Stephen Sheasby, ACU alumnus and founder of Mission Providence, will be on campus the week of Sept. 30. He will be educating students and faculty on his organization and how ACU can get involved.

Mission Providence is a non-profit organization that takes in abandoned infants in Durban, South Africa. The organization nurses the infants to health and works with state social workers to give them homes.

“Our job is to love, feed and clothe them and to take care of their medical needs. We concentrate on the whole person: spiritual, mental, emotional and physical,” Sheasby said.

Through donations and advocacy, Mission Providence is able to provide proper homes and medical attention to the infant that once had nothing.

“We are here in the U.S. for the purpose of raising awareness and funds to sustain this ministry to the ‘least of these,'” Sheasby said.

Stephen and his wife Esme left their comfortable life in Houston to follow God to South Africa. There, they established Mission Providence, and took in their first baby in May of 2012.

“We felt God calling us to ministry in South Africa. On an exploratory trip in 2007 we visited a crisis home for babies in Johannesburg called ‘A Hole in the Wall’ and knew this was part of God’s plan for our future,” Sheasby said.

Students can get involved by donating to Mission Providence, requesting information to host a virtual baby shower and raising awareness of the foundation. The Sheasbys also ask that the ACU community pledge to pray for the organization.

“We believe that everyone can commit to keeping our ministry in your personal prayers. Specifically, we need people to pray for the health of the babies, the future parents of the babies and for our safety,” Sheasby said.

To learn more about how to get involved with the organization, like the Facebook page “Mission Providence” or visit the website http://missionprovidence.org/.