Ralph & Judy Kee

Ralph & Judy do missions work in one of the most difficult places… Boston. Ralph works with the Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative, which supports and encourages urban church planting movements and church planters in greater Boston. Periodically, Ralph hosts fellowship and training gatherings for church planters. He also spends considerable time mentoring and consulting, one-on-one. “We might discuss what locations would be the best for a new church, or what unreached populations there are in certain neighborhoods.”

Ralph is teaching several courses at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston campus, and has written several “little books” on church planting and the church at work. You can find those online in PDF form at www.egc.com/GBPC. He has also organized monthly Evangelistic Harvests, the public preaching of the gospel by those with the evangelist calling and gifting: outdoors in warm months and indoors when colder. He hopes this idea multiplies as a regular collaborative effort in different Boston neighborhoods. Ralph continues to serve, primarily in a mentoring role, at Quincy Street Missional Church in Dorchester.

Shawn & Liz Keith

Shawn and Liz serve with AIA, the sports ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, and more specifically with AIA Media. Their goal is to create evangelistic sports films used by the body of Christ worldwide, providing key tools to help reach people and cultures enamored with sport. Shawn and Liz currently live in Indiana, with their three children: Matthew, Ryan, and Sarah.

Shawn was the Executive Producer of the Reversing the Curse: Stories of Faith from the 2004 Season DVD featuring the Boston Red Sox after winning their first World Series title in 86 years. More than 250,000 copies have now been distributed worldwide. Since then, more films have been created for outreach during world class sporting events, such as the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympics. Most of the films are available online, free, and in many languages! Last summer Shawn helped with distribution and streaming of the DVD Struggle and Triumph for the 2012 Olympic Games in Long.  The Prize: Chasing the Dream, the 2010 Soccer World Cup film is offered in 49 languages! (Visit www.theprize.com) Shawn is currently working on the next instalment of the video for the 2014 World Cup. You can use most of these videos  as outreach tools yourself!

Pat Devine

Pat is a member of SSBC who has served in Togo, West Africa for over 22 years. She works with the Ife Language Project which finished translating the New Testament in 2009. Since then more than half of the 12,500 copies have been sold. The written Word would remain a closed book, however, if the Ife people could not read their own language. Therefore, the team has a large adult literacy program. The nine Togolese men and women employed full time by the project continue on with the work of Old Testament translation, as well as literacy and development work.

The last three years have been devastating for Pat. At a time of mounting strain in her work she lost her mother and then had to move home to care for her father. Her teammate was then killed in a terrorist blast following which her father passed away. Pat admits to feeling as though she is “running on empty”. She is now working remotely from Scituate, doing tasks for Wycliffe and the Ife project in Togo.

Pat is in Togo now for a four week visit to close the house which she and her teammate, Mary, shared. She will also visit Mary’s family in Scotland. She values your prayers amid the emotions she will face in these travels. She is asking God to lead her regarding the future – will she return to full-time work in Togo as she hopes, or does He have another plan?

Bob & Nancy Sabean

“The Bible in one hand and the ball in the other.” That’s how Bob Sabean describes what Christian camping is all about. Bob and Nancy have spent over 40 years in Costa Rica where Bob serves in support of Christian camping leadership throughout Latin America. There he helped to encourage the use of recreation as a new tool in evangelism and discipleship. He is the co-founder of Christian Camping International Latin America (CCI/LA).

Bob trains Christian camp leaders and trainers through his writing and instruction. Over the years, Bob has written publications on a large variety of topics covering everything a Christian camp or youth ministry might need, from administration to biblical study. He even recently completed a book combining theology and recreation perspective called “A Christian Perspective on Play”.

Wayne & Joyce Raychard

Wayne and Joyce have lived and worked among the Digo people along the coast of Kenya and Tanzania for many years. They have been involved in discipling new believers, leadership development, Bible storying/ evangelism with new contacts, translation of discipleship materials, and establishing new congregations in nearby villages.

Their newest assignment on the southern coast of Kenya, south of Mombasa, involves working to train others who believe they are called to reach the Digo people. They will be helping to equip new workers to minister among this Islamic-animistic tribe. The Raychards will be leading a curriculum based team composed of people willing to commit two years of meeting regularly to study specific course materials dealing with Islam, worldview, cross-cultural communication, and several other relevant topics presented in six three-month sessions. Some of the team members will have had experience in other areas of Africa, and some will be new. There are also two Kenyan Bible colleges in the coastal region that may participate with them. They pray for and work toward the Digo people to have the bonds of witchcraft and animism broken and to be drawn to the Savior, the one true God.

Joel & Karen Gray

For several years Joel’s ministry has been directing and teaching at the Missions Institute of the Sahel (IMS), located in Burkina Faso. There is a growing mission movement in the French speaking countries of Africa, which means an increasing need for trained leadership from places like the Institute. IMS provides a competency-based, experience-oriented mission leadership training program for French speaking West Africans. IMS currently has graduates serving in 10 different African countries.

The Institute recently opened a new campus and hopes to continue development of both buildings and programs and staff. They just hired a new director to replace Joel since he recently assumed leadership of SIM in Burkina Faso and Mali, using his gifts and experience to lead the mission effort there.

Karen has been teaching and is now the director of Field Educational Services. FES is a joint home-schooling network of parents on the missions field who home-school their children.

Malcolm & Mary Elliott-Hogg

Malcolm & Mary work in reaching out with the gospel to the international student community in New Zealand, and in discipling them so that they in turn can bring the gospel to their own people. Much of their time and effort goes into making contacts, leading Bible studies and fellowship groups, developing individual friendships, organizing trips, meeting one on one, counseling, etc. They work primarily at Waikato University and a local polytechnic school in Hamilton, New Zealand. Outreach at the polytech has developed more slowly because there are no student clubs or activities on campus, requiring extra effort and ingenuity to contact and get to know students. A small number from both schools have become followers of Christ over the past year. Many of these students are from countries in Asia and the Middle East, where it is dangerous to be a follower of Jesus. It is easier to help these students learn to live out their faith and talk about it without fear while they are in New Zealand.

Malcolm & Mary would like to see more young people coming to Jesus this year and aim to put more emphasis on discipleship. When international students return home, they need to be established in their Christian walk and able to share their faith in their home countries!

Eric Briscoe

Eric serves with Open Air Campaigners doing street evangelism at various downtown areas, universities, subway platforms, and in neighborhoods with children. He has a highly engaging presentation, and a unique and loving way of conversing with people as he boldly tells of the hope and salvation found in Jesus Christ. Maybe you’ve seen him at downtown crossing with his sketch board telling the story of Jesus in the “open air” to all who will listen.

Eric also works with staff in other major cities to train and support them in his position as the US field director for Open Air Campaigners. OAC hopes to impact 25 cities in America with the gospel through open-air evangelism and other ministry by establishing branch ministries by the year 2025.

Ken & Luci Davis

After several years of training pastors and leaders for the local churches of rural Brazil, Ken and his family moved to the mega city of Sao Paulo to lead the Vida Nova (New Life) publishing house. Vida Nova is the major supplier of quality academic, theological, and reference works and study Bibles in Portuguese. Vida Nova hosts an annual Theological Conference and regional conferences throughout the year in order to provide good theological content through speaking, to train and equip pastors and church leaders to know and live out the truth of God’s word.

Their desire is to see maturity and unity in churches and church leaders in Brazil. Many pastors are minimally trained and large numbers of leaders only know the rudiments of the faith. Brazil is a very open country and Brazilians like to talk about spiritual topics, but some can be so open about spiritual things and so willing to try something new that they tend to follow any teaching or religion that is new. Pray for the efforts to transform the hearts and situations of Brazil’s people, many hurting and poor, through the power of Christ.

S & T

This couple lives and works in a “closed,” mostly Muslim country in Central Asia. Though they are listed as confidential, they are free to be open with their faith in Jesus as they interact with people, professionally and socially, due the fact that they are not sent by a religiously affiliated organization. They work through an agency with humanitarian and development objectives that address holistic wellbeing. They seek to use their professional service be intentional salt and light as they reach the overlooked and forgotten for contagious, lasting, and true hope!

S. focuses his work specifically to bring life-giving transformation to orchard farmers through cutting edge fruit orchard development and orchard management training services.

His wife is the regional director for their organization, responsible for project oversight and development in their region, not only for agricultural service, but also business development, community development, education, and health care.

Ralph & Sandra Thompson

Ralph, Sandra and their children live and work in Mombasa, Kenya. They focus their efforts on evangelism, discipleship, and building up the body of Christ to reach the unreached communities of Mombasa, especially M’s. They are heavily involved in a local church in Mombasa – Ralph serving as an Elder. They focus a lot of their attention on a part of town know as Old Town in Mombasa, going on regular prayer walks through the town and building relationships with people there in order to share with them the good news about Jesus! They hope to get more involved in training of local believers for outreach to the community and have recently begun fundraising for a special project in an effort to make disciples in this key city! We are excited to team up with them in supporting this effort.

Danny Croce

Danny, Kim and children live in Hanson. He oversees the New Hope Correctional Ministry and ministers to those incarcerated at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. “People from all around the world end up in our jail in the course of the year. Approximately 6000 will pass through these doors each year. Some are here for 7 days and some up to 2 1/2 years. Those who come to Christ have a lot of time to study and learn from the Scriptures.

Danny spends his time leading inmates and staff to Christ, discipling them through Bible study classes, one on one and mentoring classes, and correspondence courses. Many have come to Christ and are using their time to grow in the Lord. Danny also helps them find a good Bible-believing Church to become involved in when they are released.

Steve & Rita Read

The Reads and their children, Stephen and Shannon, live and work in Manila, where they mentor ministers, mobilize missionaries, and minister to orphans and squatter children through education development. Steve is privileged to work in collaboration with PCEC (Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches) mentoring church leaders and pastors. The desire of the Filipino Church is to provide enough pastors and missionaries to reach the 10/40 window. In order to do that they must have trained, equipped people to do it! They pray and work toward a mature Filipino church to become a powerful missions sending force.
Rita works for a nearby school for orphans and squatter children, Cuatro Christian school. She serves on the Board of Education Committee and helps to develop the school’s curriculum to adapt to the specific needs of these at risk children.

Tim & Linda Beachell

Tim and Linda work with Child Evangelism Fellowship to provide training and resources to other Christians to help reach children with the Gospel and to help establish them in their Christian lives through the word of God (discipling them).

They currently work in three main areas: 5-Day Clubs; Good News Clubs and a day camp in Douglas, MA, for inner city kids. They have been involved in small neighborhood efforts and large outreaches such as Good News Across America. They work in training volunteers and leaders in this ministry. Their desire is to see children with whom they minister be established in Bible believing churches.

Tim is the state director of CEF and Linda is a training coordinator. They would be a great resource to help you get involved in a ministry to children in your own neighborhood!

Wanda MacLean

Wanda has been a part of the Jesus Film team for over 16 years. She developed the tour venue at their headquarters in Florida. A number of things happen to folks as a result of taking the tour: some give their lives to Christ; some want to become more involved with missions; some want to financially support (like us) the translation of the Jesus Film into one of the Unreached People Group languages.

Kathryn Belyea

Kathryn is a chaplain with the Community Chaplain Service and visits nursing home residents one-to-one each week in five local nursing homes. Some of these residents seldom if ever have a visitor. Friendships have developed from her visits, and these friendships have led to opportunities to share the “good news” of the gospel.

Kathryn always brings along her puppet, Peter, which residents enjoy a great deal and even talk to at times, telling her often that he seems so “real.” She also writes weekly handouts, con-sisting mostly of true homespun stories, which contain a devotional point to consider. She’s recently put 50 of these stories together into a little gift book, called, A Mouse Gotta Eat and Other Stories to Feed the Soul.

Kathryn also, from time to time, conducts Bible studies, visits a resident who has been hospitalized, and occasionally conducts a funeral service.

Humberto & Carmen Del Arca

The DelArcas live and work in Honduras and are natives of the country. Our relationship to them grew out of one of our early missions trips to Tegucigalpa, the capital city. Humberto not only teaches classes at the Honduras Extention Bible Institute (HEBI) but oversees 10 regional directors also involved in evangelism, leadership training, and church planting.
HEBI’s goal is to teach students to apply their knowledge by evangelizing their communities and planting churches. Lay pastors are taught to train others, who are then encouraged to begin new churches and continue the process. Through this chain-reaction method, more than 200 churches have been planted in Northern Honduras, using minimal outside funds.
Humberto has discipled others who have gone on to plant churches in Nicaragua, as well.
Humberto is heavily involved in church planting work among groups of indigenous people: the Garifunas, the Misquito, the Pech, on whom he is currently focusing efforts.

Paul & Jan Bothwell

Paul’s passion and ministry is developing healthy church multiplication movements in world-class cities. The Missions Door initiative in Greater Boston alone has yielded at least 15 churches of 5 different languages. Paul has even witnessed those new city churches multiply around the world!

In the 70’s, Paul helped plant the Jesus Helps Neighborhood Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, an African-American neighborhood in Boston where he pastored for seven years. He was then called on to direct the CB church’s rapidly growing Boston URBACAD (Urban Academy) program. His role eventually expanded to Boston-area Team Leader and then Urban Ministry Specialist for urban New England with Missions Door.

Through the “train and multiply” mindset shaped by Paul’s work and the Missions Door Team, these churches themselves have catalyzed over 150 churches overseas through their own global networks! Paul says starting churches, building leaders, redeeming cities never gets old – and is close to the heart of God. Some of our members visited several of the Boston church plants in October, and Paul welcomes more visitors anytime!

Rich and Becky Chamberlain

Rich works in prison ministry at New Hope Correctional Facility in Plymouth, MA. His ministry in the jail is to everyone behind bars: inmates, detainees, C.O.s, medical staff, case workers, kitchen workers, attorneys who are visiting…anyone who comes through the sally-port. After five years of “voluntary incarceration” he now has a high level of trust in his relationships with many of the support personnel. Praise God for the increasing number of opportunities he has at PCCF to minister with people on both sides of the law. His weekly responsibilities include: Leading Bible studies with inmates (small and large groups), leading Bible studies with immigration detainees (I.C.E.), visiting and counseling inmates, leading inmates in worship through song, and performing a variety of administrative functions.
Rich has had the privilege of sharing the gospel with men from many different nations and cultures as he leads weekly studies for immigration detainees (two of these weekly studies are translated into Spanish by detainees) and is encouraged by the level of Christian community developing amongst sentenced inmates at their twice weekly Bible study. A highlight is seeing many dozens of men receive their leather “reward” study Bibles for completing more than 250 “take-home” Bible studies.

D.

D. lives in a predominately Muslim country and pastors a house church composed mostly of foreigners working in the country. Together they desire to be “A visible community of believers, transformed by God’s grace, whose love overflows in joyful sharing of the Gospel with all.” This is a strong step because the church has been secretive in previous years, but has now settled upon a vision of being openly known.

He says his ministry is two-sided: 1. to build the church  2. reach local people (Arabs). He reports that all over the Arabian Gulf believers are having conversations with local Muslims; when they occasionally come to the Lord (which is quite rare) there is intimidation and often violent persecution….But it is evident to everyone there that the LORD is at work.

Stuart & Sindia Foster

Stuart & Sindia live and work in Mozambique. They have been supported missionaries of SSBC for many years and have been in Mozambique for 25 years! Their focus is helping people know God through understanding his Word. Mentoring Mozambican men and women led them into translating the Bible. Lomwe people did not yet have a whole Bible, which made it hard to teach it! After many years they are nearing completion of the Bible translation into the Lomwe language, for a million and a half people, and are now starting on the Takwane Bible.

Their team has produced a lot of other resources in Lomwe, for Bible study, literacy, and AIDS education. Some are already in print and they are finishing work and seeking funds for others which they hope will soon be available. They are also helping translations in neighboring languages. Bible studies, preaching and teaching are ongoing. The Fosters helped start PROFORTE, a ministry to develop Bible schools in Mozambique, which has grown to eight member schools. Growing libraries and training teachers are key priorities.

Dave & Kathy Simmons

Dave and Kathy have “retired” from Rocky Mountain Bible Ministry and joined the Interim Pastor Ministry last October. For the past year they have been located in the far NW corner of Montana in some of the most rural, rugged, remote country of the United States. (100 miles from the closest Wal-Mart!)

Dave and Kathy are serving in an interim capacity at a church near Troy, MT, until a new pastor is found. Their current church runs about 40 people, almost half of its previous attendance. The departure of the pastor, who served for 37 years before retiring, and floundering of the church caused many people to leave… resulting in discouragement. Others with large families moved for employment reasons.

The Simmons are there to provide leadership and a spiritual foundation during their search process. Over the course of the past year the search committee has contacted 8 different men regarding coming to the church and all 8 have declined. Being interim pastor in this work is requiring much tenacity.

Michael & Debbie Bannon

Mike & Debbie live and work in Vilnius, Lithuania. They are involved there in teaching English as a second language classes in schools and their church, and each is involved in individual English tutoring. They are also involved in Wednesday night Bible studies, mentoring and discipling believers on a weekly basis, and church planting efforts. They desire to have an impact on peoples’ lives for the kingdom God.

A highlight for them has been to see people who see no use for Jesus slowly change to where they want Mike and Debbie to speak to them and their relatives about Jesus.

John & Mary Jean Templehoff

John and Mary Jean continue to work with/in the Crossroads HIV prevention program, managing 15 township high schools teaching the curriculum (which they developed) in the Zulu high schools. South Africa has the highest number of HIV infections globally, 5.7 million. (We here at SSBC have had a hand in teaching this program in the schools, having done a couple of mission trips there to work with the Templehoffs.)

They also continue to work in the Westville Maximum Security Prison evangelizing and training inmates through the WIN, BUILD,TRAIN AND SEND program. (South Africa has the 2nd highest violent crime rate internationally.)

Mary Jean continues to oversee the MOTHERS WHO CARE program with approximately 240 groups of mothers who pray weekly for the schools their children attend.

They have enjoyed experiencing local churches following up students spiritually in after school small group Bible studies in the Smart Choices program, having locally qualified trainers of trainers who can equip local churches in the Smart Choices course, and being formally recognized by prison authorities as one of the top service providers for spiritual work.

Rich & Becky Chamberlain

Rich has been going to jail now for the past five years. He serves as one of the Chaplains at the Plymouth House of Correction. In league with others in this ministry he sees to the needs of 1,100-1,600 inmates and 300-400 support staff. He leads Bible studies with inmates; Bible studies with immigration detainees; visits and counsels inmates; worship times with inmates — a lot to do! He has seen many men come to Christ; sees many diligently studying God’s Word. He has seen dozens upon dozens of men receive their leather “reward” study Bibles for completing more than 250 “take-home” Bible studies. He has worked hard at developing caring relationships with corrections officers and case workers. Not everything is a “success”. He sees little fruit from weekly Bible studies with juvenile offenders; he lost the privilege of bringing and playing his guitar this past year due to security concerns; he often has to say goodbye to inmates who are being deported or transferred to other facilities. It is a challenging position in which Rich loves to serve!

Mark & Diane Stratmeyer

Mark & Diane live and work among the people of Spain. They are busy planting the Gospel among secular, cultural Catholics in northwest Spain. Their prayer is to see Spaniards allowing God’s Spirit to trans-form their lives in the context where they’ve already been placed; growing as disciples of Jesus, encouraging one another and reaching out to their neighbors.

Darren & Pam Prince

This year Darren, Pam and children, Jesse, Lucia and Samuel are celebrating their fifth year of living and serving in London, plus it’s their fifteenth year of urban ministry.

As a local ministry team, the Princes and several others live and serve among the poor in a diverse neighborhood which includes immigrant families from Bangladesh, generationally poor British “East-Enders” and single moms from eastern European countries. The team’s aim is to build relationships which lead to personal and community transformation; the team also works closely with existing local churches to strengthen their missional reach among the peoples of many nations literally at their doorstep.

The Princes’ wider work includes providing leadership, oversight and strategic coaching to the many InnerCHANGE teams serving among the poor throughout the world. Darren helps oversee staff mobilization and training, while Pam contributes to the elected leadership steering council.

This year the spotlight has been on London – the Royal Wedding, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the upcoming Olympic Games. This means greater opportunities, challenges for Darren, Pam and the InnerSERVE team. They’ll be here some time in August, so look for them!

Malcolm & Mary Elliot-Hogg

Humberto & Carmen Del Arca

The DelArcas live and work in Honduras and are natives of the country. Our relationship to them grew out of one of our early missions trips to Tegucigalpa, the capital city. Humberto teaches classes at the Honduras Extention Bible Institute (HEBI).

Humberto’s work there is more than just passing on knowledge to students. HEBI’s goal is to teach students to apply their knowledge by evangelizing their communities and planting churches. Lay pastors are taught to train others, who are then encouraged to begin new churches and continue the process. Through this chain-reaction method, more than 180 churches have been planted in Northern Honduras, using minimal outside funds.

Humberto is heavily involved in church planting work among groups of indigenous people: the Garifunas, the Pech, the Misquito. He is currently focusing his efforts on the Pech people.

“Bella” People Project

Since its release in 1979 the Jesus film has been used by missionaries and others around the world to reach people that have not heard the Gospel. At least 200,000,000 people have made decisions to follow Christ as a result of being exposed to the Gospel through the vehicle of the Jesus film. The Jesus Film Team goes into an area, recruits voice actors from the targeted people group, dubs their voices into the film, and presents it at various venues to the People Group. For the first time, often, these folks are exposed to the Gospel, through a careful rendering of the Gospel of Luke in their own heart language!

A few years ago SSBC, through your giving to the mission effort of the church, funded the translation of the Jesus Film into the language of the “Bella” people. They are a mostly nomadic tribe, steeped in the traditions and religion of the area in which they live. They are abused and ostracized by the other tribes living around them. The only people to show them love and mercy are the Christian relief workers in the area.
It has been and continues to be dangerous, extremely difficult work to recruit voice actors from this People Group. There are roughly 2,000,000 of them and maybe only a handful of Christians among them. The Christian relief organization working among them have had to leave because of the dangerous political atmosphere there. There are no current known Christian organizations working there now. So …

Pray for:

• an opening for the Jesus Film team to bring the Gospel to these people.
•  an opening of the hearts of the Bella people to the Gospel message.
• the seemingly impossibility of this project (“is anything to hard for the LORD?”)
• a TEAM of people to be raised up to pray regularly for this project.

Bo & Michelle Columbine

Bo, Michelle, and children live now in Daka-Yoff, Senegal. Next month will be the 50th anniversary of World Venture’s work in this West African country. Bo and Michelle are humbled to be part of this on-going work to bring the Gospel to this Muslim country. This past year, Bo has been able to work with a local mechanic (that’s Bo’s tent-making ministry). Michelle has been busy making friends in her home and neighborhood particularly with the gal who helps at their house.

Pray for:

• “good” results after showing the Jesus film to their housekeeper and her village.
• health issues as they continue to get used to life in Senegal.
• the WorldVenture team in their country.
• the Columbines as they prepare for their home furlough this summer.

Mark & Lois Shaw

Mark & Lois live and work at the Africa International University in Nairobi, Kenya. They are both heavily involved in ministry there. This summer they did a fund-raising climb of Mt. Kiliminjaro to raise funds to build a new community center on the campus. The president of Kenya granted them full university status in March of 2011. Mark is teaching 9 classes (at least); Lois is finishing a biography of African Evangelical leader Tokunboh Adeyemo. They are both involved in the local church, Karen Community Church.

NOTE: Lois has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer: They have returned to the States and are in Ann Arbor, Michigan, staying  with their son & his wife during surgery and follow up at the university hospital.

FOLLOW UP: Lois had surgery on Wednesday. Mark says, “The doctor is confidant that she is now cancer free. She will have a routine follow up consultation in a week to determine if radiation or chemo is needed. At this point there is no indication that she would need either. God has been very good to us and we are very grateful for your prayers.”

PRAY FOR:

• Lois, Mark, and family as they are home to deal with Lois’ cancer.
• Lois’ test results and follow up appointment to determine treatment.
• Lois’ mother with heart problems at 93.
• Africa International University and Karen Community Church.