Part 3, The Wagon Ride to Propempo

For my first five years at Faith Church, I served as God brought opportunities my way. I wanted His wagon to go down the missionary road, but it didn’t. It took every bit of that five years for God to get me to the place where I could consistently, confidently, and joyfully say, “God, I fully surrender to your will for me, whether it includes missions or not, even if it means staying in Lafayette for the rest of my life.” Then I heard the wheels on God’s wagon creaking. It was moving the missions road once again, and I was in it!

God led me to start a contracting business so I could manage my own schedule to attend my children’s extra-curricular events and serve in ministry. He allowed me to work with the church missions committee and then to lead the missions ministry of Faith Church. He also allowed me to influence the advance of the missions ministry and its awareness among our congregation.

During my years there, God used me to start the International Partnerships ministry, which includes partnerships with established churches in countries in Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. The goal of the International Partnerships ministry was to strengthen churches in other countries. God also allowed me to serve as the founding director of Faith Global Missions as an evangelical mission agency.

I am so thankful to Faith Church for investing in my missions education while I was there. I studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and focused on missionary attrition, cross-cultural ministry, and missionary equipping, earning my doctorate in missions and evangelism.

Over the last 10 years I have had the privilege of working with the Propempo International team in leading conference workshops and participating in overseas outreach and missionary development. In 2019, I accepted the invitation to join the Propempo International team as a global missions coach. I am thrilled to work with churches, missions agencies, and missionaries to improve their missionary effectiveness.

More than 40% of missionaries leave the field every 8 years! Seventy-four percent are for preventable causes – causes that can be eliminated through better missionary screening, equipping, and care. I am working with local churches, mission agencies and individual missionaries to reduce the attrition by addressing those causes.

I would love the opportunity to discuss with you how we can partner to reduce missionary attrition and strengthen local church missions.