Love Is Something You Do

Bobby and Sherry Burnette are the founders and directors of Love A Child, Inc. (LAC), a 501(c)(3) Christian nonprofit humanitarian organization serving the needs of children in Haiti. They began their ministry together in the late 1960s by preaching on street corners, under gospel tents, and in auditoriums and churches throughout the United States. In 1971, Bobby and Sherry made their first missions trip to Haiti, and the overwhelming poverty they witnessed there broke their hearts. They also ministered in many other countries, but they always found themselves drawn back to Haiti. Following their calling from God, Bobby and Sherry founded Love A Child in 1985 and focused on working to reduce poverty in Haiti’s remote areas. From their beginnings as visiting missionaries to Haiti, Bobby and Sherry have worked to spread the Word of God and show the love of Jesus by example through feeding programs, mobile medical clinics, and the building of Christian schools and churches. They moved to Haiti in 1991 and have never looked back, living year-round at the Love A Child Orphanage in Fond Parisien, Haiti. Love A Child’s outreach programs include: a 21,500-square-foot orphanage, now home to seventy-eight children; primary schools that educate and feed more than seven thousand children each day; mobile medical clinics; a regional medical clinic; and a feeding distribution program that serves more than 20 million meals every year. After the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Love A Child built several hundred houses for earthquake victims and developed eight sustainability projects, including Gwo Maché Mirak, a large marketplace providing jobs for the poor; Poul Mirak, a project to train Haitians how to raise and sell chickens; a tilapia fish farm; and an agricultural training center that teaches the farming of crops and trees. Bobby and Sherry believe that feeding the poor is essential, but that the ultimate goal is for Haitians to become self-sustaining. Under the Burnettes’ leadership, Love A Child has grown to become one of the largest Christian nonprofits in Haiti. Thanks to LAC’s excellence in financial accountability, the organization consistently receives the highest industry ratings available through the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), Charity Navigator, and the Independent Charities of America. In 2015, they documented the story of their ministry in their first book, Love Is Something You Do, with Whitaker House. Bobby and Sherry want people to know what faith and love can do to change a nation. It is their deepest desire that their lives inspire others to reach out in response to the cry of the poor in some way, large or small—rescuing one child at a time.