River Valley 500. Our focus is equipping local Christian leaders (for Venture and with our local church) in hard to reach (tough) places in SE Asia with resources to help them share the Gospel, plant churches, and build the Kingdom of God.
Jotham Smith - Son
Alaithia Smith - Daughter
Krista Smith - Wife
Lila Farmer’s mission field is located in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan). The ministry is to provide leadership seminars to indigenous churches and humanitarian aid to rural communities. The organizations she serves are platforms to share the lifesaving truth of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Ryan and Andrea Crozier minister in Bucharest, Romania where they work to prevent human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Raegan's ministry in Romania has a three-fold mission: First to care for adandoned infants. Second to assist foster care programs for adandon children. Third to provide maternal care in a facility offering mothers alternatives to adandonment. Raegan is the network facilitator for Europe's compassion care network as well as the lead pastor at the International Church in Bucharest, Romania.
Chad and Dargain work in North America and minister all over the globe. Their focus is on the missionary families. Chad directs every aspect of the Missionary Kid ministry, from pre-field to re-entry. As a former missionary to Europe, he also still does a few youth camps in Europe.
Patrick works as the coordinator of 4 schools for Bethany International Missions in Brazil and Paraguay, and his role has mainly been to expand the school programs in partnership with other churches and missions. Patrick also helps with supervision and member care for expatriate missionaries in the South American region. Both Patrick and Nedra are writers and will have books published in Portuguese in 2012.
I’m serving all over the continent of Africa. At the moment, leadership has asked me to temporarily base out of Springfield with the Africa’s Hope team here until a decision is made about where on the continent a new Africa’s Hope team will be based. Until then, I’m traveling regularly to different countries around Africa to teach, meet with church leaders and translation teams, and be involved with a variety of other ministry.
The Kenyons are missionaries to the Youth Culture of Panama and present the gospel to students in the high schools of Panama City. They are launching a Youth Church that will establish a model to other churches in Panama of how to incorporate the emerging generation into their community without requiring them to meet an unstated list of rules and regulations in order to enter the premises or participate in the church community. This church will also provide a place where Panamanian students can retreat to feel safe, valued, and heard…a REFUGE. This REFUGE will house and rehabilitate abused girls within the context of the church.
Burundi is one of the youngest countries in the world. In a country of about 15.5 million people, almost half of them are under the age of 14. Its also the poorest country in the world by GDP per capita. Its GDP per capita in 2021 was $221.48. About 85% of the population claims to be Christian but it’s a very syncretistic version of Christianity. They still visit witch doctors when they are sick, and are worried about the spirits of their ancestors. Burundi has a history of ethnic tensions, genocide, and protected civil war and is an under educated country.
1 in 6 people in the world are considered disabled. This is over a billion people worldwide. One of the biggest unreached people groups