AFRICA:
Grant: Advent Christian General Conference — Tanzania
Focus: Work among the Hadzabe and Datoga unreached people groups in Tanzania
Connector: Matt Mull
Organization: Advent Christian General Conference
https://www.acgc.us/affiliates/
Pastors Johnson and Amos who serve churches in Mwanza travel to bring the gospel to the unreached Hadzabe and Datoga tribes. They actively share Jesus in a culture that holds to an Animistic Worldview that often opposes them.
Annual Support: Patterson Family — HOPAC
Focus: Teaching at an international school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Redeemer Community Church Members
Organization: HOPAC/NICS
https://www.hopac.sc.tz/
https://www.nics.org/schools/haven-peace-academy/
Annual Support: Lindstrom Family — HOPAC
Focus: Administration at the International School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Redeemer Community Church Members
Organization: HOPAC/NICS
https://www.hopac.sc.tz/
https://www.nics.org/schools/haven-peace-academy/
Monthly Support: OneWay Africa/Ray Mensah — Ghana, West Africa
Focus: Mobilizing and discipling African missionaries to reach the unreached
Connector: Michael & Laura VanHuis
Organization: OneWay Africa
https://www.owm.org/oneway-africaRay Mensah has a contagious enthusiasm for reaching lost people; his heart is laser-focused on making disciples who make disciples. Ray is a missions mobilizer who labors to speak to, teach and train the next generation of African missionaries. Ray also directs the church-planting efforts of OneWay Africa among unreached people groups in northern Ghana. Through using the JESUS Film, clean water initiatives, and solar-powered audio Bible units called BiblePlus, the OneWay Africa team works in remote villages leading multitudes to Christ.
Grant: AWANA — Multiple Countries in Africa
Focus: Christian curriculum creation and distribution in African schools
Connector: Chip Root
Organization: AWANA
Africa Schools Project – Awana
By God’s grace, Awana’s Africa-based employees and leaders have been given “sanction” by Education Departments in certain nations to train leaders to use Awana curriculum in regular after-school programs, along with some other curricula from Christian partners of Awana.
EUROPE:
Grant: Andy & Sarah Pollock — Bosnia
Focus: Refugee relief and church planting in Sarajevo, Bosnia
Connector: Michael & Laura VanHuis
Organization: IAFR
Giving to the Pollocks
IAFR Sarajevo leans into the privilege of demonstrating God’s unconditional love for forcibly displaced people in Bosnia and Herzegovina by meeting needs and developing relationships which lead to restored hope. Since 2015, more than 30,000 displaced people have traveled through Bosnia every year. While their origins vary widely from many crisis areas around the world, most intend to linger just long enough in Bosnia to prepare for their further journeying into Europe. But in actuality, a person or family’s plan of spending 30 days in Bosnia is often replaced by a reality of spending more than a year in the country.
Refugees are most open to the gospel while they are moving, before they get settled into communities of people like them. IAFR focuses on refugees in the midst of resettlement and it will open many doors for gospel proclamation.
Grant: Mario & Suzi Casni — Croatia
Focus: Producing and translating Christian TV programs in the Balkans
Connector: Jason & Brooke Mead
Organization: Reach Beyond
Mario and Suzi – Reach Beyond
Since 2013, the Casnis have worked with Reach Beyond to implement the expertise and knowledge acquired in their secular work environments to develop media tools to multiply ministry efforts. They built a radio studio and the broadcast team. Supported by local volunteers, they quickly outgrew the radio to include video as well, producing shows of real-life stories touched by God for nationwide TV broadcasters in the country. In addition to the media ministry, Mario is overseeing Reach Beyond media projects in the region and has been working to incorporate Croatian sign language on all their broadcasts in order to reach a segment of the population that has no known believers.
SOUTH AMERICA:
Grant: Stan & Rebecca Abrahamson — Brazil
Focus: Unreached people along the Jurua River (a tributary of the Amazon River)
Connector: Tom & Linnea Bonenberger
Organization: BOMU — Brazil Outreach Ministries Unlimited
The Abrahamsons evangelize, plant local churches, and meet physical needs of the unreached river people who live along the Jurua River, which is a tributary of the Amazon River in northern Brazil. Travel and ministry is done from a 60-foot boat called the “Atalaia,” which has living accommodations and is specifically designed to operate in shallow water. Their ministry method is evangelism with intense personal discipleship after conversion, with the goal of training local leaders to lead their own congregations. BOMU (Brazil Outreach Ministries Unlimited) moved to the Jurua River two years ago after spending 28 years on the Madeira River doing similar work and successfully shifting the work over to the Brazilians. The team selected the Jurua River after spending several years of survey via small aircraft with MAF, on land, and via boat to determine a starting point and assess the population in the region.
ASIA:
Monthly Support: T & R — Undisclosed Country/Central Asia
Focus: Muslims in Central Asia
Connector: Jason & Brooke Mead
Organizations: Undisclosed for Security
T & R are engaging with Muslims in a country in Central Asia. There is significant hostility to the gospel in the region.
Grant: Freedom Firm — South East Asia — India
Focus: Serving, protecting and sharing Jesus with minor girls trafficked in the sex trade
Connector: Nat & Hanna McRostie
Organization: Freedom Firm
www.freedomfirm.orgFreedom Firm rescues minor girls trafficked in the sex trade in India, follows each girl after rescue to restore her, and seeks justice by pursuing the perpetrators in court to get convictions. Freedom Firm truly targets “the least of these,” going into the darkest places of the world. This is hard work with high spiritual resistance. Results are difficult, hearts change slowly, and yet God has called Freedom Firm to this work. Freedom Firm’s work is on-going and requires regular, consistent support to have the right staff for their work.
Grant: Andrew & Bekah Soderlind — South Asia
Focus: Unreached Muslims
Connector: Diane & Pablo Tabilo
Organization: Frontiers www.frontiers.org
The Soderlinds are working with local believers to share the gospel among unreached Muslims in their city and disciple any new believers, with the hope of seeing God planting healthy, multiplying churches. This involves prayer, building relationships with Muslims, investing in relationships with local believers, and casting a vision about God’s heart for Muslims. It also involves helping to mobilize and equip locals to share about Jesus, love their neighbors well, and disciple other believers. The end goal is to see local ownership of this ministry by believers rooted in God’s Word and led by the Holy Spirit. The Sonderlinds are also running a leather goods business using eco-friendly leather and a fair trade manufacturer as a platform to be in the country. While their business doesn’t have capacity yet, they are working toward being able to employ and train craftsmen from marginalized people groups here.
Grant: Caleb Stober — East Asia — Japan
Focus: Training Japanese believers to engage Japanese unbelievers
Connector: Niko Hays
Organization: Serge — Caleb Stober (serge.org)
Caleb will be working with the Japanese church to train the next generation of Japanese Christians as well as working in the field of missiology; he will be developing and improving tools of evangelism and ministry in Japan in order to see the Japanese encounter Jesus in the context of their own culture. He will be working at Christ Bible Institute in Nagoya, Japan, which runs a seminary, a counseling center, a church planting and revitalization project, a printing press and more. His desire is to see the 99% of Japanese who do not know Jesus have the chance to hear and respond to the good news of Christ’s victory on the cross. The Japanese are one of the largest unreached people groups in the world and Caleb will be involved in equipping the local church to share the gospel.