Baptist Mid-Missions’ annual Candidate Seminar concluded July 31, 2008, with the welcoming of 21 new missionaries into the BMM Family. We introduce them to you now, telling the stories of how God equipped them for His call to missions. But there’s much more to tell—please consider inviting them to speak at your church to share the whole story of their burden for the lost. You can contact those currently available for meetings by clicking on the links in their articles.
Ashley Anderson
Field: Bibles International
Although Ashley didn’t realize it at the time, her childhood interests and experience pointed toward Bible translation. She loved missionary stories and did very well at high school Spanish. At 16 she decided to learn Greek and Hebrew. Her dad casually said, “If you really like it, maybe you could translate the Bible for people who don’t have it yet.” This was the first she had heard of people groups without the Bible, and her interest was piqued.
Also during high school, she made two trips to Mexico with her youth group. The experience was thoroughly appealing, and she realized if God called her to missions, it was something she could both do and enjoy.
By college, her calling became even clearer. The more she studied linguistics, the more she was fascinated. Outside of class, her research revealed there are still over 2000 languages that don’t have a Bible. She developed a tremendous burden to help these people groups get the Word of God in their own languages.
Ashley began pursuing this field. Making connections with BMM’s translation division, Bibles International, she arranged a trip to Venezuela to view the work there. The challenges of the culture and the complexity of the translation process did not intimidate her. She knew she was meant to do this.
Ashley’s plans include completing a master’s in linguistics and marrying her fiancé, Brad, next summer. After Brad joins BMM, they hope to work with a tribal people to develop their written language and to translate the Bible into it.
Sending Church: Chisago Lakes Baptist Church—Chisago City, Minnesota
Harrison and Michelle* Banda
Field: Zambia
As a child in Lusaka, Zambia, Harrison was confused by the discrepancies between what his Jehovah’s Witness church taught and what the Bible actually said.
Harrison’s father had questions too, and because he worked for missionaries Jim and Rachel Chambers, he decided to try their church. Thirteen-year-old Harrison came along and heard through another missionary, Sherry Segal, that we all will one day stand before God’s judgment. A year later, after he was nearly struck by lightning, Harrison made sure he was at peace with God through Christ.
When Harrison was 16, Jim Chambers challenged him from Ezekiel 22:30. Harrison told God he was willing to stand in the gap. When the Chambers family moved four hours away to Choma, Harrison went with them to help start Salvation Baptist Church. Jim and Rachel’s son Nathan worked with Harrison to start a camp where many teens and adults were led to the Lord.
Harrison had a special coworker during this time. Michelle Young had arrived for her first term in Zambia in 2006. Harrison and Michelle continually observed how well they worked together and how they shared a common burden to reach and disciple the next generation of Zambians. Their friendship blossomed into courtship, and they were married April 12, 2008.
The Bandas’ passion and goals are summed up in Deuteronomy 6:6-7 and Psalms 78:6-8. When they return to Zambia, they desire to be used wherever God leads them, whether in church planting or in a related ministry.
* Michelle was appointed with Baptist Mid-Missions in 2002.
Sending Church: Thompson Road Baptist Church—Indianapolis, Indiana
Click here for the Bandas' contact information.
Mark and Leslie Boyd
Field: Germany
As the son of BMM Netherlands missionaries David and Crissie Boyd, Mark grew up surrounded by the sin-stained consequences of a culture that abandons God. Even the religion class in Mark’s Dutch high school presented Christianity as a footnote, instead favoring Eastern religions and mysticism.
Seeing his parents’ efforts to reintroduce the truth and hope of Christ gave Mark a passion for church planting. This goal firmly in mind, he set off for college, unsure only of where God would lead.
During this time, BMM produced a video highlighting its work in Europe. Mark watched the story line in which a man was introduced to Europe’s agnostic, overly tolerant culture and asked if he could take on this missions challenge. The man’s response was, “I just don’t understand.” But Mark’s response was, “I do understand.” It was clear God was leading back to Europe.
Called to missions at age 12, Leslie had resolved to make choices in line with this calling, including whom she would date. God honored her desire and led her to Mark. They married in 2005.
This past February, Mark and Leslie took a survey trip to the Netherlands and Germany. Leslie had taken a short-term trip to Germany several years earlier and had fallen in love with the people. Mark came to love them too and saw how the missionaries work well in team ministry, something he had been looking for. Mark and Leslie plan to form a church-planting team with Jeff and Linda Brown in Nuremberg.
Children: Natalie (2); Joshua (11 mo.)
Sending Church: Fellowship Baptist Church—Des Moines, Iowa
Click here for the Boyds' contact information.
Rebekah Bursell
Field: Peru
Sun-baked Lima, Peru, is about as different from Levelock, Alaska, as it gets. As the daughter of Alaska missionaries Bill and Carol Bursell, Rebekah thought the remote, snowy village of Levelock was not an unusual place to grow up. She loved childhood on the mission field with its continual opportunities to travel and meet people.
God challenged her early on through a Bible lesson that asked: “Are you willing to go anywhere God wants you to?” She couldn’t answer for sure until getting caught in a snowstorm in a mountain pass. Rebekah began to fear her father wouldn’t be able to fly them out of the storm. In that tense moment, Rebekah laid down her will before God, saying, “I’ll go anywhere if you get us out.”
Getting her degree in elementary education, Rebekah wasn’t sure of her next step. She tried secretarial work, but it lasted only one unsatisfying year. With encouragement from her mother, she checked into Baptist Mid-Missions’ short-term teaching opportunities. Fetzer Academy in Lima, Peru, was the only option at the time. She gave it a try and began to love everything about it: interacting with children, being able to impart truth, and helping kids apply biblical knowledge to their home lives.
When Rebekah returns as a full-time teacher, she hopes to continue teaching upper-elementary students, as she has for the past three years. Although Fetzer is far from Alaska, Rebekah has found both her home and her calling there. “I love it,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
Sending Church: Birch Harbor Baptist Church—Wasilla, Alaska
Andy and Davina Davies
Field: Campus Bible Fellowship
There may be no better preparation for a Campus Bible Fellowship (CBF) ministry than being a pastor’s kid in a college town. College students were a fixture at the Davies house, and Andy saw from his parents’ example how to build relationships for discipling.
Andy’s father later became a dean at Clearwater Christian College. Andy watched his father demonstrate consistency between who he was in the classroom and who he was at home with student visitors. What happened in the home was simply the practical side of his theology lessons.
Hospitality comes naturally for Davina, who shares Andy’s enthusiasm for working with college students. As a Resident Advisor at Clearwater Christian College, she came to love the thought of working with this generation that is just starting to form conclusions that will shape their future. She’s also excited about the potential to demonstrate what a Christian marriage and home look like.
The goal of the Davies is to step into ministry at Virginia Tech, a campus still grieving over the April 2007 shootings. As CBF missionaries, the Davies will introduce students to Christ and disciple them into strong believers. They will join Dave and Marilyn Clark, a veteran missionary couple with lifetime experience in international ministry. Not having previous experience with international students, Andy and Davina look forward to this mentoring relationship so they can lead the ministry after the Clarks retire.
Children: Caleb (4); Micah (1)
Sending Church: Colonial Baptist Church—Virginia Beach, Virginia
Click here for the Davies' contact information.
Will and Erika Gibson
Field: Peru
Helping with a VBS during high school, Will made a special connection with Tim Visser, a teen preparing for missions. Nine months later, Tim died suddenly. Will’s high-school chapel sat in rapt silence as Tim’s pastor, Cletis Titus, gave the challenge: “Who will fill Tim’s shoes?” Will knew that message was for him.
Erika’s mother, Becky Decker, once worked at BMM. Erika’s ministry-minded parents prayed that all their children would enter full-time Christian service. It’s not surprising that Erika felt the call to missions when she was only five years old.
God’s call was surprising to Will, however. Introverted as a teen, he felt he could never stand in front of people and preach. But the Lord provided a job requiring extensive public contact, which developed Will into a good communicator.
God brought Will and Erika together in college. After marrying, they pursued master’s degrees: Will in biblical studies and Erika in mathematics/secondary education. They joined Edgefield Baptist, pastored by Cletis Titus. Cletis and his wife (now with BMM Jamaica) encouraged the Gibsons and many others toward missions. Will and Erika are the sixth couple sent out from Edgefield in the past 11 years.
Last year, the Gibsons visited two of Edgefield’s missionaries in Peru, John and Debbie Poe. Will and Erika saw the need for more churches and realized how Will’s education will help him fill the great need for pastoral training. They hope to return soon to serve alongside the Poe family.
Children: Colin (2); Owen (10 mo.)
Sending Church: Edgefield Baptist Church—Greensboro, North Carolina
Click here for the Gibsons' contact information.
Jodi Harrison
Field: Spain
Jodi is no stranger to the Spanish language or to its culture. Eight years ago as a college student armed with several years of high-school Spanish, Jodi took the missions plunge and spent a month in Spain. She felt Spain’s overwhelming need for the gospel and loved everything about the country and its people. She was sure God wanted her in missions, yet she still asked Him, “Is this the right location for me?”
More missions opportunities followed, including a year with BMM’s ¡Arriba! internship in Peru. Jodi thought, “Maybe I’ll love Peru just as much.” Being away from her family was tough, but she quickly grew to love the people and to feel at home. It was an excellent year in Peru that solidified her call to missions … but her heart kept going back to Spain.
Jodi finished college, eager to pursue missions full-time in Spain, but God had one more element of preparation. For the last three years, Jodi has taught high-school Spanish at Harvest Christian Academy in Guam. Building on her ¡Arriba! internship, she deepened her ministry skills and learned how to draw strength from God alone.
This summer, Jodi visited Spain missionaries Kent and Belén Albright and identified areas she hopes to be involved in: a Bible bookstore, university outreach, and public school religion classes. After finishing her final year in Guam, Jodi will return to Spain carrying the peace God has taught her through the years: “If I’m doing what He wants, I’ll be happy, whether circumstances are good or not.”
Sending Church: The Baptist Church of Hadley—Hadley, Michigan
Jeff* and Ivana Reiner
Field: Brazil
Ivana’s aunt knew she had found a treasure when she accepted Christ. She shared it with Ivana, then age 12, who also received Him. Her aunt’s passion was for her whole family in Brazil to know Him, so she contacted missionaries serving in her relatives’ cities. When BMM missionaries Eric and Cindy Baker visited Ivana’s family, one by one they came to the Lord. Today more than 30 of Ivana’s relatives are born again.
When Ray and Jan Reiner joined the work, Ivana quickly felt kinship with them. When she heard Jan teach on “How beautiful are the feet of them that bring the gospel of peace,” she began to think seriously about missions. Joining the Reiners when they traveled to a church plant in the town of Malta, Ivana played the keyboard for services.
During the car rides, she helped another member of the team with his Portuguese: Jeff Reiner, Ray and Jan’s son, who began his first term in 2003. As their friendship developed, it became clear that Ivana’s talents in working with children and women would make a good complement to Jeff’s gifts. Ivana said yes when Jeff proposed, and they were married in 2005.
After Ray Reiner passed away in 2004, Jeff and Ivana helped finish Ray’s work in Malta, and with Jan’s help they are planting a church in Jacumã. They look forward to returning to Brazil once their additional support is raised.
* Jeff was appointed with Baptist Mid-Missions in 2001.
Sending Church: Grace Baptist Temple—Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Click here for the Reiners' contact information.
Timothy and Janet* Seidu
Field: Ghana
The Wa area of northern Ghana is 95 percent Muslim. As the only Christian in his school, Timothy was teased and shunned as a child. None of his Muslim classmates dared to even eat with him for fear of the same shunning. But he did not get bitter. He instead developed the same burden of his late father, Samuel, to bring the message of Christ to his Waala tribe.
After theological training and a pastorate in Ghana’s capital, Timothy returned to Wa in 2003. Timothy’s radio broadcasts were an effective way to reach Muslims, who could consider God’s truths privately without fear of harassment. At first, people criticized Timothy and his fellow pastors; some were violent. But as the Christians showed grace, opposition decreased. Little by little, Muslims turned to Christ. Today, about 200 attend Timothy’s church.
Timothy longs to do everything he can to win Ghanaians to the Lord. He helps train pastors through two Bible institutes in Wa, working alongside BMM missionaries. He is working on a doctorate in pastoral theology to help the institutes gain accreditation.
By becoming a BMM missionary himself, Timothy will have the freedom and resources to greatly expand the outreach of churches in Ghana’s Northern Regular Baptist Association, of which he is a leader. He anticipates being able to pour greater efforts into his current ministries as well as to create sports outreaches and a Christian school.
* Janet will complete Candidate Seminar in 2009.
Children: Jesse (5); Jason (3); John Mark (3 mo.)
Sending Church: Faith Baptist Church—Taylors, South Carolina
Caleb and Ecko Stein
Field: Peru
As a young adult with a bachelor’s degree in his hand, Caleb couldn’t wait to fulfill his childhood dream of being a missionary. But God put on the brakes and had him stay in college for advanced education. “It wasn’t the path I would have chosen,” says Caleb. “But God used this to further prepare me for a ministry I would not have imagined when I started out.”
What he had imagined was service in Mexico. Several short-term trips there knit his heart with the Latin American people. God closed the doors to Mexico, and Caleb didn’t know how God would redirect, but he knew it would be something great.
Ecko had studied to teach missionary children, but not her own children—she wanted to stay single. But after meeting Caleb, she quickly changed her mind! She became part of Caleb’s “something great” when they married.
As for where they would serve, Caleb got his answer during a church trip in which he was asked to teach at BMM’s seminary in Trujillo, Peru. He clicked with the missionaries there and fell in love with the ministry and with Peru’s family-oriented culture.
Caleb and Ecko’s gifts are a custom fit for Peru. Caleb’s degrees will enable him to fill the desperate need to train Peruvian pastors at the college and graduate level. Ecko still plans to teach missionary children but also to teach and encourage wives of pastors and missionaries.
Children: Joseph (4); Jack (3); Isabel (born September 26, 2008)
Sending Church: Calvary Baptist Church—Watertown, Wisconsin
Click here for the Steins' contacd information.
Patricia Strickland
Field: France
During childhood, Trish shared her parents with 15-20 other children. Her mother and father were MK-school dorm parents in Brazil and loved the joyful energy of their large, schootl-year family. Trish loved it too and learned early on that people are more important than things. Her missionary parents didn’t have much money, but Trish saw God provide time and again and learned how to be fully content without all the extras. Her parents’ mission board also stressed reaching people who had never heard the gospel, a mindset that fixed itself firmly in Trish.
Fast-forwarding into her adult years, Trish attended Bible college and worked for a decade in the electronics industry. During many of those years it was difficult to find a church where she could grow and serve. In His grace, God kept His hand on her. Nine years ago, He led her to move closer to her family in Florida, where she found a strong Bible-preaching church.
Trish started teaching Sunday School and eventually returned to Bible college for a degree in elementary education. In her final year in college, Trish participated in BMM’s Focus on France missionary internship. She was struck by how many people had never heard the gospel, even in this “Christian” nation.
For the last two years, Trish has taught at her church’s Christian school and has learned the sacrifice and hard work of ministry. She is looking forward to returning to France wherever God leads her, possibly working with university students and camping ministry.
Sending Church: First Baptist Church Land O’ Lakes—Land O’ Lakes, Florida
Stan* and Ruth (Sherid) Templeton
Field: Peru
A simple sermon in January 2007 changed everything in Ruth’s world. Her pastor’s message on the widow’s mite led Ruth to give up two things she had clung to for years, one of them being control. A Christian school teacher for 32 years, Ruth was comfortable in her career and with her life as a single person. But within two weeks of her turning over control to God, some friends asked her, “What do you think about blind dates?”
That’s when Stan Templeton entered the scene. Stan was a missionary to Peru whose wife went to be with the Lord in 2003. Soon the e-mails started, then phone calls. Ruth knew it was from the Lord, because she had complete peace. In April 2007, Stan and Ruth met, and by June, Ruth was flying to Peru to see if she could fit into Stan’s work. Surrounded by Peruvian culture and missionary challenges, Ruth’s peace never wavered. Four months later, Stan and Ruth were engaged, and they married August 9, 2008.
The Lord has brought to fruition an interest in missions Ruth has had since high school. She had studied Spanish and had gone on missions trips to Mexico and Panama, a background that prepares her for her future service. Ruth’s extensive work with children and her organizational skills will also benefit her husband’s ministry. But for her first few years in Peru, Ruth will focus on learning the language and culture as well as adjusting to her new role as a wife.
* Stan has been serving with BMM since 1983.
Sending Church: Calvary Baptist Church—Lansdale, Pennsylvania
Rich and Maggie Todd
Field: Mormon Focus Ministry Team
At the end of the Todds’ 2006 survey trip to Utah, missionary Mike Bardon pulled over at a cemetery in an all-Mormon community. “When the rapture occurs,” Mike asked Rich, “How many graves are going to open up?” Probably none, he thought. Rich’s last doubts about ministering in Utah were gone.
The process God used to lead the Todds to Mormon ministry began long before. Maggie grew up in a Mormon family. Wrestling with the futility of her works-based religion, she finally gave up on it and on God altogether. Rich grew up Methodist with the same works mentality but was later saved in college.
There was little spiritual growth for Rich, however, until Emmanuel Baptist entered the picture. When contacted by the church, Rich was interested. Maggie, yet unsaved, agreed to attend but with the resentment of one “burned by religion.” Still, the friendly, vibrant nature of Emmanuel’s people was magnetic. In three months, Maggie accepted the gift of salvation. Rich, too, knew this was where he could serve the Lord.
Since 1998, both have served the gamut of church ministries: teaching, VBS, missions trips, evangelism teams, leadership. Challenged by a pastoral intern, Rich prayed about full-time ministry. God opened all the doors, including an online master’s program that allowed Rich’s pastor to continue discipling Rich for ministry. With their special heart for the Mormon people, the Todds are anticipating a team ministry with Mike and Neva Bardon.
Children: Tom (22); Sara (14); Shaina (11)
Sending Church: Emmanuel Baptist Church—Naperville, Illinois
Click here for the Todds' contact information.
The Rest of Our New Team
While we cannot share their names, Baptist Mid-Missions welcomed three additional missionaries who will serve in Creative Access Nations (CAN).