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.
My first missions experience was in the summer of 2014. I went to Tallinn to visit a friend who was a missionary associate there. Although I was mostly just on vacation, I was able to help with events like Focus Church’s first kids camp (largely staffed by volunteers from Eden Prairie Assembly of God).
I will try to make a very long story short! I was not called from a young age. I actually went to college to be a journalist, and spent six years as a newspaper reporter near my hometown in Missouri. By the fall of 2013, I felt it was time to move on to something else and began applying for reporting jobs in neighboring states. But my home church held a missions convention in the spring of 2014, and that’s when I realized I needed to at least consider missions. It was quite a leap. I didn’t have a passport. I’d never been on a plane, even for a domestic flight. I’d never been on a missions trip, even in the U.S. I was initially drawn to Poland and contacted missionaries there, who invited me to visit them. I also talked with my friend Shannon Huett (now Kiprits), who was the only missionary I knew personally. She invited me to visit her. I knew I would have difficulty getting off work (by that time my company had me working as a reporter at a daily newspaper and editor of a weekly), and that I would tempted to come back to the security of that after my trip. So shortly before I left, I quit! I visited Krakow and loved Poland. I was invited to join the team there. But I was also invited to join the team in Tallinn. And although I went to scope out Poland, when I got home all I could think or talk about was church planting in Estonia! I applied to be an MA shortly after I returned home. After the application process and itinerating, I left in December 2015 for one year in Tallinn.
Church Plant Team Member with Focus Church in Tallinn, Estonia. Estonia is one of the least religious countries in the world, but our team's vision is to "change the spiritual destiny of Estonia." My broad title reflects my willingness to serve where needed; my roles have included young adults ministry leader, children's ministry leader, and marketing manager. As I prepare for a second term, I anticipate more emphasis on training others (namely Estonians) to serve and lead.
98% unreached - There are more '7-11 convenient stores' than churches. Most people have never been in a church building, or spoken with another Christian . . .BUT the past 3 years have seen unprecedented growth, with thousands of people being baptized in a day multiple different times in Central Thailand! God is on the move and we get to be a part of it!
Chris and Lindsey Carter are missionaries in Japan. They are transitioning from the Philippines where they ministered for three years. Chris will be teaching at Central Bible College in Tokyo starting a Master of Divinity Program. Lindsey's involvment will be children’s ministry. Together they will participate in church planting and evangelism.
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 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.
The territory of The Gambia was annexed from the French and became a British colony in the 1700's. It served as the main hub for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It became an independent nation in 1965, becoming the smallest country on the continent of Africa. English is the official language. Poverty is at 48% nationwide. The Gambia is a 96% Islamic country. There are less that 0.01% evangelical believers living there now with no prevoius record of an Assemblies of God presence.
The Portuguese speaking nations of Africa are home to some of the largest and fastest growing churches in Africa. The growth has greatly out-paced Biblically trained leadership needed to conserve help establish new believers in the faith and preserve established believers in that faith. The Assemblies of God in Angola with its 2.5 million members, is the second largest AG church in Africa, followed closely by Mozambique with nearly 2 million. The Bible college we began in Angola in 2012, since December, 2023, under complete Angolan leadership and we continue serving in a mentoring/consultant ministry. We have been asked to help in the same manner in Mozambique and will spend a part of February in that country.
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.
Mike and MonaRe’s mission field is Latin America, where they work primarily in evangelism and international ministry, in addition to leadership training.
Indonesia is the fourth most populated nation in the world; approximately 266 million people in which more than 80% are followers of Islam. Though with social and political persecution, Indonesian Constitution allows freedom of 5 major religion including Protestant churches. They allowed the Indonesian church to invite missionaries with religious visas, which is invaluable for evangelism.
Joanne Oftedahl teaches and serves as Student Missions Advisor at Immanuel Bible College, Cebu Philippines. She preaches, teaches, and helps provide resources for evangelism and discipleship in local churches of Cebu and neighboring Islands.
Cape Town, with a population is 4.5 million people, is known across the continent as the Mother City and is one of the most influential cities on the continent of Africa. With the average age being 29 years old, there is great potential to reaching many university students, young professionals, and families. Nestled behind Table Mountain is the University of Cape Town which is the premier university in all of Africa. Our goal is to launch a thriving Chi Alpha ministry in this influential university of almost 30,000 students. Cape Town is also the Parliamentary capital of South Africa and boasts other major industries like manufacturing, tourism, oil and gas, agriculture, marketing and media in addition to Information Technology an
As of June 1st, 54,325,725 Gospel Presentations, 2,759,142 Evangelism Responses, and 458,621 Discipleship Connection. All in 242 countries and territories, as tracked by Google.