International outreach

Since 2006, St. Stephen’s parishioners have traveled to Azua in the Dominican Republic and to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Although we contribute in many ways to the needs of our international mission partners, our priority has been and continues to be building relationships with the people in those communities through time spent together in fellowship, prayer, and worship. Together, we discern God’s call for our joint friendships and ministries.

South Africa Mission| November 9-18, 2012: photos coming soon! | Photos from 2011 trip to South Africa
We treasure annual visits to Monica Vega and Heidi Schmidt, our missionaries, and the children in their care. Monica and Heidi work with the Isibindi Project, a model program for assisting children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic, and we visit Isibindi Project “safe parks” in Alice.

We have also embarked on a relationship with St. Augustine’s Anglican Church in Grahamstown, which has a thriving food ministry and is working with Monica and Heidi to build an Isibindi Project safe park. As our food ministry in Richmond grows, we can learn from the people of St. Augustine's Food Ministry.

To learn how you can participate in a future trip, please contact Weezie Blanchard.

Read Todd Culbertson's April 15, 2012 column on his trip to South Africa, and St. Stephen's relationships there: Pilgrim's Progress in the Beloved Country, and his December 23, 2012 column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Make haste to be kind.

Dominican Republic trips

In October 2012, our group added onto a cinder block house we helped construct last year, and participated in the consecration of the church we have helped our friends in Azua build.

Youth from St. Stephen's traveled to the DR in July 2012 to run a Vacation Bible School and a basketball camp for children of Azua, and we plan to send a group again this summer.

Dominican Republic Medical Mission Trip | February 16-23, 2013

Photos of this trip are available on the Dominican Republic page.

To learn how you can participate in a future trip, please contact Leigh Preston.