Our mission field covers a vast area. The eleven countries that make up Southern Africa are home to 182 million people, 50% of which are under the age of 18. AGWM currently has approximately 80 missionaries in Southern Africa. Animism is rampant throughout Southern Africa. Animism is regularly mixed in with “Christianity;” creating a form of folk-Christianity that is leading unknowing people to hell. This creates a significant challenge for the advancement of the Gospel because people think they are “Christians” when they are not. Due to inadequate discipleship – many “Christians” continue to pray to their ancestors and visit witchdoctors. As a result, beneath a thin veneer labeled “Christianity”- spiritual darkness and the scourge of lostness remains pervasive throughout Southern Africa. Unreached groups of people are desperately underserved and continuing to wait for the hope of the Gospel to reach them.
Mindy Hines - Wife
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.
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.
River Valley 500. Staffing and leading (directing) DTS: This includes being a mentor and walking alongside students in this 3 month lecture phase and leading the 2 month international outreach. -Worship and music ministry: We get to lead worship at our YWAM base and once a month at our local church, Horizonte. Currently we are leading worship for our summer Mission Adventures teams (highschool/college teams that come back-to-back for a week camp to be trained in evangelism and go out into our community and share Jesus). We’ve also been a part of the music ministry called Contraste where we play music in cafes/restaurants and use it as a tool to draw people in to evangelize. -Homes of Hope: Building homes for families living in poverty in our community. My husband and I get to host teams and be a part of the 2-3 day house builds. My husband has also been a part of the family-selection team.
John focuses on apostolic work on the University of Minnesota campus (most recently with fraternities) and is an associate pastor at Sojourn Campus Church in Minneapolis. Jolene is currently seeking strategic direction on how to reach the U of M arts community as an independent choreographer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Gruetzmachers work directly with Hispanics here in the United States and within several countries in Latin America. Their main focus is to develop leaders, and their schedule is filled with ministry to Hispanic churches; coaching pastors and leaders; leading mission trips with Hispanic students; holding retreats for men, women, and youth; leadership training; and working with 2 Institutes for Church Planters.
The Carranos’ ministry is to young adults/students in Spain, as well as church planting & leadership development.
Dareth and Thida are working to plant churches among the unreached Khmer people of Cambodia. They are using multiple approaches to accomplish this goal, including a compassion ministry that focuses on children through school and feeding programs.