For over 50 years, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. When Bob Pierce founded the ministry in 1970, he wasn’t motivated by any vision of the coming digital revolution, or how western technology could save people in struggling economies. He was a man with a heart broken “by the things that break God’s heart” and convicted by Jesus’ words at the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan: “Go and do likewise.”
So, how has the digital revolution played a part in how God is using Samaritan’s Purse, and how do the ministry’s leaders approach capturing the power and managing the danger of new technologies? I asked Ross Stonecipher, senior director of IT for the ministry to walk me through the four waves of the digital revolution at Samaritan’s Purse. Click the link below to read his answers.
Technology has clearly been an important part of how God is using Samaritan’s Purse to love and serve many around the world. In addition to it’s U.S. headquarters, the ministry has affiliate offices in Canada, Australia, the U.K., Germany and South Korea, field offices in 19 countries, and works in more than 100 countries to provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine and persecution. The ministry literally has touched hundreds of millions of people at their point of need. It is hard to imagine Samaritan’s Purse being able to operate at that scale without the technologies that have become core to the ministry’s operations.