart farming to the poorest of the poor to lift farm yields and incomes.
GIFT seeks to help global communities harness leading-edge technologies -- such as real-time soil sensors, weather data and an instructional web portal -- to increase solidarity, optimize farm results, develop value chains, and close the digital divide.
Click here to learn more about this example of GIFT's transforming work.
To make a tax-deductible donation to this worthy cause, please click here to go to our investment page, and then click on the Global Sweet Potato Farming button.