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.
Tracy Lowenberg (Peterson) - Husband
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.
1 in 6 people in the world are considered disabled. This is over a billion people worldwide. One of the biggest unreached people groups
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.
CASA DE ORACION FAMILIAR - 12 CAMPUSES PRISONERS OF HOPE INTERNATIONAL - 14 Prisons Maximum Security Prisons - 3,169 Medium Security Prisons - 2-Year Intensive Discipleship - 1,295 National Prison Institute Training Academy - 1540 Police Department (DPI) - 185 Total Prisons - 14
Papua New Guinea is a land of almost 9 million people who speak over 800 different languages. For those almost 9 million people, there are only approximately 500 doctors in the country. Every year 1 in 20 children under the age of 5 will die. Many die from common things such as diarrhea from drinking contaminated water. About 40% of the country has no access to a source of clean water. While looking up statistics on PNG you will see that it is considered a Christian nation, it is very much in name only. While much of the coast has been evangelized as well as some of the bigger cities, when you go into the interior of PNG, you will be met with people who still live as they have for thousands of years. They still practice their animistic tribal customs. While some may have heard of Christianity and may even call themselves Christian, most will take one or two aspects of Christianity and merge them with their animistic beliefs. There is not a true separation and a turning away in many cases.
Chris and Julie are campus missionaries with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota.
Thailand has a population of around 70 million people. The country of Thailand is primarily Buddhist, roughly 5% Muslim, and around 1% believed to be Christian (as of 2021 according to the department of religious affairs). We will be staying in Chiang Mai Thailand which has a population of close to 2 million people and thrives on tourists coming from all around the world. From our experiences in Chiang Mai, there are a lot of young children who are open to hearing more about the Gospel and their parents are Buddhists. We are excited to go to Thailand as a family with young children to hopefully make more connections with families who are in a similar stage of life.
We will be in Valencia, Spain, the third largest city in Spain. Less than 1% of the population are born again believers, but I believe the time is now for Spain and there is a great harvest ready to be reaped.
Their passion and heart is to reach the unreached peoples of their region, planting multiplying churches among them, and to show God’s love to the poor and needy in their city. Its their dream that as people in these communities encounter Jesus, their lives, their families and ultimately their community would be radically transformed. That dream is starting to become reality and they are excited to see it continue to unfold!
Steve and Trina are missionaries with Assembly of God World Missions in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. They are serving as Team Leader Overseers of Live Dead East Africa. They have responsibility for teams in 6 countries. Their primary focus is church planting among unreached people groups and training. In addition, Trina ministers to young ladies.
While the Dominican Republic is not in a crisis situation like Haiti there has been an influx of hundreds of thousands of Haitian refugees including many children. The majority of these Haitians live in extreme poverty and are unable to utilize/access the DR medical facilities, schools or assistance programs due to their immigration status. We have partnered with 14 Haitian churches/Schools to implement the Sport Disciple programming into their curriculum.
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.