Shortly after our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, my husband died, aged forty-six. He had been fighting cancer for several years. I was left with my two young adult children and no idea where to go next. This wasn’t the life I had imagined twenty-five years before on our wedding day. I decided to take a course about the needs of children in low-income countries. I learned about the many challenges these children face: exploitation, malnutrition, abuse, neglect, and lack of education. I knew I wanted to help vulnerable and suffering children.

In Psalm 10, the psalmist asks, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off in times of trouble?” Like me, the psalmist had assessed the world around him and had seen that the wicked exploited the weak. Like me, he believed that God is good, and he wanted to know why a good God did not get involved. In verse fourteen, the answer comes: “But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The helpless commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.”

A church service under a tree in Engikaret, Tanzania. Photograph courtesy of Loom International.

This passage inspired me to found Loom International. In 2007, my vision took off. I started meeting deeply dedicated people in India, Bangladesh, Romania, Mexico, and East Africa who were founding schools, building foster care homes for children whose parents had died from AIDS, and starting clinics and afterschool programs. They had often begun with minimal financial support and guidance, but they saw a need and started doing something. They knew their people and their community. Yet often the projects were struggling to keep afloat, even though their founders were passionate and committed. When resources and funding are scarce, staff can become burnt out and discouraged. Loom began by listening to these people, and asking what they needed in order to continue and expand their mission. Where they needed help, we backed them up.

In time, Loom became a support network for local communities, and in particular, the vulnerable children within those communities. We believe that children are intended to grow and mature in families and within communities committed to their flourishing, and that if you help the smallest, weakest, and poorest in a society to thrive, that society will flourish.