Friend Ships
The Vision,
Our Beginnings!

It was early in 1985 when the world watched with horror as pictures of starving children in Ethiopia dominated TV screens. Satellite news broadcasts brought us heart-wrenching, live scenes, up close and personal. A couple from California, Don and Sondra Tipton, felt a stir to do something to help.

They researched the problem, discovering that the world didn't actually have a food shortage. The problem was getting food from areas of plenty to the spots on the globe where people were starving. They found that many countries, including their own, not only threw tons of surplus food into the trash but, also during times of overproduction, good food was actually plowed under, back into the field, in order to avoid flooding the markets with a particular product!

The Tipton's found that many corporations in these affluent nations would be happy to share their overages, but transportation to people in need remained the key difficulty. "Who," everyone asked, "will pay to get the food to those in need?" and "Who will see that the poor actually receive it?"

Don and Sondra knew that the Bible says to care for the poor and love one's brother as one's self, so they prayed, asking God how they might collect and deliver food to the starving.

Before long, they knew what to do! Surprising friends and family, they announced, "The Lord is going to give us a ship. We'll man the ship with volunteers, fill the holds with donated food and deliver the shipments to the poor and needy."

To all but the Tipton's, this sounded impossible, but you see, they also believed the passage in the Bible that says, "Nothing is impossible with God."

Starting with one freighter, Friend Ships fleet continues to grow today. Over the years, staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers, Friend Ships has helped the poor and needy by supplying over 100 million dollars worth of precious life-saving supplies.

On pallets of outgoing supplies, one will see a sticker giving honor to the greatest "Giver" of all.

Details of God's amazing hand surrounding this organization can be discovered in the book, Jesus And Company.