Howdy! I’m Andy!
Family (March 2020)
Howdy everyone, I’m Andy Dommert, the new Executive Director of Sending Out Servants (SOS).
While I was in college at Texas A&M I noticed that on the wall next to the pictures of their Medal of Honor winners was the inscription of John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, then to lay down one’s life for a friend.”
“Greater love hath no man than this, then to lay down ones life for a friend.”
I remember thinking, “Wow these men truly sacrificed their lives for their fellow soldiers! I wonder if I could ever do that? If I would, do it?” Then I realized that very few of the usual citizens will ever get the chance to take a bullet or jump on a grenade to save someone else.
Andy & Valerie (March 2020)
Only years later, after I was married and we had kids did I really comprehend the full impact of this verse. Valerie and I have been married for 28 years and we have four wonderful kids with ages ranging 22-13. Anyone that is in a loving marriage and/or has kids in their life, you know there are sacrifices you must make. Whether it’s giving your last shrimp on your plate to your lovely wife, leaving the zoo early because a little one will not settle down, or waking at 4:30 am on a Saturday for a swim meet, you have to sacrifice for these relationships. And you may complain a bit (there is not enough coffee that early on a Saturday morning), but you make the sacrifice for the benefit of the other.
This is what this verse means to me now. Giving of yourself, “laying down your life,” your wants, your desires, “for a friend,” a coworker, a neighbor, a son/daughter, or spouse.
In my working life I have worked for small non-profits, meeting planning companies, large and small corporations, founded a small youth fundraising company, Honor with Flags, and eventually, the last 20 years in the oil & gas business as a contractor and employee focused on computer system implementations and training. Over all this time I have learned and grown as a Catholic business man.
Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia (2011)
I have developed and delivered training in over 15 countries and had representatives from many more cultures than that in my classes. Now, I am excited to use all my varied experiences and “lay down my life” for SOS.
Sending Out Servants, as a “ministry of presence,” meets the indigenous Maya of Guatemala where they area. We work with the people, not bringing them “hand-outs” but partnership, relationship, and love.
We become “friends” with our brothers and sisters in Guatemala. It may not be a huge sacrifice but laying down your life, just for one week, for our friends in Guatemala makes a huge, lifelong change in our missionaries as well as the people we are encountering.
God Bless everyone and I look forward to meeting you as soon as possible!
Please pray for me and for the continued success of SOS!
Our Lady of Guadalupe… Pray for us!
St. Joseph…. Pray for us!
Blessed Stanley Rother… Pray for us!
Blessed Martyrs of Quiché… Pray for us!
MALTIOX! (“Thank you” in in Maya-Quiché)