Over 2,000 people from across the United States and around the world gathered in Phoenix, Arizona, July 29 through August 1 for the 2026 ASI International Convention.
Under the theme “Hasten the Day, Prepare the Way,” business owners, professionals, missionaries and ministry leaders explored how their work, skills and resources could be used to make Christ known.
The ASI Missions Inc. Board selected 36 projects to receive grants from the convention offering, setting a goal of $1.781 million. According to ASI International, the final offering surpassed that goal by more than $900,000, reaching a total of $2.7 million.
Several Lake Union Chapter ministries were among those selected for funding. ASAP Ministries received $25,000 to help build a girls’ dormitory in Myanmar for students training as medical missionaries. Streams of Light International received $50,000 to support a four-year mission initiative in Chicago involving literature distribution, health ministry and Bible work. Three Angels Broadcasting Network received $100,000 to translate programming into multiple languages and use artificial intelligence to translate live events and Bible study guides. FARM STEW International received $55,000 to establish its program in Burundi and Chad.
Beyond the projects selected for funding were personal stories of faith, sacrifice and service shared throughout the convention.
One of them belonged to Jerome Habimana, a Berrien Springs, Michigan, resident who represented Saving Orphans Through Healthcare and Outreach, an Indiana-based ministry known as SOHO.
“When I saw those children, I felt for them because I have seen children suffer,” Habimana said. “I told Cynthia and the team, ‘I need to join you. I am willing to do whatever it takes to help those children.’”
For Habimana, SOHO’s work with vulnerable children in Eswatini is deeply personal. When he looked into the faces of children affected by poverty, abuse and orphanhood, he recognized a kind of suffering he had encountered before.
During the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Habimana lost 71 members of his family, including his parents and siblings. They were among thousands who sought refuge at a Seventh-day Adventist mission compound and hospital in western Rwanda, believing it would protect them as mission properties had during earlier periods of violence.
Instead, on a Sabbath morning in April 1994, the Seventh-day Adventist mission compound at Mugonero, the place they believed would shelter them, became the site of a massacre that claimed thousands of lives.
Habimana was in the United States when the killings occurred. The scale of the loss was almost impossible to comprehend. Because he had not seen or buried his relatives, he initially coped by imagining that they might still be alive somewhere.
The reality settled in when he returned to Rwanda and found his family home demolished, with only bushes growing where it once stood. He later helped recover and properly bury remains from the mission compound and advocated for the construction of a memorial.
Habimana found peace in learning that many of his family members had spent their final days together in prayer, singing hymns and preparing their hearts for what they feared was coming.
“They had time to give their hearts to Jesus,” he said. “I told myself, ‘These people are only sleeping, and they will wake up. I will see them again.’ That helped me a lot.”
That hope helped him choose forgiveness instead of revenge.
After retiring from church financial leadership, Habimana settled in Berrien Springs and now serves as SOHO’s chief financial officer.
SOHO provides homes and care for children affected by orphanhood, poverty and abuse, while working to build an Adventist school, clinic and additional housing in Eswatini.
“We want to see how we can improve their lives,” Habimana said. “We want to rescue them, educate them in an Adventist way and give them a better future.”
Habimana’s work with SOHO was one of many stories at ASI International that revealed the people and convictions behind the ministries. Across the convention, service took many forms, from meeting an immediate need to surrendering a long-held dream.
Care. Share. Multiply.
In Myanmar, ASAP Ministries is helping reconstruct a deteriorating dormitory used for a six-month nurse aide training program. The program prepares young people to serve communities where poverty and conflict have placed healthcare beyond the reach of many.
Darryl Hosford summarized the ministry’s approach in three words: “Care. Share. Multiply.”
“We want to share the good news about Jesus, but before we share, we care,” he said. “We care, we share, and then we multiply disciples.”
Darryl shared the story of Naw Say Paw, who entered ASAP’s six-month nurse aide program in 2016 seeking medical training. Through daily worship and Bible study, she accepted Christ and was baptized the following year. Today, she serves as an ASAP medical missionary in Kalaw, Myanmar, caring for minority communities and helping establish an Adventist presence where none currently exists.
For Jason and Midori, a missionary couple serving with Adventist Frontier Missions, the call to make disciples began with a different kind of step: leaving behind the life they had planned.
Laying Down a Dream
The couple left behind their home, income and familiar life to serve among the Gogodala people of Papua New Guinea through Adventist Frontier Missions.
For Midori, the decision meant releasing the future she had imagined for their three young children. She had dreamed of seeing them become accomplished musicians, but the family was moving to a remote community without pianos.
“I had to lay down that dream,” she said. “I believe that it is good for our children to see that we are able to do without some things so that God’s work can go forward.”
After arriving, the couple met Bonnie, a local believer who had spent 13 years worshiping with his family and trying to reach his village. Jason began training several young men and encouraged them to share what they had learned.
Five months later, 120 people gathered for Sabbath worship. As local believers began teaching others, the work spread into surrounding villages.
What began with one man’s faithfulness multiplied when others were equipped to reach their own communities.
Across different countries and circumstances, each story offered the same reminder: when people place their pain, gifts and plans in God’s hands, He can use them to bring healing, hope and ultimately make Him known.