History

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, moved slowly across Honduras with torrential rain soaking the small Central American nation. As people clung to trees, cataclysmic flooding literally wiped entire towns off the map. Working closely with CAM International and Samaritan’s Purse, Matt McCormick and Shane Gauthier helped organize initial relief efforts to rebuild “New Morolica” on the plains across from the ruins of Morolica in the hardest hit Choluteca province.

It was during those days that the Paulos Group, in concept, was born.

Providence led the Gauthiers to join Fellowship International Mission and return to Honduras. In 2005, at the request of Mayo Clinic doctors working in Africa, they relocated to Kenya to oversee field operations of eight Hope Centers. The Gauthiers moved to Haiti in 2011.

After an initial visit to Haiti in 1999, and completing studies at Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College, the McCormicks moved to Haiti in 2007. Immediately following the earthquake, Matt helped create a fuel supply line from the Dominican Republic, keeping hospitals, utilities and government services online in Haiti.

Amidst growing trends of patronization, dependence, paternalism and profiteering in modern “missions”—in these very places, Matt and Shane reunited their families and established the Paulos Group in 2010.