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Fresno, Calif.
19 MBs answer the call to mission


This year, 19 new missionaries will be sent on assignments around the world through MBMS International. Many will serve for a year or two, while a few have committed to ongoing three-year terms. Several will be church planters, but many will use their skills as physicians, teachers and administrators to share the gospel or support other missionaries. Some are being sent directly by the MB mission agency, while others are being sent under joint appointment with other agencies and church conferences.

New MBMSI missionaries to begin assignments in Japan, China, Lithuania, Senegal, Congo, Portugal and Thailand: (back, l-r) Sachiko Thiessen, Melanie Regier, Melanie Humphreys, Chris Braun, Ken Creech; (middle) Randal Thiessen, Faith Nickel, Cheryl Creech, Melissa Miller, Karen Rafferty; (front) Murray Nickel, Dale Baumgartner, Phone Keo Keovilay and Steve Miller.

Most of the new missionaries met at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan., July 1-8. They attended orientation sessions including seminars on worldview, spiritual warfare, family adaptation to cross-cultural experience, and spiritual and psychological issues of missionary service.

“Going out to a new mission placement can be overwhelming,” says personnel director Ron Penner. “We want to help these new missionaries plug into MBMS International’s resources so that they are better equipped to do what God and their church has called them to do.”

A highlight of the week was a two-and-a-half-hour commissioning service that included testimonies by the new missionaries, singing, prayer and words of encouragement from board members. Earlier, retired missionaries shared insights and experiences with the new missionaries and those who are ending service.

New missionaries

Dale Baumgartner and Chris Braun are going to Osaka, Japan, to teach English language classes at MB churches. “Through the chapel that takes place after class, and through friendship evangelism, we hope to share Christ with those who have never heard,” says Braun. This is his second two-year assignment in Japan.

Ken and Cheryl Creech and their three children are pulling up stakes from their home near Ottawa and moving to Senegal, West Africa, under a joint appointment by Wycliffe Bible Translators and MBMSI. In the capital city of Dakar, Ken will manage technical services as 12 Bible translations are developed.

Melanie Humphreys is going to Lithuania Christian College in Klaipeda to be the resident director for the 200 students that live on campus and for the additional 200 students who come from the area. She will work with students in all areas of their lives and wants to point them to Jesus.

Phone Keo Keovilay, pastor of the Butler Khmu and Lao Church in Fresno, Calif, and his wife Chansone will minister among the Khmu people in Thailand and Laos. Keovilay has made several trips over the past few years and reports that many churches have sprung up in areas where the gospel is not commonly known.

Steve and Melissa Miller, with their children, have already been serving as part of the MBMSI church planting team in Loures, Portugal. They are now fluent in Portuguese.

Murray and Faith Nickel are moving, with their three children, to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, in the fall. Nickel will use his expertise as a doctor to minister to the Congolese. Although medical aid has traditionally been a cornerstone of MB mission in Congo, it has been several years since a full-time North American missionary has served under MBMSI in the Congo.

Jose and Esperanza Prada and their son moved from Colombia to Piura, Peru. They will work alongside North American missionaries as church planting pastors in a new urban church. They represent a new form of partnership in mission, in which missionaries are sent from other national conferences to another country with support from MBMSI.

Karen Rafferty will be heading up the school for children of staff who work at Lithuania Christian College. Karen has 12 years of experience and will join the team in Lithuania as they live out a witness to students of the college.

Melanie Regier is a teacher going to the Henan province in China to teach English as a second language. She will join a team of teachers working with Chinese college students and their professors. After her formal classes, Regier will be free to share her faith with those who visit with her.

Randal and Sachiko Thiessen and their children are going as church planters to Japan, Sachiko’s country of origin. They will first learn language and culture before joining the church plant in Toyota. Their interest in and ministry with Southeast Asians in California has led them to this new challenge.

After two years in the US, Melvin and Gudrun Warkentin and their children have returned to Yalve Sanga, Paraguay. They will teach Bible courses to South American Indians at the Bible Institute.

Brad Thiessen

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Last modified September 28, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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