From The Heart of a Mother to Her International Mission: Meet our President Elissa Ponich

Last entry we began to tell a story of how Village of Grace came into being. In continuance of that, allow me to introduce you to our incredible president and heartbeat behind VOG…

Elissa Ponich is an incredible wife and proud mother to four amazing children: three handsome sons, and a beautiful daughter. In fact, it was in the very building of her family that she first found herself in DR Congo and allowed the beautiful country to capture her heart. She has since traveled to oversee the on-the-ground work of Village of Grace and has witnessed firsthand the needs of the people in this country. But for Elissa, seeing these needs was also paired with a deep sense of wanting to make a difference in empowering the people of Congo. She is an incredible advocate who desires to empower and uplift the often vulnerable children of this country that have so uniquely captured her heart.

Elissa’s vision of creating change in the Congo and throughout the world springs up from her deep faith paired with her great sense of responsibility to be the hands and feet. She believes wholeheartedly that we are to make the world a better place through our very existence. Elissa is a practical nurse and her desire to help others is evident in this chosen career path, which has her in the middle of helping others. She also loves to hike and run and has even used this hobby to help others by partaking in events that help bring awareness to and raise funds for those in need.

As you can likely see, Elissa has the heart to volunteer, serve, and help others. She also loves to spend time with her family and desires to leave in her children a strong faith of their own. It is also important to Elissa that she raises her children to remember the importance of giving and helping those that are less fortunate than themselves. Elissa keeps herself humble and in a servant posture by reminding herself that she is blessed beyond measure even in the very luxury of being born in the incredible country of Canada. She understands that she easily could have been born in a different set of circumstances and that if she was struggling to provide for herself and her family, she would want to know there were people out there who would offer them hope and support. Elissa says that her love and compassion for others are not bound by borders and that it is important that we all do our part to help both locally and internationally.

In the words of Elissa herself, “I believe that we are here to love one another. Village of Grace started because we wanted a small, hands-on way of helping the vulnerable children there. We wanted to be able to follow our donor's dollars through to the final point. To be transparent and committed to a smaller group, empowering them to break their difficult cycles. I strongly believe it isn’t enough to just sustain life, so here at VOG, we aim to help children thrive. We could probably do so cheaper, but we want to give good nutrition, good education, and good medical care to our sponsees.”

What a beautiful message from a beautiful woman of faith. And what a blessing to be in partnership with such an incredible cause. We should all strive to have not only the generosity but also the sense of responsibility modeled by Elissa. May we all have, not only willing hearts but the willingness to take tiny steps in changing the world around us. And so I ask you, how are you being prompted to make a difference in the lives of those around you? How have you been blessed in your story and in what ways can you use these blessings to be the hands and feet? Thank you, Elissa, for inspiring us all to do more, and for taking your desire to make a difference and putting it into action in your family, your community, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.