We have been appointed as church planting missionaries to join an established team in Nara, Japan. Japan is a country of 125M inhabitants, where only .5% of the population is Christian, and the number of believers and missionaries has been only shrinking for the last 30 years. Also, over 70% of Japanese church leaders are over the age of 70, which means that they are desperately hurting for the next generation to rise up and carry the torch of the gospel to their neighbors and fellow citizens. In our first year and a half in Japan, we have engaged most heavily in language learning and partnership with our local church, Nara New Life, who have been mentoring us in our future venture to start a church in the surrounding area. Our main focuses have been ministry through the vivacious young family community in our town: children's ministry, gymnastics class, local play room, parks, and soon Kaia will be joining our neighborhood pre-school. In addition we have been investing in relationships with a number of other individuals long-term, leading worship, and visiting Japanese churches around the country sharing our testimonies and building a network of national believers. Our current short term goals now: Continue language learning for another 2 years, 2024 begin surveying neighborhoods in summer for church plant (move spring 2025 to target area), establish parent relationships at Kaia's preschool.
I translated in Guatemala for a short-term missions team in 2010. I continued returning for two subsequent years. These trips were local construction projects, vacation Bible school, and outreach, assisting a Guatemalan church.
When I was 13 I heard the Lord say to me I was going to be a teacher, a preacher, and a missionary. I was not a believer myself, but grew up in a Christian home. For years after that, I kept getting the inclination that God was calling me to be part of his workforce, but I didn’t understand the Gospel until I was 23. I heard a guest speaker missionary at a church event I was invited to, and from that night on, I surrendered to the Lord and his commission to take the church to where it’s not.
Emi Duckett - Daughter
Ana Duckett - Wife
Kaia Duckett - Daughter
Lead Pastor of International Christian Assembly, a church of over 40 nationalities located in Bangkok, Thailand. Launch Chi Alpha at one of the largest Universities in the world in Bangkok. Continue to lead "Sealed" a ministry touching those enslaved in human trafficking.
Troy and Heidi Jo Darrin seek to minister to the spiritual and physical needs of the people of Moldova. They team up with national pastors in church planting and construction efforts, partner with Convoy of Hope in community outreaches and minister in churches every week, preaching and encouraging the congregations. In addition, Heidi is involved in working against human trafficking—especially that of young women—through prevention awareness and the discipling of young women.
The town of Garissa, Kenya is not too far from the Somali border and although a small town, there are a number of unreached people groups in and around the area. Most of the unreached tribes adhere to some form of Islam, but there is a definite stratification of class and religion within the town between the ethnic Kenyan's and the ethnic Somali's. Our site leader and his family have been in the town for 17 years working on building a small farm in the desert out side of town with modern desert farming techniques alongside an unreached tribe. Through the farm work and bringing medical doctors to this unreached tribe he has built up trust and respect in the community and has been teaching bible studies for the past 17 plus years. We would be joining his team but not necessarily the farm work as there are other unreached people groups in the area that also need to hear the gospel and can be reached through different methods that we plan to join/create.
Ian and Sheila equip Romanian churches in Europe. They teach evangelism, and minister to the needs of Romanian nationals on many levels of care and outreach.
PAThs based out of Lomé, Togo represents 32 countries (29 African, and 3 Western) Three quarters of our students hold executive positions in their National Church in Africa. More to come!
Estonia is a small country, about 1/5 the size of Minnesota with just 1.3 million people. About 400,000 of them live in Tallinn, the city we live and work in. Estonia is one of the least religious countries in the world. Only 14 percent believe religion has any influence on their lives, and less than 1 percent are Evangelical Christian (Pentecostal, Baptist, or Methodist). After centuries of various occupations, Estonia was established as a country in 1918, but Soviet and Nazi occupations would follow. Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The country is around 70 percent Estonian and 20 percent Russian, although some border cities are up to 90 percent Russian. Despite such a difficult past, Estonia leads the way technologically. Skype, Pipedrive, and Wise were all born in Estonia, and it's not uncommon to see delivery robots pass by on the sidewalk.
Amazon River Basin has 306 tribal groups, the majority of which are unengaged/unreached. 900,000 people populate those tribes
Mark and Janie have served as missionaries in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, since 1994, where they have been involved in university campus ministry, leadership development, and church planting. Through their “Churches for Churches” program, the Durenes are helping with new church plants in 5 cities, including Teung, where River Valley Church partnered to launch the church. Currently, they are helping to train several other potential church planters, and also serve as mentors to many other pastors throughout the northern Thailand area. In addition, they are the directors of the Global University Thai’s second Bachelor’s program, where they are training current and future Thai ministers. Mark serves as the AGMF Thailand Country Moderator, as well as on several national boards, including Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand (Northern region); Every Home for Christ, Thailand; Thailand AG Northern Region Board of Presbyters; and others. Janie writes Sunday school curriculum for several churches and directs the children’s program at a church in Chiang Mai.
River Valley 500. Amada is full time staff in the health care ministry at Youth With A Mission in Perth, Australia. She leads the Birth Attendant School, an 11 month training program that trains missionaries to be birth attendants in developing nations. Part of this school is an 8 month field assignment, where Amada leads teams of students and trains them in vital areas of mother and child health in pregnancy, birth and postpartum, working in low resourced hospitals throughout Africa and Asia.
One in five Gen Z adults now identify as LGBTQ+ while that number for other generations of adults (Boomers, Gen X, even Millennials) has remained the same - showing the impact that the woke media is having on our younger generation. Also, nearly 50% of students are now non-religious, one of the fastest growing demographics on our college campuses. The Secular Student Alliance (actually being promoted by some schools) is a growing organization on our campuses.