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Board of Directors spotlight: Mark LeCraw

In 2017, Mark LeCraw began working with Third Lens Ministries. He is the president and co-founder of LeCraw Engineering, a Georgia-based consulting and engineering firm. Through his years of experience as a professional engineer, LeCraw has been able to help Third Lens with several projects.  His role involves planning the site for the buildings. “So the process for us is once the project is funded once, the architectural programming has been completed we're provided with a survey and a building footprint and a general idea of what what the needs and expectations are and, and we we put together a site plan,” LeCraw explained. “Sometimes it requires multiple iterations to get to the ultimate plan. But once the site plan is blessed by everybody involved we start to move into our construction design phase, producing a full set of construction documents.” So far LeCraw’s firms has helped with projects for myLifespeaks in Haiti, True Deliverance Holiness Church in Auburn, Alabama, … [Read more...] about Board of Directors spotlight: Mark LeCraw

Partner Spotlight: myLifespeaks

In 2003, Mike Wilson first visited Haiti. Seventeen years later, Neply, Haiti is now home to his and his wife’s nonprofit, myLifespeaks. Mike and Missy live there along with five of their six children, three of which were adopted from Haiti.  “So we we moved here in 2014 with the understanding that in order for us to really truly effectively lead this ministry we had to be on the ground,” Wilson said. “It could not be done from the United States.” myLifespeaks was founded in 2012, and it focuses on three main goals: family empowerment, educational excellence and public health impact.  Wilson describes Haiti as a place that has systematic corruption which leads to a lack of education and a high rate of unemployment. “I couldn't understand why something would be so drastically different for being so close to the United States,” Wilson said. “The more I came back, the more I realized that Haiti has a systematic problem of corruption. Just lack of education across the … [Read more...] about Partner Spotlight: myLifespeaks

The Legacy of Frantzky

A little under 700 miles from Miami, nestled in the islands in the Caribbean Sea, is Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. One small village there is Neply, a village of 2,700 people.  One of those people was Frantzky, a young boy who faced more difficulties in his nearly ten years of life than most will face in a lifetime. Tragically, Frantzky’s life was cut short due to what, in a first world country, would be entirely preventable causes: a virus and dehydration.  Frantzky died four and a half months before he would have turned ten years old. Yet, in less than a decade on this Earth, this young Haitian boy overcame so much and inspired so many. “He's a hero because so many children's lives will be positively impacted because of his memory and his life and that infectious smile,” Brian O’Neil, executive director of Third Lens Ministries, said of Frantzky. Haiti’s culture still has deep ties to voodoo ideals, including the notions that those with … [Read more...] about The Legacy of Frantzky