Update: the mySARF website has since been discontinued. All connections to the families we serve in Guatemala and the ministry that is serving them can be found at https://guat.u2s.org.

mySARF combomark_Final

As some of you may know, I have taken to building websites as a “hobby”.  I call it a hobby because I don’t get paid for it and it is something I enjoy doing, but you won’t find me randomly building a website because I’m bored or want to entertain myself for a few weeks.  For the past month or two, I have been working on the mySARF website.  This is a site that our Serving At Risk Families leadership team has collaborated on to create a unique experience for sponsors of the families we serve.

At first, it was just designed to be a members only site where sponsors could log on, send a note to their sponsored families, ask questions about the program, and even receive updates via email about the families they sponsor.  We realized, however, that this was quite limiting to the power of what we had so we then converted it to a complete “landing page” for the ministry.  Now, folks can go on the site without needing logon information to learn about the ministry and families and even sign up to sponsor them!  We have, however, blocked access to the more detailed information and regular updates we send out to just sponsors only.  Our goal with this site is not just to inform people of the families we serve and they have an opportunity to support, but to connect families.  We want to connect your family with theirs and help them not just with financial needs, but also their relational needs.

The families we serve are in need of faithful relationships.  We continue to learn down here that poverty isn’t about lack of material possessions, but it is a result of one’s environment failing them.  This comes in many forms: emotional, physical, relational, and spiritual.  A good number of the families we serve have been abandoned by some, if not all, of their other family members.  So, we have made it a very important goal for us to make sure that sponsors connect on a personal level with the families they are sponsoring.

When you get a chance, click the banner above and it will take you to the mySARF site.  I also want to take this moment to thank the SARF team for all the hard work they put into making this happen.  The graphics, the tweaking, the making sure it is a top notch site that serves sponsors and our families well was a lot of work and a lot of telling me what to fix.  So, while I may have moved a bunch of stuff around in the background to make it look like a website, it wouldn’t have been possible without them!

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