2.  Jayne Lessard earned her MA in clinical psychology
from Wheaton College in Illinois in 1981, graduating
with high honors. A licensed therapist, she spent more
than a decade as the head of North Carolina’s High
Point Family Service Agency before going into
private practice, counseling individuals, couples, and
families on a broad range of issues. In addition to her
private practice, Jayne Lessard serves as an overseas
staff counselor for Samaritan’s Purse.
Founded in 1970 by journalist and evangelist Bob
Pierce, Samaritan’s Purse seeks to obey Jesus’
command, “Go and do likewise,” which he delivered
after telling the story of the Good Samaritan.

3.  Working through existing organizations whenever possible,
Samaritan’s Purse helps the individuals all over the world,
including those who have been affected by war, poverty,
natural disasters, and disease.
Samaritan’s Purse staff assigned to overseas missions
encounter a great deal of stress in their daily work. As an
overseas counselor for Samaritan’s Purse, Jayne Lessard
travels to such locations as Niger, Liberia, Uganda, Nigeria,
Sudan, Indonesia, and Mongolia, to provide clinical
counseling for these staff members. She maintains
constant contact with them via telephone and Internet
connections.
The staff and volunteers of Samaritan’s Purse perform a
wide variety of missions.

4.  Women’s programs, for example, fight the effects of
abandonment, exploitation, and abuse. In
Cambodia, the organization still finds people
suffering the brutal after-effects of the genocidal
regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and
Samaritan’s Purse helps local populations in Uganda
the problem of prostitution.
The organization’s disaster relief program also
operates worldwide, and sometimes finds itself
working close to home, as in February 2015, when
volunteers traveled to Tennessee to help residents
cope with the destruction wrought by a mid-winter
ice storm.