On this page, On Mission introduces you to North American missionaries ministering to people in North America and around the world. Our missionaries rely on the support of Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program, Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® to continue their work. Please pray for these men and women as you consider how you can serve in your Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Louis and Shelley Spears work to plant churches among the one million lost people living in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona. A majority of Louis' ministry happens in multi-housing communities where doors are open among Filipinos, East Indians, Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Slavic, Caribbean and even Gypsies. The key to reaching these various people groups is setting up what Louis calls "tactical churches," which are designed to reach communities by finding laymen in those communities who can start churches. Many of the first tactical churches started in multi-housing communities. • Pray for Louis and Shelley and that more churches would become part of the tactical church strategy and provide lay ministers to reach communities for Christ.
Since 1996 Morgan and Jan Medford have been planting churches in Fargo, North Dakota, and Morehead, Minnesota, where they are reaching a community with deep Lutheran and Catholic roots. Morgan says a major obstacle is teaching people they can relate directly to Jesus Christ. Morgan's biggest breakthrough came as a result of his chaplaincy work at local hospitals. Morgan says that unlike the South, where "you can establish a church in three years," it takes more time to break into the established and static culture. • Pray for the Medfords that God would lead them to people who are searching for Him and for wisdom in starting conversations about Christ. Also, pray for the new church plant soon to start in Morehead, Minnesota.
Since 1983, Samuel and Rebecca Caballero have assisted church planting among multi-ethnic groups in the Mile High Association near Denver, Colorado. As the Multi-ethnic coordinator for church planting, Samuel has seen churches started among Hispanic, Mongolian and Jewish populations. Recently he helped plant an Arab church with a former Muslim, who is now the pastor. More than a hundred languages are spoken in the Mile High Association, and more language and ethnic groups are added to that number yearly. • Pray for the Caballeros as they work to reach Denver and the surrounding areas through church planting. Also pray that God would continue to send more leaders who can reach the various ethnic groups there.
Gary and Paula Hawkins serve as church planting missionaries among the more than 300,000 Native Americans from among 60 tribes in the eastern half of Oklahoma. Gary says there are 200 native churches, a majority of which are plateaued or declining. Almost 90 percent of the native population of the state are unchurched. "We have a great need for pastors and leadership out here," Hawkins says. "We have plenty of locations, but we need people who are feeling the call." Because reservations and other native populations are dispersed throughout the state, Gary drives more than 50,000 miles a year to churches and other ministry sites where he mentors believers to take the helm as pastors, most of whom are bivocational. • Pray for the Hawkins and the eastern half of Oklahoma as they await an associational director of missions as well as other leadership throughout the state.
Barbara Oden is a Multi-housing Church Planter Catalyst working through the Dallas Baptist Association where she has assisted in starting churches in 104 multi-housing communities of the more than 4,000 in the area. The area is so diverse that she even works with IMB-appointed missionaries. Some of the people she has helped mentor are reaching hundreds for Christ including 188 children in one apartment complex and a couple who do after-school tutoring three times a week. Barbara says the world-its ethnicity and problems-is at the doorstep of Dallas in its multi-housing communities. • Pray for Barbara as she works to enlist churches and believers in reaching apartment communities and other multi-housing communities for Christ. Also pray for the existing work already being done in the association.
Vivian McCaughan is a multi-housing church planting missionary appointed by NAMB and the Missouri Baptist Convention. "More than 1.5 million Missourians live in multihousing-apartments, townhomes, public housing, mobile homes or independent senior adult living," Vivian says. Nearly 40 percent of the multi-housing community of Missouri lives in greater St. Louis. The biggest challenge, Vivian says, is communicating the need to believers who will share the burden. Through tutoring and other community programs, believers have been able to provide free services to communities while opening the door for ministry and even church planting. • Pray for Vivian as she works to enlist churches for multi-housing church planting in St. Louis and throughout the state of Missouri.