It started with a question asked in a circle.
“Where did you see God move in your life today?”
The seminary campus in Haiti — aerial view of the buildings and community grounds where Brian led ministry and 140+ teams served since 2007.
our story’s roots
For almost twenty years, Haiti was my classroom.
Since 2007 I have had the privilege of leading ministry there, serving the Christian church through building projects: church buildings, a seminary, farmland, wells, goat farms and other work meant to keep feeding people long after our teams flew home. Along the way I led more than 140 missionary teams who worked shoulder to shoulder with our Haitian brothers and sisters.
One lesson outran all the others. Spiritual growth explodes when people step out of their comfort zone and share fellowship, prayer and honest discovery while serving others. Every night on those trips we pulled our chairs into a circle and asked that one question — where did you see God move in your life today? — and what came out of it changed people.
Then the circle went quiet. COVID and gang unrest in Haiti stopped the trips for two years, and the relational discipleship we had come to treasure went silent with them. In the middle of that season of closed doors, I got a text from JoJo, a pastor and seminary graduate in Haiti, telling me to keep the eyes of my heart open for another country. I assumed he meant another island where we could start building again. God had somewhere closer in mind. Sanford, Florida. Our own backyard.
In mid 2023 I joined a men's discipleship group and something fresh began to stir. After months of prayer we answered God's call to launch a men's discipleship ministry right here at home, and 'backyard' is not a figure of speech. An unsolicited gift of $25,000 arrived to build a deck. Two months later we held our first gathering on it.
What started as a single gathering on a new deck has grown into several weekly groups, men's and co-ed, where younger and more seasoned believers open Scripture together, wrestle with it honestly, pray, and encourage one another to fight the good fight of faith. True to our roots, team time never stopped.
We would love for you to be part of this, whether you pull up a chair or help us set one out.
Where the question was born.
Brian led more than 140 mission teams in Haiti, building churches, a seminary, wells, and farmland. Every night ended with one question in a circle:“where did you see God move in your life today?”
140+ Mission Teams & Goat Farms
Mission teams working shoulder to shoulder with Haitian brothers and sisters, developing sustainable goat farms and wells.
Partnership & Sustainable Farmland
Brian Stout alongside local ministry partners and agricultural farmland cultivated to feed families for years to come.
Under the tree, built with our own hands.
In 2023 an unsolicited $25,000 gift arrived to build the deck. Two months later, the first circle of chairs was set out on it.
1. Clearing the ground
Staking out the footprint under the shade tree in the Sanford backyard.
2. Framing the deck
The men framing the platform right around the trunk of the live oak.
3. Built together
The crew on build day. An unsolicited $25,000 gift made the deck possible.
People who live where they serve.
Brian Stout
Brian has spent almost twenty years serving the church in Haiti, through building projects that outlast a visit: church buildings, a seminary, wells, farmland and goat farms that keep feeding people long after a team flies home. He led more than 140 mission teams, and every one of those trips ended the same way, chairs pulled into a circle and one question going around it: where did you see God move in your life today? When COVID and gang unrest closed Haiti for two years, the question followed him home. Shade Tree started on a backyard deck in Sanford, built with a gift nobody asked for, and one gathering has since become several. He and his wife Kathy raised their family in Central Florida, and they are not done. Through Shade Tree the family keeps growing, one chair at a time.
Miguel Hernandez
Long before there was a Shade Tree table, Miguel was setting out chairs of his own. He founded Men of Faith, an annual retreat he led for four years to pull men out of their routines and into honest conversation about following Jesus + brotherhood. He and his wife Lynn have built their marriage around the same conviction, taking biblical principles out of the Sunday category and applying them to real decisions, real money and real family. A business owner by day, Miguel is in the habit of asking the question everyone is avoiding, and that turns out to be a gift at a discipleship table.
Tom Adams
Tom walks closely with the Lord and leads the Friday morning Men's gathering at Carter Road. As a guide, his job is simple and hard at the same time: keep the conversation anchored in Scripture, and say the thing a younger believer needs to hear even when it is not the comfortable thing.
Pull up a chair, or help us set one out.
We would love for you to be part of this — whether you sit in the circle or help us start the next one.