Geoff & Tina Casteel
fROM pERU
Our Story
We grew up overseas (Geoff was in Indonesia and I was in Colombia) so we had similar backgrounds. After high school, we both attended the Ethnos360 Bible School in Wisconsin. We met because we had to sit next to each other every day in chapel since they had assigned our seats alphabetically. We started dating during the linguistic part of the missionary training. We both love coffee, having grown up in countries that drink A LOT of coffee. So Geoff found a small place that made "good enough" coffee and would take me on coffee dates there. We were married that year, after we finished the training.
Our heart for missions started with our grandparents. We both had grandparents who heard God's call and headed overseas to share the gospel. Then our parents also became missionaries and went to work with an unreached tribe out in the boondocks. Growing up overseas gave Geoff and I a first-hand look at missions and its many needs. We were given the legacy of multi-generational faithful missionary service and grew up to see the importance of sharing the gospel to the ends of the earth. By the end of high school, we both felt the call of the Lord upon our own lives to serve Him through missions. In Bible School one of Geoff's friends was planning to plant a church among the Quechua people in the mountains of central Peru. Every day his friend would tell Geoff about all the new things he was learning about the need in Peru. By the end of Bible School, Geoff and his friend had formed a team and made plans to move to Peru. I joined the team later when Geoff and I got married after finishing the missionary training. In 2002 went to work in the mountains of central Peru with Pioneers.
Our heart for missions started with our grandparents. We both had grandparents who heard God's call and headed overseas to share the gospel. Then our parents also became missionaries and went to work with an unreached tribe out in the boondocks. Growing up overseas gave Geoff and I a first-hand look at missions and its many needs. We were given the legacy of multi-generational faithful missionary service and grew up to see the importance of sharing the gospel to the ends of the earth. By the end of high school, we both felt the call of the Lord upon our own lives to serve Him through missions. In Bible School one of Geoff's friends was planning to plant a church among the Quechua people in the mountains of central Peru. Every day his friend would tell Geoff about all the new things he was learning about the need in Peru. By the end of Bible School, Geoff and his friend had formed a team and made plans to move to Peru. I joined the team later when Geoff and I got married after finishing the missionary training. In 2002 went to work in the mountains of central Peru with Pioneers.
Our Mission
Together with our team, we partner with the local church to see churches planted among the Quechua people, to see these churches strengthened through in-depth chronological teaching of the Bible, and to see these believers empowered through one-on-one discipleship giving them a strong foundation for their faith so that they can carry out the work of serving their own people with God’s truth in a culturally clear manner. In the beginning, the team was focused solely on the Ambo-Pasco dialect of Quechua, but over the years God has broadened this vision and opened the doors for us to be able to minister to other Quechua dialects from the surrounding mountains as well.
Currently we are involved with teaching and discipleship in a small church in the town of Huánuco as well as discipleship among individuals from various villages in the area. We are also involved with training Quechua pastors and church leaders from various villages and dialects and are currently working on building a small Quechua Training School to meet this need.
Currently we are involved with teaching and discipleship in a small church in the town of Huánuco as well as discipleship among individuals from various villages in the area. We are also involved with training Quechua pastors and church leaders from various villages and dialects and are currently working on building a small Quechua Training School to meet this need.
Our Region
We work with the Quechua people in the mountains of central Peru. They live in villages that are isolated and some do not have roads for easy access. In addition, they are animists (they worship spirits) which requires a lot of basic, foundational teaching to both evangelize as well as replace their false understanding with the truth of God's Word. Due to violence towards them in the past, they are very fearful of foreigners so it takes a very long time to develop friendships and gain their trust. And, as a result of their world view, they also struggle with jealousy so there is infighting to deal with as well. We continue to ask that you pray for the salvation of the Quechua people, for wisdom as we disciple different individuals, and for spiritual growth and maturity of the believers.
Paul & Debbie Howells
fROM THE PHILIPPINES
Our Story
We arrived in the Philippines in 1987, Paul was 25 and I was 21 when we arrived, and our missionary journey took us to Mindanao where we continue to serve our Lord until this day. God has blessed us with two beautiful children – our daughter Jen, whom God gifted to us in 1995 when she was 14 years old, and our son Jubab, whom God gifted to us in 1998 when he was 2 months old.
Jen is married to Udi, and they have four children who have made us very happy grandparents. Udi is one of the pastors at the first church we founded in Cauyunan. They also run their farm and head up a lot of outreach work, so they are very busy. Our two eldest grandchildren, Char and Clint are both studying nursing in university and have lived with us since they started at university.
Jubab is married to Freya, and they live in Perth, Australia. Jubab has had a wide range of experiences including growing up in a remote village where we worked and lived during his childhood, homeschooling for years, finishing his senior year of high school in Australia, Bible College in the USA, and a couple of mission trips to Hungary and to Japan. Jubab and Freya met in University in Perth, and they are now both working, love their local church and enjoy the things God has them doing. They had the joy of having two weddings in one year, the second one being here in the Philippines with all our Higaonon family.
Let's take a quick look backwards to the beginning of our lives. Paul grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He enjoyed a privileged life for some time and went to top boarding schools in Melbourne, but things went into a downward spin after his parents divorced and his life got pretty messed up and lonely. He arrived in Brisbane, Australia looking for a new start just after his 20th birthday. Deb grew up as a missionary kid in a remote village in the Philippines and put her trust in the Lord Jesus as a young child. She was homeschooled until she was 15 and arrived back in Brisbane, Australia when she was 16 with the plan to study nursing and to be a missionary. We met four months later when Paul came to our house selling encyclopedias. He started coming to regular Bible studies at our place every week and started reading the Word and within a couple of months he had fallen in love with Jesus and had received eternal life.
The rest is history, and we have now been married for over 40 years and the entire time of our marriage we have been on our missionary journey together. We’re thankful to be on this exciting journey with our Lord Jesus who never leaves us or forsakes us!
Jen is married to Udi, and they have four children who have made us very happy grandparents. Udi is one of the pastors at the first church we founded in Cauyunan. They also run their farm and head up a lot of outreach work, so they are very busy. Our two eldest grandchildren, Char and Clint are both studying nursing in university and have lived with us since they started at university.
Jubab is married to Freya, and they live in Perth, Australia. Jubab has had a wide range of experiences including growing up in a remote village where we worked and lived during his childhood, homeschooling for years, finishing his senior year of high school in Australia, Bible College in the USA, and a couple of mission trips to Hungary and to Japan. Jubab and Freya met in University in Perth, and they are now both working, love their local church and enjoy the things God has them doing. They had the joy of having two weddings in one year, the second one being here in the Philippines with all our Higaonon family.
Let's take a quick look backwards to the beginning of our lives. Paul grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He enjoyed a privileged life for some time and went to top boarding schools in Melbourne, but things went into a downward spin after his parents divorced and his life got pretty messed up and lonely. He arrived in Brisbane, Australia looking for a new start just after his 20th birthday. Deb grew up as a missionary kid in a remote village in the Philippines and put her trust in the Lord Jesus as a young child. She was homeschooled until she was 15 and arrived back in Brisbane, Australia when she was 16 with the plan to study nursing and to be a missionary. We met four months later when Paul came to our house selling encyclopedias. He started coming to regular Bible studies at our place every week and started reading the Word and within a couple of months he had fallen in love with Jesus and had received eternal life.
The rest is history, and we have now been married for over 40 years and the entire time of our marriage we have been on our missionary journey together. We’re thankful to be on this exciting journey with our Lord Jesus who never leaves us or forsakes us!
Our Mission
Our ministry has involved many things that we could never have seen ourselves doing when we first arrived here as a very young couple, but which God empowered us to do through His amazing plan, power and strength!
We have served our Lord here in Mindanao for 38 years, doing church planting, Bible translation (we have translated two New Testaments - the Talaandig New Testament and the Higaonon New Testament), baptizing, teaching, discipleship, medical work, building, community development, and all that God has set before our hands to do.
Currently in 2025, we are continuing to develop commentaries of each book of the New Testament along with producing videos of Bible teaching on each chapter. These are being uploaded almost weekly to our website and are being used in the seven regions where our missionary teams are serving and church planting. This material is being produced in Talaandig/Higaonon and in Cebuano which is spoken by about 20 million people both here in the Philippines and abroad. We continue to help the churches with leadership training, computers, motorbikes, support and buildings… anything that we can do to help further the work of the Gospel and the outreach into new areas.
One of our many ministries over the past fourteen years has been leading, training and working alongside our growing team of home-grown missionaries raised up from our own church plants. We currently have 10 missionary families working in 7 regions here in Mindanao, teaching several thousand people each week including a large school and prison ministry. Collectively from each of the regions, God has raised up over 100 church leaders, pastors and experienced Bible teachers with whom we are thrilled to be fellow-laborers of the Gospel with and who are being greatly used for God’s glory.
We have served our Lord here in Mindanao for 38 years, doing church planting, Bible translation (we have translated two New Testaments - the Talaandig New Testament and the Higaonon New Testament), baptizing, teaching, discipleship, medical work, building, community development, and all that God has set before our hands to do.
Currently in 2025, we are continuing to develop commentaries of each book of the New Testament along with producing videos of Bible teaching on each chapter. These are being uploaded almost weekly to our website and are being used in the seven regions where our missionary teams are serving and church planting. This material is being produced in Talaandig/Higaonon and in Cebuano which is spoken by about 20 million people both here in the Philippines and abroad. We continue to help the churches with leadership training, computers, motorbikes, support and buildings… anything that we can do to help further the work of the Gospel and the outreach into new areas.
One of our many ministries over the past fourteen years has been leading, training and working alongside our growing team of home-grown missionaries raised up from our own church plants. We currently have 10 missionary families working in 7 regions here in Mindanao, teaching several thousand people each week including a large school and prison ministry. Collectively from each of the regions, God has raised up over 100 church leaders, pastors and experienced Bible teachers with whom we are thrilled to be fellow-laborers of the Gospel with and who are being greatly used for God’s glory.
Our Region
The difficulties of evangelizing in our regions range from physical challenges to dark spiritual forces. We have spent time digging vehicles out of the mud, enduring dangers on the road (like bandits), and all kinds of very rough travel. We have had to walk for many hours with limited water sources, hot sun beating on us, and numerous river crossings where there were no bridges and waters were rising and deep due to the rain. But far beyond physical challenges are the dark spiritual forces who are against us and use all sorts of obstacles against the Word of God. Sometimes the witch doctors prevent us from teaching the Gospel in their villages, at times there are death threats against both the evangelists and those who want to hear.
Our Resources
Undisclosed Couple
fROM EURASIA
Our Story
We are located in Eurasia and have been serving in missions since 1995. We spent almost 10 years in Central Asia focused on church planting and training in the former republics of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. We then served in executive leadership roles overseeing the international ministry of our mission agency. In January 2018, we deployed oversees again, this time to Eurasia, serving in a country where less than .04% of the population is evangelical. We are currently part of a church planting team in a town where there are only three national believers. We have four adult children and nine grandchildren in the U.S.
Our Mission
The vision of our mission agency is to glorify God by multiplying followers of Jesus in the spiritually darkest areas of the world. Therefore we focus on bringing the gospel to areas of the world where less than 2% of the population are believers.
Our Region
The country in which we serve is considered a “pioneer unreached” country due to the fact that only .04% of the population are evangelical Christians. While a small number of churches do exist, there are no known active church movements taking place in the country. Although the land of this country has a Christian history, the people see that history as having no connection to them today, as their current religion is Islam. The greatest challenge in the country is the hardened resistance of the local people to the gospel message.
Undisclosed Couple
FROM EASTERN EUROPE
Our Story
We were born and raised in El Salvador. We have been married for forty years and have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
We both gave our lives to Jesus in our late teen years while our country was going through a civil war. As young believers, we saw the urgency of sharing the message of salvation as times were difficult in our country. We became involved in evangelism, discipleship, and later in church planting in two different cities where my husband served as a founding pastor for 16 years.
In 1990, while serving the Lord in our home country, we received the call to go serve an unreached country. For 9 years we prayed and waited for God’s timing.
In 1999, we left El Salvador with our three children who were 11, 9, and 5 years old. We moved to this prominently atheist country that had formerly been under communist control. Religion had not been allowed to be practiced there for 45 years.
For 8 years, we lived and served in this country, learning the language, the culture, and sharing the love of Christ. Many people heard for the first time about Jesus and His plan for redemption and gave their lives to God. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people; men, women and children. We and our three children use every opportunity to live out our faith.
While serving in this country, we were presented with a great need of proclaiming the Gospel in a neighboring country where 45% of the population had no missionaries among them. Once again, God called us to go.
In 2007, we arrived on a new field; this time with only our two younger children, with our eldest having left for college. In this new country we had to learn another language and culture in order to share God’s message.
After 26 years of serving the Lord on the mission field, all we have to say is that the Lord is good and He is faithful!
We both gave our lives to Jesus in our late teen years while our country was going through a civil war. As young believers, we saw the urgency of sharing the message of salvation as times were difficult in our country. We became involved in evangelism, discipleship, and later in church planting in two different cities where my husband served as a founding pastor for 16 years.
In 1990, while serving the Lord in our home country, we received the call to go serve an unreached country. For 9 years we prayed and waited for God’s timing.
In 1999, we left El Salvador with our three children who were 11, 9, and 5 years old. We moved to this prominently atheist country that had formerly been under communist control. Religion had not been allowed to be practiced there for 45 years.
For 8 years, we lived and served in this country, learning the language, the culture, and sharing the love of Christ. Many people heard for the first time about Jesus and His plan for redemption and gave their lives to God. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people; men, women and children. We and our three children use every opportunity to live out our faith.
While serving in this country, we were presented with a great need of proclaiming the Gospel in a neighboring country where 45% of the population had no missionaries among them. Once again, God called us to go.
In 2007, we arrived on a new field; this time with only our two younger children, with our eldest having left for college. In this new country we had to learn another language and culture in order to share God’s message.
After 26 years of serving the Lord on the mission field, all we have to say is that the Lord is good and He is faithful!
Our Mission
We work with school projects, summer camps, teacher trainings, English classes, guitar lessons, game nights with university students and friends at our language center, helping people from villages to establish and manage small businesses, and more. We do anything God provides in order to be in contact with people, meet them, help them in their needs, develop relationships, and share the message of the Gospel.
Through preaching the Word of God, we began discipling new believers. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people, men, women and children. Soon after, we began training members of the church in preparation for them to lead.
In 2007, we moved to another unreached country. God has allowed us to share His message of redemption. Many lives have been changed, and the light of Christ is now shining in a very dark place. For the first time there is a Christian church in this city.
Through preaching the Word of God, we began discipling new believers. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people, men, women and children. Soon after, we began training members of the church in preparation for them to lead.
In 2007, we moved to another unreached country. God has allowed us to share His message of redemption. Many lives have been changed, and the light of Christ is now shining in a very dark place. For the first time there is a Christian church in this city.
Our Region
Since 2007, we have been working with two ethnic groups where history and ethnicity problems are the cause of division and hatred. With God's wisdom and love, we are encouraging forgiveness and opening roads of communication among them.
Family and social pressure determine their decisions for their life. Once God opens their eyes and they make a decision for Christ, it is very difficult for them. Family and friends turn against them, they become isolated. At times they get fired from their jobs. There was even a case where a husband became a believer and his wife's family took his wife away from him. If the new believer is single and wants to get married, it is difficult to find a Christian partner. The number of believers is so small.
Over the years, many people have given their lives to Jesus, but most end up leaving the country and living in places where they can live out their Christian faith freely. This is difficult because it does not allow for building up a strong Christian community. This can be very discouraging, but trusting that God is in control has given us the strength to start again from zero every time.
Family and social pressure determine their decisions for their life. Once God opens their eyes and they make a decision for Christ, it is very difficult for them. Family and friends turn against them, they become isolated. At times they get fired from their jobs. There was even a case where a husband became a believer and his wife's family took his wife away from him. If the new believer is single and wants to get married, it is difficult to find a Christian partner. The number of believers is so small.
Over the years, many people have given their lives to Jesus, but most end up leaving the country and living in places where they can live out their Christian faith freely. This is difficult because it does not allow for building up a strong Christian community. This can be very discouraging, but trusting that God is in control has given us the strength to start again from zero every time.
Geoff & Tina Casteel
FROM PERU
Our Story
We grew up overseas (Geoff was in Indonesia and I was in Colombia) so we had similar backgrounds. After high school, we both attended the Ethnos360 Bible School in Wisconsin. We met because we had to sit next to each other every day in chapel since they had assigned our seats alphabetically. We started dating during the linguistic part of the missionary training. We both love coffee, having grown up in countries that drink A LOT of coffee. So Geoff found a small place that made "good enough" coffee and would take me on coffee dates there. We were married that year, after we finished the training.
Our heart for missions started with our grandparents. We both had grandparents who heard God's call and headed overseas to share the gospel. Then our parents also became missionaries and went to work with an unreached tribe out in the boondocks. Growing up overseas gave Geoff and I a first-hand look at missions and its many needs. We were given the legacy of multi-generational faithful missionary service and grew up to see the importance of sharing the gospel to the ends of the earth. By the end of high school, we both felt the call of the Lord upon our own lives to serve Him through missions. In Bible School one of Geoff's friends was planning to plant a church among the Quechua people in the mountains of central Peru. Every day his friend would tell Geoff about all the new things he was learning about the need in Peru. By the end of Bible School, Geoff and his friend had formed a team and made plans to move to Peru. I joined the team later when Geoff and I got married after finishing the missionary training. In 2002 went to work in the mountains of central Peru with Pioneers.
Our heart for missions started with our grandparents. We both had grandparents who heard God's call and headed overseas to share the gospel. Then our parents also became missionaries and went to work with an unreached tribe out in the boondocks. Growing up overseas gave Geoff and I a first-hand look at missions and its many needs. We were given the legacy of multi-generational faithful missionary service and grew up to see the importance of sharing the gospel to the ends of the earth. By the end of high school, we both felt the call of the Lord upon our own lives to serve Him through missions. In Bible School one of Geoff's friends was planning to plant a church among the Quechua people in the mountains of central Peru. Every day his friend would tell Geoff about all the new things he was learning about the need in Peru. By the end of Bible School, Geoff and his friend had formed a team and made plans to move to Peru. I joined the team later when Geoff and I got married after finishing the missionary training. In 2002 went to work in the mountains of central Peru with Pioneers.
Our Mission
Together with our team, we partner with the local church to see churches planted among the Quechua people, to see these churches strengthened through in-depth chronological teaching of the Bible, and to see these believers empowered through one-on-one discipleship giving them a strong foundation for their faith so that they can carry out the work of serving their own people with God’s truth in a culturally clear manner. In the beginning, the team was focused solely on the Ambo-Pasco dialect of Quechua, but over the years God has broadened this vision and opened the doors for us to be able to minister to other Quechua dialects from the surrounding mountains as well.
Currently we are involved with teaching and discipleship in a small church in the town of Huánuco as well as discipleship among individuals from various villages in the area. They are also involved with training Quechua pastors and church leaders from various villages and dialects and are currently working on building a small Quechua Training School to meet this need.
Currently we are involved with teaching and discipleship in a small church in the town of Huánuco as well as discipleship among individuals from various villages in the area. They are also involved with training Quechua pastors and church leaders from various villages and dialects and are currently working on building a small Quechua Training School to meet this need.
Our Region
We work with the Quechua people in the mountains of central Peru. They live in villages that are isolated and some do not have roads for easy access. In addition, they are animists (they worship spirits) which requires a lot of basic, foundational teaching to both evangelize as well as replace their false understanding with the truth of God's Word. Due to violence towards them in the past, they are very fearful of foreigners so it takes a very long time to develop friendships and gain their trust. And, as a result of their world view, they also struggle with jealousy so there is infighting to deal with as well. We continue to ask that you pray for the salvation of the Quechua people, for wisdom as we disciple different individuals, and for spiritual growth and maturity of the believers.
Paul & Debbie Howells
FROM THE PHILIPPINES
Our Story
We arrived in the Philippines in 1987, Paul was 25 and I was 21 when we arrived, and our missionary journey took us to Mindanao where we continue to serve our Lord until this day.
God has blessed us with two beautiful children – our daughter Jen, whom God gifted to us in 1995 when she was 14 years old, and our son Jubab, whom God gifted to us in 1998 when he was 2 months old.
Jen is married to Udi, and they have four children who have made us very happy grandparents. Udi is one of the pastors at the first church we founded in Cauyunan. They also run their farm and head up a lot of outreach work, so they are very busy. Our two eldest grandchildren, Char and Clint are both studying nursing in university and have lived with us since they started at university.
Jubab is married to Freya, and they live in Perth, Australia. Jubab has had a wide range of experiences including growing up in a remote village where we worked and lived during his childhood, homeschooling for years, finishing his senior year of high school in Australia, Bible College in the USA, and a couple of mission trips to Hungary and to Japan. Jubab and Freya met in University in Perth, and they are now both working, love their local church and enjoy the things God has them doing. They had the joy of having two weddings in one year, the second one being here in the Philippines with all our Higaonon family.
Let's take a quick backwards look to the beginning of our lives. Paul grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He enjoyed a privileged life for some time and went to top boarding schools in Melbourne, but things went into a downward spin after his parents divorced and his life got pretty messed up and lonely. He arrived in Brisbane, Australia looking for a new start just after his 20th birthday. Deb grew up as a missionary kid in a remote village in the Philippines and put her trust in the Lord Jesus as a young child. She was homeschooled until she was 15 and arrived back in Brisbane, Australia when she was 16 with the plan to study nursing and to be a missionary. We met four months later when Paul came to our house selling encyclopedias. He started coming to regular Bible studies at our place every week and started reading the Word and within a couple of months he had fallen in love with Jesus and had received eternal life.
The rest is history, and we have now been married for over 40 years and the entire time of our marriage we have been on our missionary journey together. We’re thankful to be on this exciting journey with our Lord Jesus who never leaves us or forsakes us!
God has blessed us with two beautiful children – our daughter Jen, whom God gifted to us in 1995 when she was 14 years old, and our son Jubab, whom God gifted to us in 1998 when he was 2 months old.
Jen is married to Udi, and they have four children who have made us very happy grandparents. Udi is one of the pastors at the first church we founded in Cauyunan. They also run their farm and head up a lot of outreach work, so they are very busy. Our two eldest grandchildren, Char and Clint are both studying nursing in university and have lived with us since they started at university.
Jubab is married to Freya, and they live in Perth, Australia. Jubab has had a wide range of experiences including growing up in a remote village where we worked and lived during his childhood, homeschooling for years, finishing his senior year of high school in Australia, Bible College in the USA, and a couple of mission trips to Hungary and to Japan. Jubab and Freya met in University in Perth, and they are now both working, love their local church and enjoy the things God has them doing. They had the joy of having two weddings in one year, the second one being here in the Philippines with all our Higaonon family.
Let's take a quick backwards look to the beginning of our lives. Paul grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He enjoyed a privileged life for some time and went to top boarding schools in Melbourne, but things went into a downward spin after his parents divorced and his life got pretty messed up and lonely. He arrived in Brisbane, Australia looking for a new start just after his 20th birthday. Deb grew up as a missionary kid in a remote village in the Philippines and put her trust in the Lord Jesus as a young child. She was homeschooled until she was 15 and arrived back in Brisbane, Australia when she was 16 with the plan to study nursing and to be a missionary. We met four months later when Paul came to our house selling encyclopedias. He started coming to regular Bible studies at our place every week and started reading the Word and within a couple of months he had fallen in love with Jesus and had received eternal life.
The rest is history, and we have now been married for over 40 years and the entire time of our marriage we have been on our missionary journey together. We’re thankful to be on this exciting journey with our Lord Jesus who never leaves us or forsakes us!
Our Mission
Our ministry has involved many things that we could never have seen ourselves doing when we first arrived here as a very young couple, but which God empowered us to do through His amazing plan, power and strength!
We have served our Lord here in Mindanao for 38 years, doing church planting, Bible translation (we have translated two New Testaments - the Talaandig New Testament and the Higaonon New Testament), baptizing, teaching, discipleship, medical work, building, community development, and all that God has set before our hands to do.
Currently in 2025, we are continuing to develop commentaries of each book of the New Testament along with producing videos of Bible teaching on each chapter. These are being uploaded almost weekly to our website and are being used in the seven regions where our missionary teams are serving and church planting. This material is being produced in Talaandig/Higaonon and in Cebuano which is spoken by about 20 million people both here in the Philippines and abroad. We continue to help the churches with leadership training, computers, motorbikes, support and buildings… anything that we can do to help further the work of the Gospel and the outreach into new areas.
One of our many ministries over the past fourteen years has been leading, training and working alongside our growing team of home-grown missionaries raised up from our own church plants. We currently have 10 missionary families working in 7 regions here in Mindanao, teaching several thousand people each week including a large school and prison ministry. Collectively from each of the regions, God has raised up over 100 church leaders, pastors and experienced Bible teachers with whom we are thrilled to be fellow-laborers of the Gospel with and who are being greatly used for God’s glory.
Before we close, just a quick backwards look to the beginning of our lives. Paul grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He enjoyed a privileged life for some time and went to top boarding schools in Melbourne, but things went into a downward spin after his parents divorced and his life got pretty messed up and lonely. He arrived in Brisbane, Australia looking for a new start just after his 20th birthday.
Deb grew up as a missionary kid in a remote village in the Philippines and put her trust in the Lord Jesus as a young child. She did home schooling until she was 15 and arrived back in Brisbane, Australia when she was 16 with the plan to study nursing and to be a missionary.
We met four months later when Paul came to our house selling Encyclopedias. He started coming to regular bible studies at our place every week and started reading the Word and within a couple of months he had fallen in love with Jesus and had received eternal life.
The rest is history, and we have now been married for over 40 years and the entire time of our marriage we have been on our missionary journey together. We’re thankful to be on this exciting journey with our Lord Jesus who never leaves us or forsakes us!!
We have served our Lord here in Mindanao for 38 years, doing church planting, Bible translation (we have translated two New Testaments - the Talaandig New Testament and the Higaonon New Testament), baptizing, teaching, discipleship, medical work, building, community development, and all that God has set before our hands to do.
Currently in 2025, we are continuing to develop commentaries of each book of the New Testament along with producing videos of Bible teaching on each chapter. These are being uploaded almost weekly to our website and are being used in the seven regions where our missionary teams are serving and church planting. This material is being produced in Talaandig/Higaonon and in Cebuano which is spoken by about 20 million people both here in the Philippines and abroad. We continue to help the churches with leadership training, computers, motorbikes, support and buildings… anything that we can do to help further the work of the Gospel and the outreach into new areas.
One of our many ministries over the past fourteen years has been leading, training and working alongside our growing team of home-grown missionaries raised up from our own church plants. We currently have 10 missionary families working in 7 regions here in Mindanao, teaching several thousand people each week including a large school and prison ministry. Collectively from each of the regions, God has raised up over 100 church leaders, pastors and experienced Bible teachers with whom we are thrilled to be fellow-laborers of the Gospel with and who are being greatly used for God’s glory.
Before we close, just a quick backwards look to the beginning of our lives. Paul grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He enjoyed a privileged life for some time and went to top boarding schools in Melbourne, but things went into a downward spin after his parents divorced and his life got pretty messed up and lonely. He arrived in Brisbane, Australia looking for a new start just after his 20th birthday.
Deb grew up as a missionary kid in a remote village in the Philippines and put her trust in the Lord Jesus as a young child. She did home schooling until she was 15 and arrived back in Brisbane, Australia when she was 16 with the plan to study nursing and to be a missionary.
We met four months later when Paul came to our house selling Encyclopedias. He started coming to regular bible studies at our place every week and started reading the Word and within a couple of months he had fallen in love with Jesus and had received eternal life.
The rest is history, and we have now been married for over 40 years and the entire time of our marriage we have been on our missionary journey together. We’re thankful to be on this exciting journey with our Lord Jesus who never leaves us or forsakes us!!
Our Region
The difficulties of evangelizing in our regions range from physical challenges to dark spiritual forces. We have spent time digging vehicles out of the mud, enduring dangers on the road (like bandits), and all kinds of very rough travel. We have had to walk for many hours with limited water sources, hot sun beating on us, and numerous river crossings where there were no bridges and waters were rising and deep due to the rain. But far beyond physical challenges are the dark spiritual forces who are against us and use all sorts of obstacles against the Word of God. Sometimes the witch doctors prevent us from teaching the Gospel in their villages, at times there are death threats against both the evangelists and those who want to hear.
Our Resources
Undisclosed Couple
FROM EURASIA
Our Story
We are located in Eurasia and have been serving in missions since 1995. We spent almost 10 years in Central Asia focused on church planting and training in the former republics of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. We then served in executive leadership roles overseeing the international ministry of their mission agency. In January 2018, we deployed oversees again, this time to Eurasia, serving in a country where less than .04% of the population is evangelical. We currently are part of a church planting team in a town where there are only three national believers. We have four adult children and nine grandchildren in the U.S.
Our Mission
The vision of our mission agency is to glorify God by multiplying followers of Jesus in the spiritually darkest areas of the world. Therefore we focus on bringing the gospel to areas of the world where less than 2% of the population are believers.
Our Region
The country in which we serve is considered a “pioneer unreached”country due to the fact that only .04% of the population are evangelical Christians. While a small number of churches do exist, there are no known active church movements taking place in the country. Although the land of this country has a Christian history, the people see that history as having no connection to them today, as their current religion is Islam. The greatest challenge in the country is the hardened resistance of the local people to the gospel message.
Undisclosed Couple
FROM EASTERN EUROPE
Our Story
We were born and raised in El Salvador. We have been married for forty years and have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
We both gave our lives to Jesus in our late teen years while our country was going through a civil war. As young believers, we saw the urgency of sharing the message of salvation as times were difficult in our country. We became involved in evangelism, discipleship, and later in church planting in two different cities where my husband served as a founding pastor for 16 years.
In 1990, while serving the Lord in our home country, we received the call to go serve an unreached country. For 9 years we prayed and waited for God’s timing.
In 1999, we left El Salvador with our three children who were 11, 9, and 5 years old. We moved to this prominently atheist country that had formerly been under communist control. Religion had not been allowed to be practiced there for 45 years.
For 8 years, we lived and served in this country, learning the language, the culture, and sharing the love of Christ. Many people heard for the first time about Jesus and His plan for redemption and gave their lives to God. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people; men, women and children. We and our three children use every opportunity to live out our faith.
While serving in this country, we were presented with a great need of proclaiming the Gospel in a neighboring country where 45% of the population had no missionaries among them. Once again, God called us to go.
In 2007, we arrived on a new field; this time with only our two younger children, with our eldest having left for college. In this new country we had to learn another language and culture in order to share God’s message.
After 26 years of serving the Lord on the mission field, all we have to say is that the Lord is good and He is faithful!
We both gave our lives to Jesus in our late teen years while our country was going through a civil war. As young believers, we saw the urgency of sharing the message of salvation as times were difficult in our country. We became involved in evangelism, discipleship, and later in church planting in two different cities where my husband served as a founding pastor for 16 years.
In 1990, while serving the Lord in our home country, we received the call to go serve an unreached country. For 9 years we prayed and waited for God’s timing.
In 1999, we left El Salvador with our three children who were 11, 9, and 5 years old. We moved to this prominently atheist country that had formerly been under communist control. Religion had not been allowed to be practiced there for 45 years.
For 8 years, we lived and served in this country, learning the language, the culture, and sharing the love of Christ. Many people heard for the first time about Jesus and His plan for redemption and gave their lives to God. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people; men, women and children. We and our three children use every opportunity to live out our faith.
While serving in this country, we were presented with a great need of proclaiming the Gospel in a neighboring country where 45% of the population had no missionaries among them. Once again, God called us to go.
In 2007, we arrived on a new field; this time with only our two younger children, with our eldest having left for college. In this new country we had to learn another language and culture in order to share God’s message.
After 26 years of serving the Lord on the mission field, all we have to say is that the Lord is good and He is faithful!
Our Mission
We work with school projects, summer camps, teacher trainings, English classes, guitar lessons, game nights with university students and friends at our language center, helping people from villages to establish and manage small businesses, and more. We do anything God provides in order to be in contact with people, meet them, help them in their needs, develop relationships, and share the message of the Gospel.
Through preaching the Word of God, we began discipling new believers. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people, men, women and children. Soon after, we began training members of the church in preparation for them to lead.
In 2007, we moved to another unreached country. God has allowed us to share His message of redemption. Many lives have been changed, and the light of Christ is now shining in a very dark place. For the first time there is a Christian church in this city.
Through preaching the Word of God, we began discipling new believers. A church was established and flourished among adults and young people, men, women and children. Soon after, we began training members of the church in preparation for them to lead.
In 2007, we moved to another unreached country. God has allowed us to share His message of redemption. Many lives have been changed, and the light of Christ is now shining in a very dark place. For the first time there is a Christian church in this city.
Our Region
Since 2007, we have been working with two ethnic groups where history and ethnicity problems are the cause of division and hatred. With God's wisdom and love, we are encouraging forgiveness and opening roads of communication among them.
Family and social pressure determine their decisions for their life. Once God opens their eyes and they make a decision for Christ, it is very difficult for them. Family and friends turn against them, they become isolated. At times they get fired from their jobs. There was even a case where a husband became a believer and his wife's family took his wife away from him. If the new believer is single and wants to get married, it is difficult to find a Christian partner. The number of believers is so small.
Over the years, many people have given their lives to Jesus, but most end up leaving the country and living in places where they can live out their Christian faith freely. This is difficult because it does not allow for building up a strong Christian community. This can be very discouraging, but trusting that God is in control has given us the strength to start again from zero every time.
Family and social pressure determine their decisions for their life. Once God opens their eyes and they make a decision for Christ, it is very difficult for them. Family and friends turn against them, they become isolated. At times they get fired from their jobs. There was even a case where a husband became a believer and his wife's family took his wife away from him. If the new believer is single and wants to get married, it is difficult to find a Christian partner. The number of believers is so small.
Over the years, many people have given their lives to Jesus, but most end up leaving the country and living in places where they can live out their Christian faith freely. This is difficult because it does not allow for building up a strong Christian community. This can be very discouraging, but trusting that God is in control has given us the strength to start again from zero every time.