About
HISTORY
Betty Ann Sullins, our founder, went home to be with the Lord December 28, 2020. She was 94. Betty had a passion for helping missionaries around the world. In 1991, she started Mission Nannys, an organization that focuses on sending people to help with missionary children’s education and their domestic responsibilities to enable them to focus on the mission work
Mission Nannys seeks to glorify God among mission families through the domestic and teaching services of mature, humble women who volunteer to travel and meet particular needs. Through the years we have sent hundreds of women, young and old, for this purpose.
Betty wrote a book that aims to show you how God used the vision of one woman to bring about the domestic needs of missionary families with the excitement of travel and seeing the world. Learn more about Betty’s Book, “Mission Nannys: Serving Missionaries Around the World“.
Mission Nannys is a IRS-approved non-profit religious organization (501c3), serving across many denominations.
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT*
- We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
- We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
- We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
* As adopted by the National Association of Evangelicals.
How it Started
A Mary Poppins for missionaries? Betty Sullins of Trinity Baptist Church, Santa Barbara, CA was visiting a missionary friend who had returned from the field stressed out and tired following major surgery. ‘Missionary families could sure use help,’ the woman confided. ‘When illness strikes, when they have to choose between homeschooling or ministry tasks, when other problems arise, they have no family members or other support nearby to turn to.
Then an idea suddenly hit them: ‘What’s needed is a temporary Mary Poppins to help them over the rough spots.’ A mother of four boys and two girls, Sullins knows how valuable domestic help is for young families. A widow since the early ’70s, she had retired early after 27 years as a federal employee and then worked at several Christian colleges. Later, when her children married and began families, she lived with them for months at a time as they needed ‘nanny’ help.
In 1990, encouraged by her friend, Sullins created Mission Nannys, contacting mission boards and recruiting women to be nannies. By August 1991 the IRS had officially recognized Mission Nannys. In her 60s then, Sullins put her vision into action by serving as a nanny in Italy, spending three months helping a new missionary family who had an 18-month-old child and were expecting another. Because of her, they could attend language school.
Later she twice was a mission nanny in Japan and Taiwan. Sullins based Mission Nannys on Titus 2:3-5,7: ‘Teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live…. Then they can train the younger women …. (and) in everything set them an example by doing what is good.
Today Mission Nannys serve worldwide, helping young missionary families three to six months or as needed. Although no magical Mary Poppins, they miraculously manage cooking, baby-sitting, home schooling and meeting other needs.
We continue to need nannies for missionary families currently serving throughout the world. You can view our current openings here.