Samaritan’s Purse Vice President Inspires Others With Stories of Front-Line Ministry

by Staff Writer   |     |  
For 35 years, Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations at Samaritan’s Purse, has never avoided places that people typically flee from. He details decades of high-risk, yet life-giving, ministry in a new book, “Running to the Fire.”

Ken Isaacs always comes back to the parable of the Good Samaritan—a Bible story about loving and serving others. There’s one particular verse that sticks out to him: “You go, and do likewise” (Luke 10:37, ESV).

That command has guided Isaacs through more than three decades of ministry, which he describes in his new book, “Running to the Fire.” During his time with disaster relief organisation Samaritan’s Purse, he’s seen his share of natural and man-made destruction—from the 1994 Rwandan genocide to the 2011 Japanese tsunami—yet he’s also seen the Lord’s mercy in it all.

Isaacs signed copies of his book at the Billy Graham Library on Tuesday.

Ken Isaacs, a former well-driller from Boone, N.C., answered God’s call to open water sources in Ethiopia during the 1989 famine. Little did he know that the Lord would use this “yes” as a catalyst for a lifetime of ministry.
As people waited to have their books signed, one woman said she looks forward to reading about “the little ways God worked” in Isaacs’ life. His story details years of answered prayers while responding to global events.
“This is my prayer, that all of us would run to the fire in whatever God is calling us to do. It doesn’t necessarily have to be into war zones and epidemic zones,” Isaacs said to the crowd.
“From the pages of Scripture, we find that it’s not what any of us can’t do; it’s about what He can do,” wrote Isaacs in his new book. Through the Lord’s power, Isaacs has worked in some of the hardest regions of the world.