Dr. Jeff Smith & Dr. ABD
In 2008 Pastor Ron Woolsey from a little town in Central Michigan came home from a mission trip he took to Sierra Leone, Africa. He felt compelled to share with the congregation about his trip.
Dr. Jeff Smith was sitting in the sanctuary, and felt the Lord speak directly to him that he needed to go. At the end of the message, Jeff walked to the front of the church and asked Ron how he could get involved. And this was the beginning of Footprints.
Upon arriving for his first trip, Jeff saw the immense need for medical care for the Sierra Leone people. Sierra Leone’s poverty stricken communities tugged at his heart. Upon meeting Dr. ABD in Sierra Leone, a lasting friendship was quickly formed. Dr. Jeff Smith performed surgeries and brought along volunteer teams to assist with traveling medical clinics to the various communities.
In 2009 Footprints Missions was created as a 501C3 Nonprofit and this was the start of many trips.
Then in 2014 it all came to a screeching halt. Ebola ravaged Sierra Leone and the mission trips had to stop. In one phone conversation Dr. ABD and Dr. Smith were speaking and the Footprints team felt helpless. People were dying and we felt, “why, Lord?” We have made all of this progress and now we can’t go.” When asking Dr. ABD how we can help from afar, his response was quick: “Start an orphanage. There are so many children left without parents and nobody to care for them.”
With Dr. ABD’s help on the grounds and Footprints working behind the scenes, a 100% Footprints funded orphanage was started in June of 2018.
We currently teach the love of Jesus, house, feed, and pay for schooling for children without parents or in extreme poverty conditions. We focus on creating environments at the orphanage where the children can learn vocational skills like farming, sewing, and woodworking.