Michele Dove - Wife
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.
25,000 Japanese commit suicide every year. Yet in spite of this God is moving among young people. In Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar their is a strong church planting movement evolving. Our time there will be to equip and empower church planters with a means to develop sustainable income.
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.
The Walking Street in Angeles City has about 15,000 girls that are trafficked in bars working for barely any money. Many girls are here sent by their families or were tricked into believing they would be waitresses. Due to extreme poverty, they have no option but to stay and send money back to their parents.This street is for tourists - Wipe Every Tear sends mission teams out to do bar ministry and invite girls to a banquet and the Girls Getaway trip to experience freedom like never before! Wipe Every Tear secured their first safe home in 2012. Since then they have served 200+ women. They have had contact with about 25% of the Walking Street through meal distribution. I believe they now have 5 safe homes and have 90+ women in their care. The harvest is ripe and girls want to be set free!!
River Valley 500. We minister to the people of Thailand. We focus on Thai nationals who are discipling other people and then we help them. We also look for any lost or broken person that God brings into our life and we minister to them.
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.
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.
Rick has 2 main jobs. For his first job, he travels to campuses across the U.S.A. for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, doing training and evangelism with an apologetics emphasis. From 2010-2012, he worked at 40 different campuses. His second job involves serving as the InterVarsity staff member at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where there has been an active InterVarsity group since 1941.
Japan has a population of 126 million people with roughly 37 million of those living in the Tokyo area. We have close to 600,000 foreigners living in Tokyo with that number expected to rise dramatically in the next few years based on Japan's shrinking labor force. Less than 1% of Japan's population consider themselves an evangelical Christian, with an estimated 95% of the population never having had an adequate presentation of the gospel. It is widely recognized as the 2nd largest unreachable people group in the world. Japan also has one of the highest populations of elderly people in the world and one of the lowest birthrates in the world. Japan's culture is heavily influenced by Buddhism and Shintoism but with many living out an atheistic or agnostic existence. Our church is located directly across the street from Tokyo University, one of the largest universities in Japan. There are around 28,000 students currently enrolled there.
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.
Japan has 127 million people but less than 1% is Christian. We minister in Fukuoka city a 2.2 million. Japan is considered an Unreached People group by AGWM