Our Story
In 2007, Tina Weir founded HEAL Ministries out of her own experience of loss as a single mother and her travels seeing abandoned women and children in severe need. She felt the pull to act when she recognized that, despite different backgrounds, people in poverty share the same human dignity as those in places of provision. One moment in Kibera, Kenya, standing with a woman caring for her children, crystalized for Tina that the difference between them was only circumstance — “We both needed Jesus. The only difference was birthplace.”
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27
Driven by that conviction, HEAL Ministries began as a mission-sending agency, leading teams globally. In 2011 Tina heard God calling them to focus in Uganda, particularly in Jinja, where the need and the openness to change were unmistakable. In 2013, they opened the James Place community center to support abandoned women and children through programs in family preservation and sustainability. After Tina’s passing in 2021, her sons Trey and Tripp continued Tina’s legacy, carrying forward the commitment to love big, serve well, and empower women and children to thrive.