Jean coaches worldwide church leaders in Asia, Africa and the U.S.A. on how to conceptualize, plant, cultivate and multiply churches and ministries that are indigenous in nature. She makes sure to do this in ways that are culturally relevant, self-functioning, self-determining, self-supporting, self-propagating and self-giving, and that promote a healthy self-image and a healthy community-image.
A few days after her graduation from North Central Bible College in 1986, Jean began the journey of planting a church among Cambodians in St. Paul, Minnesota. Because of her training in cross-cultural communications, her first strategic action step was to move into a Cambodian community and “do life” with them. For 6 years, Jean lived among the Cambodians. Their family struggles became her family struggles, their weeping became her weeping, their celebrations became her celebrations, and their laughter became her laughter. After those 6 years, she then headed to Cambodia to serve as a missionary, where she spent another 16 years among the beautiful Cambodian people.
Jean was called to be a missionary during her High School years in St. Paul, Minnesota, through her exposure to and friendships with Cambodian, Hmong, and Vietnamese refugees.
The International Assemblies of God in South Africa has approximately 340 churches. The IAG has a mammoth job to reach more people and plant more churches in South Africa.One of the most effective and substantial ways to accomplish this and to engage the ever increasing population of 64 million people in South Africa in through a healthy local pastor leading a healthy and thriving local church. Healthy pastors lead churches into greater health, which reach more people and plant more churches. This is the desire and goal of the Healthy Pastor Healthy Church initiative.
Proclaiming Jesus to the hockey world through chapel programs and hockey camps! Our family is currently serving the Minnesota hockey community at the youth level!
Jamie and Tasha Kemp are passionately engaged with Unreached People Groups (UPGs), working to establish a Christian presence in the unreached areas of Indonesia. The Kemps’ main focus is campus ministry- reaching Muslim University students. Jamie also trains churches on how to start local youth ministries.
Luke and Tanya McKinley’s mission field is the country of Estonia. Their primary focus is church planting in Tallinn, Estonia. They work with a team of missionaries in a multiplication network.
Taiwan is predominantly a Buddhist and Taoist practicing country. 19% of the population is still unreached (roughly 4.5 million people), but only 3.3% are evangelical; leaving over 23 million people who have yet to accept the Gospel.
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.
We serve the nearly 1500 MKs living in almost 200 countries, territories and provinces around the globe. One of the leading causes for missionary families to leave the field is because of concerns or needs of their kids. Our goal is to serve MKs and their parents so they can continue in long-term ministry even in difficult and hostile environments. MKs face the same challenges that their non-MK counterparts face. The difficulty for many is the added pressure of constant cultural change and adjustment.
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.
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.
Our mission field is in a university town called Potchefstroom South Africa. The general population is university students, Afrikaans families, township communities and very few internationals. South Africa is extremely culturally diverse and acts as almost a ‘melting pot’ of Africa! There are 11 official languages spoken in this nation. The various religious beliefs here are Christianity, African religions, Islam, and Hinduism.
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.