The phone rang on a winter’s night early in 1992.  The person on the other end had been on one of the work teams Swanee and Karen directed several months before in Nairobi, Kenya.  The man talked about how important the trip had been in his life, then stated he wanted to send a $5,500 check for Swanee and Karen’s “next mission trip.”

The man had no way of knowing that just that morning a group had breakfast together to discuss forming a nonprofit organization to support the missionary work of Swanee and Karen Schwanz.  From 1978 to 1991 they had paid for their work trips out of their own resources.  Real estate sold on a contract provided basic support.  When they were home, they would work to gather funds for the next international adventure.

• From 1978 to 1986 Swanee and Karen and their daughters lived and worked in Haiti.
• After they returned home during a time of political unrest in Haiti, they took two teams to Tuxtla, Mexico.
• Then they led three teams to St. Marc, Haiti, to build a parsonage and church.
• In 1989 they spent three weeks working on a university in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Later that year they took 42 people to Brazil.
• In the fall of 1990, Swanee and Karen worked for three months in Manzini, Swaziland.  On the way back to the United States, they had a one-week layover in Nairobi.  On Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., Swanee helped pour concrete in Kenya, then joined the missionaries for a turkey dinner late in the afternoon.
• The next month, December 1990, Swanee received a call asking him to spend most of the next year in Nairobi directing work teams on the new university.  In 11 months Swanee and Karen guided the work of eight teams.

At the morning breakfast in early 1992, it became quickly evident that Swanee and Karen could no longer work solely as a self-funded endeavor. Those who attended that breakfast became the initial Board of Directors of GAP International. The pledge for the first contribution to GAP came in the phone call that evening, and in that call God had confirmed the decisions made earlier in the day.

• Immediately after the formation of GAP International, Swanee and Karen spent three months working on a Haitian church in Caracas, Venezuela.  Three teams from the United States worked on the three-story building.
• Later in 1992, Swanee and Karen spent several weeks in Haiti, working on various projects.

A major shift in the direction of the ministry of GAP occurred in 1994.  Up to this point Swanee and Karen would do anything and everything that needed to be done, from digging footers to installing doors and windows.  Then they heard about 150 congregations in Kenya whose buildings were under construction.  These congregations needed help in finishing the building.  The plan emerged that Swanee would help a congregation properly lay out their building, then show them how to set the footers and lay up the walls.  When they were ready for the roof, GAP International would come and install the roof at no cost to the congregation.  Years before Swanee had designed a steel roof truss.  He taught local workers to do the welding, then hired them to work with him.

This new strategy allowed GAP International to help many more congregations.  Swanee and Karen assisted with 37 buildings between 1978 and 1993.  From 1994 to 2006 they worked on 118 buildings.  Churches, parsonages, hospitals, clinics, schools—155 buildings by 2006.

• The primary focus of GAP International was roofs in Kenya from 1994 to 2000.
• Swanee and Karen made a trip to Haiti in 2001.
• From 2002 to 2005, Swanee and Karen worked in Uganda, doing construction for various congregations and ministries.

The year 2006 became a transitional time for GAP International.  As Swanee and Karen recognized that they could no longer physically do all that they had been doing, they started dreaming about the next part of their lives and ministry, and the future of GAP International.  Through creative conversations over several months and dialogue with the Board of Directors, a new focus to the ministry began to emerge.

Swanee and Karen relocated to Ft. Pierce, Florida, to be near the headquarters of Missionary Flights International (MFI).  This brings them not only in contact with an agency (MFI) that served them while they lived in Haiti, but also with other missionary organizations in the Caribbean.  Swanee and Karen completed certification training for first responders in the case of natural disaster through Nazarene Disaster Response.  New ministries are beginning to emerge through these contacts.

In January 2007 a new Board of Directors was elected to guide GAP International into the future.  Many new GAP Partners will join Swanee and Karen in seeking to “stand in the gap” as they share the compassion of Christ with people in need.  Good days are ahead.