Healing the Land and Its People “Standing on the street corner in the tiny California coastal town of Solana Beach, Scott Sabin could hear sirens blaring from blocks away and see smoke graying the distant horizon. “I was only 7 or 8, but I remember standing there and watching those civil defense trucks roar down the street and out of town to fight the fires,” Scott says. “I just felt this incredible pull to go with them and help those people – to put out the fires that were ruining their lives.” That was the first glimpse of a heart for helping people in need and eventually would lead him to rebuild mountains. Scott’s desire to put out the proverbial fires in people’s lives led him to the Navy after college, and he served as an officer for seven years. “Like many young people, I was on trajectory,” Scott says. “Once I got out of the Navy, I went back to school to get my master’s degree in international relations. I thought I was headed for the State Department to work as a diplomat.” But God had other plans. “Late into my program, I realized I needed either two years of classes or complete fluency in a foreign language.” That was when Scott met Ken Souder, the executive director of an organization called Floresta, which worked in Third World countries to help the poor and reverse deforestation. Ken told Scott that if he wanted to become fluent in Spanish quickly, Guatemala was the place to do it… Scott returned home a changed man, completed his degree and began looking for a role tha wouls allow him to serve the poor. He approached Ken Souder at Floresta, which had only 2 employees and was only working in one small area of the Dominican Republic, and offered to volunteer…” |
