Jim & Diana Frantz
Jim and Diana Frantz reside in Bogota, Colombia with their youngest son, Matias (16). Jim is originally from Valley City, North Dakota and graduated from Northwestern College (now the University of Northwestern) in Roseville, Minnesota with a Certificate in Biblical Arts and from the University of Minnesota where he studied International Development and Cross-Cultural Communications. Diana is a native of Bogota, Colombia and has a degree in Journalism (Social Communications) from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogotá and a post grad degree in Teaching Foreign Languages from the Pedagogy University in Bogota.
Jim and Diana met at church in Colombia while Jim was doing an internship in Bogota in 1986. They were married on January 16, 1988 and moved to Minneapolis where Jim worked with Land O’Lakes, Inc in the International Development department and Diana taught Spanish. In 1993, Land O’Lakes promoted Jim to Regional Director of Southeastern Europe where he managed their agricultural and agribusiness management programs in Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and Hungary. During their time in Bulgaria, Diana started a preschool for English speaking children, primarily the missionary community. After two years living in Sofia, Bulgaria, they were offered the position of Latin America Regional Director by Opportunity International, a Christian microfinance organization.
Jim helped expand the work of extending microfinance loans and economic, social and spiritual training to over 93,000 families in poor communities throughout Latin America. Diana stayed at home with the children and then started teaching at El Camino Academy, a missionary school in Bogota, where she continues part time today.
In 2014, God closed the door to the work with Opportunity International and after prayer and rest, Jim started to work independently forming Savings Groups in poor communities in and around Bogota. God brought together a group of supporters who helped finance the start up of Investing Hope Foundation promoting community economic development through savings and entrepreneurship groups and Biblically based financial training in Bogota. Over the last five years, Investing Hope Foundation has grown to serve over 1,100 adults and 3,600 children and youth. Last year, in a pandemic, our participants saved over $91,000 USD. Jim continues to direct this initiative and Diana supports the development of the training materials for the children. Together they are helping children understand important principles, the most important being there is a God that loves them and desires to give them hope and a future.
Jim and Diana have four children, three who are adults and married. Their daughter, Laura and her husband, Daniel Olson and their two sons, Samuel and Isaac, live in Fort Worth, Texas where Daniel is a doctor and Laura is a nurse. Their son, Lucas, and wife Kelsey, work for International Justice Mission in Washington, DC. Elias (son) and his wife Ximena just finished their university degrees and are working in Richmond, Virginia. Matias is a 10th grader at El Camino Academy in Bogota.