About Us
Compass Ministries, Inc. is a 501(c)3 Christian non-profit organization founded by Cindy Duff in May of 2012 to provide free pastoral counseling and debriefing to missionaries and their families active in the field or relocating to the Tampa Bay area. Not long after the ministry's existence, an overwhelming need became apparent to provide a cultural transition house for adult third-culture kids of missionaries returning to the United States to mitigate the crisis of these hidden immigrants struggling with having a cross-cultural identity in a monocultural environment, Compass Ministries opened a discipleship house for men in cooperation with D & D Missionary Housing facilities in 2014. The same year, Compass started an Annual Southeastern college-age missionary's Kids retreat to help them learn how to better integrate into the American Culture and, among other things assist in their recovery from identity loss. After a few years, Compass partnered with Concourse- the Adult Third Culture Kids ministry of Barnabas International to expand this retreat to include a post-college adult Third Culture kids retreat in Tampa, Florida. In partnership with Interaction International, Compass also helps to staff the Transit Lounge program - a two-week reentry seminar for middle schoolers and high schoolers during the summer. In 2020 Compass opened the Ruth House, a women's discipleship home for missionary kids providing help with cultural transition issues, emotional and mental health issues, social and life skills needs. Since its inception Compass Ministries has grown to add pastoral counselors, licensed mental health counselors, mental health trained support coaches, addiction recovery facilitators, and spiritual directors to provide vital services to missionary families.
Vision
Our vision is to make Tampa Bay a welcoming place for missionaries and their families. We do this by building a missionary care center that provides rest, equipping, restoration, and healing through a trained community of volunteers, pastoral counselors, mental health counselors, coaches, and spiritual directors at the lowest to no cost to the missionaries.
Mission
Our mission is to serve individuals and families that work overseas in ministry or development work through:
1. Pre-field training and consulting
2. Counseling and coaching services while on assignment
3. Reintegration assistance into US culture upon their return.
Our mission also serves the college-aged and adult children of expats and missionary workers who need assistance in reintegrating into their passport culture.