Ian and Helen Thomson live in Southampton, England. They have four children and four grandchildren. Ian has served as the President of Bringing Good News since its beginning in 2002.
A Welcome from Ian Thomson
My Name is Ian Thomson and I manage a small property company in England. In 1996, I attended a Christian conference and during that event I developed a clear sense that God wanted me to bring good news to the poor.
After the conference I spent the next two years wondering what this meant and who were the poor that I was to help. Then, in 1998, I visited an orphanage in Ukraine. I lived in the orphanage with the children for two weeks and those two weeks changed my life. I no longer asked the question who were the poor. The answer was obvious. I was sure that I could do something to help these children.
I returned home to England and started to think how I could assist them. I began to regularly visit orphanages and internats in Ukraine, giving practical help to improve the conditions for the children. Internats are very poor, State-run institutions with a mixture of orphans and vulnerable children from very poor families.
As the work developed, I formed a UK registered charity in December of 2002 and with the help of the Missions pastor and friends at The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL, links were formed in the United States.
The work of Bringing Good News continued to develop, not only helping those in great need in Ukraine, but also in Central Asia and Africa. This led to Bringing Good News USA being formed and registered as a USA 501 C3 in 2006.