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.
Steve's first missions experience was in 1985 when he went on a team (which included Pastor Rob Ketterling) to India. Trina's first missions experience was to Zambia in 1996.
(Steve) Vice Chancellor, Pan Africa Theological Seminary Lome, Togo (Trina) Africa AG Alliance Women in Ministry Missionary Representative
Josiah Pennington - Son
Priscilla Pennington - Daughter
Micah Pennington - Son
Trina Pennington - Wife
River Valley 500. Amada is full time staff in the health care ministry at Youth With A Mission in Perth, Australia. She leads the Birth Attendant School, an 11 month training program that trains missionaries to be birth attendants in developing nations. Part of this school is an 8 month field assignment, where Amada leads teams of students and trains them in vital areas of mother and child health in pregnancy, birth and postpartum, working in low resourced hospitals throughout Africa and Asia.
The Kenyons are missionaries to the Youth Culture of Panama and present the gospel to students in the high schools of Panama City. They are launching a Youth Church that will establish a model to other churches in Panama of how to incorporate the emerging generation into their community without requiring them to meet an unstated list of rules and regulations in order to enter the premises or participate in the church community. This church will also provide a place where Panamanian students can retreat to feel safe, valued, and heard…a REFUGE. This REFUGE will house and rehabilitate abused girls within the context of the church.
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.
Thailand is a primarily Buddhist country with little access to the gospel. Out of the 71.8 million people in Thailand, 71 million are not Christ-Followers. Yes, you read that right, 99.4% of Thais are unreached. In our province of Chumphon, there are 732 villages and only 26 evangelical churches. With a population of over 550,000, only 1,200 (0.2%) in our province are Christians.
Almost 18 million people, .2% evangelical, over 90% Muslim, 26 unreached people groups, 6 UPGs with over 1 million people each
The Godwin family has been serving with AGWM missions since october 1994. They served in Mongolia (Asia Pacific) for over 18 years - pastoring, coaching and mentoring leaders, working with women in prostitution and coming out of prostitution, women's prisons, served in leadership for the bible school and helping to begin new churches. Never dreaming that they would leave the work in Mongolia, God began to put into their hearts that He was bringing change. In 2013, during the World Missions Summit in Fort Worth Texas the Godwin's heard Omar Beiler (Regional Director - Eurasia), speak about the great need in Estonia. Within a years time, through personal prayer and God bringing specific and incredible confirmation, Bob and Chrissy knew God was calling them to go to Estonia to plant the Church among the unreached of this nation. One of the great parts of this whole process and story of going to Estonia has been the commitment of the Mongolian Church to send us out - as we shared of God’s call on us to move to Estonia they began to share with us their desire to send us through their prayer and through their finances! We also believe that Mongolians Christians will be a part of church planting teams in Estonia! That’s exciting! We are now in the process of planting the church in west Tallinn (Haabersti).
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.
In Luxembourg the Pentecostal movement only has two small churches in two cities and only one of them utilizes the local Luxembourgish language. Of the 0.025% born again believers in the nation, most accepted Christ OUTSIDE the nation and those few often have go to churches in bordering France and Belgium. It is considered social suicide for a Luxemburger to profess Christ. We will be mobilizing church planters who speak Luxembourgish to reach towns and cities such as Ettelbruck, Mersch and Wiltz where there is no church and no known Luxembourger believers. In the Ardennes area of Belgium our partner movement (Franco-Belgian Assemblies of God) only has a handful of churches and most sizable towns have no evangelical church of any kind. We are targeting 30 district towns (including Bastogne, Saint Hubert, Dianne and Bouillon that desperately need a church and church planting teams because there is zero gospel access whatsoever for miles and miles around. In Flanders, the Dutch speaking northern part of Belgium, there are over 7 million people and 40 Pentecostal churches. The average church has 15 members and the averages age of a pastor is 60+. It is a movement on the brink of extinction unless something is done. The Flemish were historically Catholic or Reformed but today less than half of the administrative districts have any evangelical witness at all. The Belgian government recently identified 21 evangelical groups as dangerous cults and has eliminated the religious worker visa category meaning that we are severely restricted in getting missionaries into Belgium legally. This is why we are setting up the planting training hubs as close to the borders of Flanders and the Ardennes to be able to send groups across the borders to establish churches and ministries until they can get non-profit or BAM established to give them a platform to remain in the 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
Genoa is approximately 1/2 million people with less than 2% recognizing Jesus as Savior of their lives. Italy is home to an estimated 105 documented people groups, 23 of which are considered unreached people groups. Genoa is a port city and an International hub. AGWM has never had a missionary in this city and we are excited to be the first.
We are planting a church in West Java. West Java is home to the Sundanese people group, the largest Muslim UPG in the world. We are focused on reaching the Sundanese specifically, but Indonesian muslims generally. We will do this by planting a church in 2019. Indonesia is the 4th largest country in the world, it is made up of 17,000 islands, its the largest Muslim country in the world, there are 227 UPG's in Indonesia.
Africa is the fastest urbanizing region in the world. The cities are exploding with growth. According to the United Nations Environment Programme “By the year 2050, 60% of Africa will be urbanized.” This poses many challenges for these cities, but also great opportunity for the Church. Urban Tribes is positioned to plant high-impact churches in these cities to reach generations of Africans for Jesus Christ. Currently, our internship program has twenty-two participants, representing four different nationalities across Africa. We believe they are the future church planters for Urban Tribes to reach these cities.