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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 provide in-person and virtual support, through services such as counseling, coaching, debriefing, and training. Our ministry enables missionaries and their families to receive these services at affordable costs. We will not turn away missionary families due to finances; we offer financial aid and scholarships to help reduce costs.

Mission

Our mission is to support cross-cultural missionaries and their families before they depart, while they are serving internationally, and long after they return.

 

Our services include:

1. Coaching and Counseling

2. Debriefings

3. Pre-field Training and Consulting

4. Support communities for Missionaries and their families

5. Member Care Trainings for Churches

Statement of Faith

Our Statement of Faith

  • We believe the Bible to be the only inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God.

  • ​We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and The Holy Spirit.

  • We believe that humans were created in the image of God, but disobeyed God and
    are alienated from God and condemned to eternal death.

  • We believe that God the Father prepared a plan of salvation, a means of being united in fellowship with God, by sending His Son to become a human man though a virgin birth, so that He is fully God and fully human. Jesus lived a sinless life fully pleasing to God, was crucified on a cross by order of Pontius Pilate, and rose again the third day by the power of the Holy Spirit. After appearing to the apostles, he ascended to the right hand of God the Father. We wait for his promised return to Earth to reign in power and glory.

  • We believe that our salvation comes through faith and trust in Jesus as our representative and substitute sacrifice whose death satisfied God the Father’s justice. We believe that those who have faith in Christ will, after physical death, be resurrected into the presence of God for eternity. We believe that those who reject faith in Christ are eternally separated from God after their physical death.

  • ​We believe that each person who trusts Jesus is indwelt by The Holy Spirit, who makes us spiritually alive. He lives in us to teach us, convict us, comfort us, and to enable us to live a godly life. The Spirit also works in us to bring unity to all those who have faith in Christ. We also believe that the Spirit helps us to recognize the image of God in all people, so that all people must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity.

  • We believe that God wonderfully created each person as distinctly and unchangeably male or female. We believe that marriage was created and sanctioned by God; God joins one man and one woman in a single and exclusive union. Any form of sexual intimacy outside of marriage is sexually immoral and is a sin against God. Sexual immorality includes, but is not limited to, adultery, fornication, homosexual conduct, and pornography.

This Statement of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible itself is the sole and final source of all that we believe. We do believe, however, that the foregoing Statement of Faith accurately represents the teaching of the Bible, and, therefore, is binding upon all directors and employees of the Corporation.

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