Eric and Mimi met in Los Angeles, CA in the summer of 1999. Eric was asked to speak at a Korean Youth Group and Mimi was his hostess for the day. They were as different as different could be. Eric is an only child. Mimi is number seven of eight. Eric is Native American. Mimi is Korean. But as they talked, they found they had one thing in common. A love for missions!
Mimi had just returned from the Ukraine working in an orphanage and was preparing to go to Korea. Eric had been to Italy and Costa Rica and was in graduate school training to be a campus missionary. Little did they know that God had taken them around the world with a plan to cross cultures in a unique way! In 2001 Eric and Mimi were married and they have been on a mission to honor God with their lives ever since.
In 2008, Mimi attended a women’s conference and heard a young lady share her story of how she had been cutting herself. She felt unloved, forgotten and she tried to commit suicide but failed. Through this experience, Jesus became real to her. She heard Him tell her that, “she was not forgotten.” When Mimi heard those words, something happened in her heart. Mimi felt an overwhelming sense of purpose and calling. Mimi remembers, “Jesus spoke to me and told me that I needed to be His voice to tell people that they are not forgotten.”
Most of her early childhood, Mimi grew up feeling forgotten. At the age of 12, she started to attend a local church and that’s where she met people that would shape and mold her as a young girl. They would tell her how much Jesus loved her and how he had died for her sins. After attending sometime, Mimi decided to accept Jesus and got baptized. Mimi had specific people speak life, destiny, and purpose into her heart.
Mimi knew what it was like to be forgotten, overwhelmed by life, and simply lost…
Then she was introduced to Jesus. Those who believed in Him took the time to speak into a little girl’s life, and she was never the same again. She found purpose, a calling, and a reason to live a life with no regrets.
A quote from our Founders:
“For years Mimi and I have had this passion to serve orphans and the poor. As our lives were in transition with the birth of our four children, we believed it was a dream for a future time. We firmly believe that God has called us to serve orphans and the poor and ‘Now’ is the time to make an eternal difference in their lives. We know that God has called us to go to the nations and to declare to those who feel as though they have been forgotten, that they are “Not Forgotten!”