EPC World Outreach commissioned 13 new global workers on June 21, 2018, at Hope Church in Cordova, Tenn. The commissioning took place during the Thursday evening worship service of the 38th General Assembly.
To financially support one or more of these new workers, visit www.epcwo.org and click the “Give/Support” button. For more information about World Outreach and its ministries or people, email wo@epcwo.org.
Meet these new global workers:
Scott and Colleen
Scott and Colleen have been serving at First Presbyterian Church of Little Rock, Iowa, since 2004, when Scott was called to become their pastor. In recent years, they sensed God leading them to pursue cross-cultural mission outreach. While carrying out pastoral responsibilities in Little Rock, Scott and Colleen completed Serge’s Sonship course and four months of WO-mentored Muslim outreach. They will join a Serge church planting team in a predominantly Muslim, multi-ethnic community in London, England.
Tim and Debbie
Tim and Debbie honed their cross-cultural and language skills over decades of pioneer church planting in East Asia. They’ve taught at local high schools and colleges, started non-profit development organizations, raised cattle, and operated camps for “third-culture kids” (children raised in a culture other than that of their parents’). Their home church is Trinity EPC in Florence, S.C. They will serve under a co-op agreement with Pioneers.
Todd and Pru
Todd and Pru spent the first decade of their marriage on an OM International church planting team in North Africa. They put the lessons learns there to use in designing a program to train a new generation of evangelists and disciple-makers for the Turkic world. Their family now includes two sons, Brennen and Corren, who have visited five continents in their short lives. They are members of First Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Oregon City, Ore. They will join the Presbytery of the Great Plains’ Engage 2025 initiative to plant churches among Albanian Muslims in Macedonia.
Saul and Jesse
Saul and Jesse have lived out the missional calling since their early years. Saul went on his first mission trip when he was 11 years old, and Jesse grew up in Malawi where her parents were missionaries. They are members of Hope Church of Carbondale, Ill., where as newlyweds they helped start Hope’s first mission committee. While researching ministry opportunities for their church family, they attended an Encounter WO event in December 2014. They have served as volunteer WO Mission Assistants since October 2016, and now will join the WO Mobilization Team.
S and A
S and A both grew up in South Asia—S in an extended family of prominent Muslims, and A in a Christian family from a Hindu background. They have been commissioned to plant churches among Muslims of South Asia and metro Detroit. After their marriage, S and A reached out to their primarily Muslim neighbors and work contacts, and were instrumental in starting several household Bible studies in the Detroit area. For more than 10 years, S has been praying for Rohingyas—a Muslim people fleeing violence in their home country of Myanmar. This year, local authorities gave him an open invitation to work in the world’s largest refugee camp, which is home to more than 500,000 Rohingya refugees. S and A are members of Faith EPC in Rochester Hills, Mich.
Portia
After graduating from Nyack College in New York with a major in Intercultural Studies, Portia moved to a majority Muslim city in Europe to join an OM International church planting team. As teammates left one-by-one, Portia persevered, building friendships and reading the Bible with those friends. Goodwill Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, N.Y., sent her out six years ago, and she was commissioned this year as a WO/OM International co-op worker.
Ben and Ellie
A year after their marriage in 2012, Ben and Ellie moved to High Wycombe, England, to join Greg and Sally Livingstone on a church planting team among South Asian Muslims. Three years later, they returned to the U.S. to continue Muslim outreach in Dearborn, Mich., and finish their studies at Moody Theological Seminary. They will serve as co-op workers through Frontiers, and will move to a Muslim city in South Asia next year where Ben has accepted a teaching position. Ben and Ellie are members of Cornerstone EPC in Brighton, Mich.