Enlisting in the Air Force seemed a natural step for Jonathan Romaine after high school graduation in 1999. His father and grandfather had served in the US Armed Forces, as did prior generations all the way back to the Civil War. 

Jonathan excelled in his new Air Force career and earned a coveted assignment with the SAM FOX (Special Air Missions Foreign) 89th Airlift Wing. In this role, Jonathan protected the US’s most senior and elected leaders, including President George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and Condoleeza Rice. Later at the Pentagon, Jonathan worked for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard B. Meyers.

As Jonathan’s career escalated, his spiritual life also began to soar. Through the teaching and example of his church, Fellowship Baptist Church in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, he learned much about missions and believers’ responsibilities to be witnesses—no matter who they are or what they do. It sparked a desire to reach his own flight crew and security team with the gospel. During overseas military missions, Jonathan began using less of his freetime sightseeing and instead brought supplies and Bibles to local missionaries. It was eye opening to see that missionaries were just humble servants wanting to obey God and go wherever He called them. 

At the height of his success at the Pentagon, Jonathan was finding greater joy than he had ever known … but it wasn’t through his career. It was through sharing the gospel. In 2005, he dedicated his life to serving the Lord full-time. Leaving the Air Force (and giving up several six-figure job offers), Jonathan chose to walk by faith for God’s provision. He earned a BA in Bible in 2009 and a MABS in biblical studies in 2011. 

Fellowship Baptist Church had a profound impact on his spiritual life, and it also led him to his wife, Hannah. Hannah’s father, a Navy pilot and Commander, was one of several men who vitally encouraged Jonathan in his spiritual walk. Hannah’s goal as a college student was to faithfully use her gifts and passions for God. After she and Jonathan began dating long-distance, she even forfeited precious time with him to take summer mission trips. United by a desire to be ambassadors of God’s grace anywhere He sent them, Jonathan and Hannah married in 2007. 

When Jonathan had traveled overseas with the Air Force, he saw how difficult it was to find a gospel-preaching church in Spain. Later at Bible college, he and Hannah met Caleb and Sarah Burdett. Forming a church-planting team in north-central Spain, they began a new work in Logroño, La Rioja, in 2017. Sarah Burdett’s missionary parents, Tim and Pam Darling, joined the team in 2021 after graduating their own church plant in Madrid. 

The three pillars of the Air Force are “Integrity first, excellence in all you do, and service before self.” Those values continue to guide Jonathan and Hannah. No matter how difficult a mission is or the outcome, they know they can persevere to trust and serve God because He promises to be their help and strength. 

In 2022 when the Romaines’ seven-year-old son, Ian, was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer and died 11 months later, the Lord sustained them through the support of a vast network of missions connections. 

Church planting in Logroño has brought challenges of many kinds, but it has seen God’s priceless blessing. After eight years of the team’s hard work, La Iglesia Bautista de Logroño (Logroño Baptist Church) was inaugurated in November 2023. With an average of 60 attendees, the church has outgrown its facilities and is renovating a larger building they purchased in 2024. 

Because Jonathan and Hannah answered the call to missions, an area of the world devoid of Bible-centered churches now has an enduring and global testimony for Christ among Spaniards and the immigrants who come to Logroño.