Rescue

Joze and Nada Casar, Slovenia

Joze and Nada Casar are serving the Lord in their home country of Slovenia. "After a few years of active involvement in ministry, this past year has been a stamp of proof of God's faithfulness," Joze reports. As pastor of New Life Church, which Joze and Nada founded, Joze has a tremendous desire to plant more churches in the region. Joze and Nada continue to work with the Roma People, a marginalized people group in Slovenia. A ministry to drug addicts has seen new people come to Christ. In Lendava, a town close to Hungary, a group of believers continues to influence the region for Christ. In July 2006, Joze and Nada began a new church service in a public place, free of rent. Nada works full time at the hospital and also works with children and accompanies Joze to all of their ministry activities. They both continue to meet new friends and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Monica Chavez, Mexico

Monica Chavez has been serving the Lord at Rancho Santa Marta in Baja California since 2003. As a housemom at the orphanage, Monica has been caring for 10 beautiful girls and watching them grow. She says that "besides caring for their daily needs it has been a blessing to be able to share the Lord's love with them and watch them mature as they develop their relationship with Jesus." As part of the ministry with Rancho Santa Marta, Monica also teaches basic social and living skills to children with special education needs. Though her years at Rancho Santa Marta have been full of challenges, Monica is grateful for what the Lord has taught her through working with these children. Her prayer for herself is that she would do her best and always give glory to the Lord, and her prayer for her 10 little girls is that they would grow up with Jesus Christ as the focus in their hearts and lives.

Anne Dieselberg, Thailand

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2 NightLight is an international organization committed to addressing the complex issues surrounding trafficking and prostitution by catalyzing individual and community transformation.

NightLight’s vision is to offer intervention to sexually exploited women and children, to enable them to discover their dignity, and to provide a program of holistic transformation, empowering them to live and work in their community.

NightLight’s mission is to build relationships and provide hope, intervention, rescue and assistance to women and children exploited in the sex industry by offering alternative employment, vocational opportunities, life-skills training and physical, emotional and spiritual development to women seeking freedom. NightLight builds support networks internationally to intervene and assist women, men and children whose lives are negatively impacted by the sex industry.

In Bangkok, Nightlight operates as a business (NightLight Design, Co. Ltd) and a non-profit (NightLight Foundation). In the United States, NightLight operates as a 501c3 with branches in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Rev. John and Marielle Dupree

John is a 'Church Mobilization Minister' with the Harvest Group which organizes the Perspectives courses and mobilizes churches in Central and Northern California. His primary duties are consulting with local church leadership for practical congregational involvement, organizing conferences and missionary development. He also preaches and teaches at churches, seminaries, seminars, Perspectives classes and conferences in America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

John now also serves as an Adjunct Professor at William Jessup University in Rocklin teaching a class on "Ministry Mobilization Through Event Planning". 20 years of organizing Regional and National Missions Conferences has set the stage for the creation of the TRACTION Young Adult Conference (ages 18-29). WJU students are being prepared to organize events for churches and the lab is TRACTION. The Harvest Group and WJU co-sponsor TRACTION. John is also the Pacific Regional Director for the PERSPECTIVES Study Program.

John is an ordained minister who has been a church planter, Elder and Director of International Ministries at River Oak Grace Community Church in Oakdale for 10 years. Until recently, for 16 years John served as the ACMC Pacific Central Regional Director (for a few months under "Initiative360" which was the merger of ACMC and Caleb Project)  serving churches in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. He was also the ACMC National Conferences Director.

John's wife Marielle is his Administrative Assistant, Children's UnveilinGLORY speaker and a wonderful Children's Missions Mobilizer, based in Oakdale, CA.

John and Meg Glass, Switzerland

John and Meg Glass are working as missionaries in Europe for the last 26 years. They worked in Paris for 10 years. Then, in 1996, they moved to Geneva, Switzerland (they still live in France right across the border from Geneva) to do church-planting. John is actually the son of an American businessman and was raised for the first 15 years of his life in Geneva. He was thus able to fulfill his dream of planting a church in the city where he grew up. The church is called l'Eglise Evangélique Internationale de Genève (www.eeig.ch) which is an international French-speaking church. John also has a weekly radio program in French called "More Precious than Gold" and in 2002 he became chaplain for the Geneva-Servette hockey team, the Swiss equivalent to the NHL. John and Meg have three children: John William, Kimberly and James.

Diane Hawkins, Restoration in Christ

Restoration in Christ Ministries (RCM), founded by Dr. Tom Hawkins, offers training and support to those called to restore lives shattered by abuse. The ministry has helped hundreds of survivors of severe abuse who suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). RCM offers a wide range of printed materials, CDs and DVDs designed to bring people a deeper understanding of abuse issues. RCM's approach to DID addresses the significant spiritual dynamics occurring in the disorder. Diane, a writer and speaker, has given seminars throughout the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. 

Don and Joan Heck, Spain

Don and Joan Heck have been working with FamilyLife Spain (De Familia a Familia) and Campus Crusade for Christ Spain (Agape España) since 1991. Along with working to connect and help people build strong healthy relationships in families, their focus has been in discipling young leaders in churches and in Agape using such materials as the Exchanged Life course. In-depth discipleship in the churches is strongly needed.

Less than four-tenths of one percent of people in Spain are evangelical believers, and Spain continues to be a mission field not only for Spaniards and western and eastern Europeans, but also for the growing immigrant population from Muslim North Africa, South America and Africa.

Todd and Sarah Hunnicutt, Slovenia

Todd and Sarah Hunnicutt have been leading the United World Mission team in Slovenia since June 2001. In a country of 2 million, there are only about 1,100 evangelical believers in 40 small churches throughout Slovenia. The Hunnicutts have been learning language, building relationships and laying out the foundation for the movement of church planting. They are directly involved with two church plants, regularly visiting and encouraging other church plants, and acting as a resource to most of the church planters in Slovenia. The Hunnicutts are planning long-term for an inter-church project that would be a unifying factor among churches and reach most Slovenes by presenting the Gospel through the arts. Todd says, "We're so glad to have CrossPoint as our church home, and we appreciate the overwhelming support we feel."

Timothy and Yun Ith, Cambodia

Rev. Timothy and Yun Ith have devoted their lives to serving the Lord in Cambodia. Timothy works closely with the Phnom Penh Bible School, a seminary located in the capital city of Cambodia. Phnom Penh Bible School provides Christian training for the next generation of men and women who will minister to their Cambodian neighbors. Timothy and Yun also oversee church-planting efforts all over Cambodia. Currently they are planting 29 churches in 11 of the country's 24 provinces, and their vision is to plant churches along the borders of neighboring countries. Church planters are also involved in several micro-enterprise projects such as rice cultivation, fish hatcheries, cow banks and other agricultural products to bring much-needed income to the church body. Timothy also pastors a church of 100 people that meets in the Ith's backyard. Timothy and Yun have two daughters: Pisey and Sarah.

Bill and Kaye Lawrence, Mexico

Bill and Kaye Lawrence are currently serving in Baja California, Mexico at Rancho Santa Marta. Rancho Santa Marta is a ministry for needy Mexican children that offers a home for abandoned children, a school for mentally challenged children and a boarding facility for students who come from nearby communities. The ranch also sponsors several outreach and community service programs including a teen center in a nearby town, Sunday church services, a summer trade school and evangelism trips to Baja villages and the interior of Mexico.

Nelson and Vikki Maya, Colombia

Nelson and Vikki (De Los Santos) Maya serve with United World Mission in Colombia. Nelson is from Colombia where he served as assistant pastor and church planter. Vikki grew up and trained at CrossPoint Community Church and has been serving in Latin America since 1996.

As a couple they serve together to grow disciple-making communities around the world that worship God, love each other, serve out in the world, and proclaim the good news of Christ everywhere! They are currently involved in church planting in the Coffee Triangle of Colombia. They are targeting communities of great physical, spiritual and emotional need. The strategy is three-fold; PRESENT the Gospel through relationships, PLANT churches that bring life change through a grace-based relationship with Jesus Christ, and PREPARE leaders from the community who will continue to be the leaders in the new church plant.

They also lead a Diploma course in Pastoral Ministry to Children, helping pastors, children's ministry directors and teachers lead children to KNOW, LOVE and OBEY God as they reach children's heart, mind and soul. They also come alongside pastors and pastors' wives to counsel, train and mentor in small group settings.

They are honored to serve as the UWM team coordinators to a rapidly growing UWM missionary team based in Armenia, Colombia.

Toni and Mateja Mrvic, Slovenia

Toni and Mateja Mrvic are building the Kingdom of God in the small town of Kocevje, Slovenia. The Mrvics were sent by their mother church to plant a church in this town of 16,000 people where there has never before been a Protestant church. Toni is happy to report that "after some years of laboring, there is now a small group of believers." The believers have gone from having a home group during the week to starting Sunday services. "God has blessed us a lot!" Toni says. The congregation would like prayer for the purchase of musical instruments and for new believers who are musicians to help serve with worship.

Mt Carmel Ministry Center, Israel

Steve and Liz Spellman, Brazil

Steve and Liz Spellman currently divide their time between Brazil and Haiti. In Brazil, Steve serves as a regional and national Church Planting Coach and Mentor. For 20 years they lived in the city of Rio de Janeiro; in 2012 they moved to the city of Florianopolis, were they currently reside. In addition, Steve is the Team Leader for ReachGlobal - Haiti, traveling there 8-10 times a year, giving leadership to the emerging work in that ravaged country. The Spellmans have daughters: Alessandra (born 1989, currently living in Seattle), Rebecca (born 1991, university student in Chicago) and Kayla (born 1993, also living in Chicago). They ask for continued prayer for "daily and constant protection for our family, especially in the midst of our travels, for a church planting movement to take hold in Brazil, and for true and powerful Gospel transformation to sweep across the country of Haiti."

Dr. Don and Joyce Townsend, Missionary Gospel Fellowship

Responding to God’s call, Don and Joyce Townsend took early retirements as a psychologist and speech pathologist and served with English Language Institute in China for seven years. Currently they volunteer as Missionary Care Directors of Missionary Gospel Fellowship, serve on the leadership team and coordinate MGF’s Regional Contact Missionary Program. MGF’s missionaries serve in North American including Canada and Mexico. In addition to church planting, MGF missionaries minister to migrant laborers, prisoners, diversified ethnic groups and cults, and provide training to Mexican and Canadian nationals. The Townsends encourage the missionaries by visiting them on the field and maintaining frequent contacts with them through email, cards and phone communications. In addition, Joyce is editor of the Missionary Tidbits, a newsletter for the MGF missionaries, to help them learn more about each others’ ministries and know each others’ prayer needs. High school sweethearts, they married in 1955 and have two married daughters, Lisa Tolsma (Bill) and Cheryl Wood (Greg). Their two grandchildren are in college: Shannon Wood will graduate from Baylor University in Waco, Texas in May 2011 and Ryan Wood is a sophomore at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington..

Janet Turner, Mexico

Janet Turner is working with Wycliffe Bible Translators among the Mixtec people in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. In the past four years, they have printed the New Testament in the Mixtec language and the book of Luke was dubbed in the "Jesus" film. Janet and her team are now working on a summary of the Old Testament, a Mixtec-Spanish dictionary, and literacy materials. Janet writes that "the Mixtec people are very open to the Gospel right now ... but we are seeing more attacks on the minds of the Mixtec believers?­doubt, indifference, fear, discouragement. Please pray with us for the Holy Spirit's protection for them and for their spiritual growth."

Drago and Margareta Sukic, Slovenia

Dr. B.E. and Mary Vijayam, India

Partners International - Joshua Vision India

Dr. B.E. and Mary Vijayam are working with Joshua Vision India (JVI) to reach thousands of Indian villages and people groups who have not yet heard the Gospel. Dr. Vijayam is the founder and coordinator for JVI and works closely with the Master Trainer program, a one-year program that equips believers to take the Gospel to new villages and regions. Master Trainers not only learn how to present the spiritual Gospel, but also how to practically address the needs of the poor through micro-enterprise projects. In 2001, Mary began a women's division of JVI called Indian Women in the Lord's Labor (IWILL) which includes a six-month training program for women. Women play a strategic role in evangelism in India because in Indian culture, it is not appropriate for a man to minister to a woman. Dr. B.E. and Mary Vijayam have four children: Mary Lois, Rhoda, Ruth Lajwanthi and Joseph, who now serves as the director of JVI.