The program was started by three people: Valerie Thompson, Lisa Smith and Larisa Filatova. Valerie is an adoptive parent of 8 Russian orphans and lives in Midland, Michigan. Lisa Smith has been a Russian adoption facilitator since 1993, who lived in Russia for 8 years and has helped over 600 Russian orphans to find their forever homes. Larisa Filatova is a Russian citizen now living and working in the US managing the logistics of growing the Lighthouse program in different cities.
The program started as a result of having invited the kids of Lisa Smith's Russian adoption coordinators, from Russia, to visit Valerie Thompson and her friends in Midland, Michigan during the summer of 1998. All the kids had a great time and Valerie together with Lisa began talking about doing a similar trip the following summer, but next time, with orphans. The vacation bible school was a key component of the trip as it still is today. It is the main thing that makes our program different from the many other Russian orphan hosting programs around the country.
The first group of 18 orphans arrived for our first Lighthouse trip in the summer of 1999 to Midland, MI. Many of the children became adopted. Subsequent Lighthouse trips began to happen as a result of the interest generated from the first trip. Our friends in other states began to be interested to know more about the program and offered to do Lighthouse trips to their own states; with the key component of the trip remaining the vacation bible school activity program during the 10 day stay.
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