Raphael & Namukolo Banda
Raphael & Namukolo Banda
Central Baptist Church of Mazabuka
Managua, Zambia, Africa
Raphael Banda serves as the pastor of Central Baptist Church in Mazabuka, Zambia. He was sent out by Kabwata Baptist Church of Lusaka, Zambia in December 2005. The average attendance at Central Baptist is 25. Door-to-door evangelism, a radio ministry, home-based evangelistic Bible studies and the Sunday evangelistic sermons have brought quite a number of seekers. Raphael’s wife Namukolo, has started a school on the premises to help with outreach and fundraising.
We have the privilege of partnering with Kabwata Baptist Church, pastored by Conrad Mbewe, in supporting the Bandas. KBC is involved in seven church plants in Zambia and two in Botswana.
Mark & Jill Claxton
Mark & Jill Claxton
Mark & Jill Claxton
Campus Crusade for Christ, Kiev, Ukraine
Mark and Jill Claxton are members of BCLR. In 2005, Mark attended a student ministries mission trip to the Ukraine and felt the call to return there with his family as missionaries. In partnership with Campus Crusade for Christ/FamilyLife, BCLR commissioned Mark and Jill as missionaries to the Ukraine . They currently live in Kiev , the capital city of Ukraine , a city of approximately four million people. In their region of Kiev , there are over 1200 villages with 1000 of these villages having no evangelical church. Therefore, the Claxton’s ministry consists mainly of evangelistic marriage seminars in which they teach God’s plan and biblical principles on marriage and family. Their role with Ukraine FamilyLife is to recruit, lead and train Ukrainian lay volunteers to lead and facilitate evangelistic marriage seminars and small discipleship groups.
Visit the Claxton’s blog.
Bud & Carolyn Hart
Bud & Carolyn Hart
Bible Training Centre For Pastors
Largo, Florida
Since 1995, Bud and Carolyn Hart served with Bible Training Centre for Pastors (BTCP), a teaching ministry for the equipping of church leaders who have limited access to traditional theological education overseas and in the United States. Bud and Carolyn have taught classes in Ukraine, Latvia, India, Kenya, Israel, Grenada, Finland, Sweden, and the Philippines. Bud sees tremendous opportunity to train those who will in turn teach others.
Before serving with BTCP, Bud was the pastor of The Bible Church of Little Rock (1967-81) and Suncoast Community Church, Largo, Florida (1981-95). Bud and Carolyn are graduates of Wheaton College (IL). Bud and Carolyn’s daughter and son-in-law, Bryan and Holly Smith, are members here at BCLR. Bud is also a Th.M. graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary. Recently Bud has undergone surgery and chemotherapy to remove a tumor on his pancreas.
Aaron & Lindsay Hefner
Aaron & Lindsay Hefner
New Tribes
Senegal, West Africa
Aaron & Lindsay are missionaries who serve with New Tribes Missions in Senegal, West Africa. From November of 2005 until December of 2008, they worked among the Jalunga people in the village of Madina Bafé. The Hefners have returned to West Africa to teach in a different Jalunga village.
Rodney & Pam Kinch
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Bogotá, Colombia
Rodney & Pam Kinch
Rodney and Pam have been serving under Wycliffe Bible Translators in Bogotá, Colombia since 1972. They minister to the Yurutí people, a small tribe located in the Amazon jungle of southeastern Colombia. The Kinches have dedicated their ministry to learning and analyzing the Yurutí language and culture in order to translate the New Testament into that language. The first draft of the Yurutí New Testament has been completed and Rod and Pam are in the process of editing and revising the first draft so that the New Testament can be published. Rod and Pam depend on translation help from Yurutí believers who are the fruit of their labors. Their work also includes: development of the Yuruti alphabet and writing system for the Yurutí language; training Yuruti speakers in reading and writing skills; training Yuruti co-translators in translation and editing skills; preparation of literacy materials and Scripture portions in the Yuruti language; training Yuruti teachers to use Yuruti literature and primers in the Yuruti schools; preparation of the final manuscript of the New Testament for publication by formatting the text, footnotes, illustrations, glossary, concordance, maps and other Bible helps which will be included in the finished New Testament; and much more. By God’s grace and the prayers of supporting believers they would like to have a “finished” New Testament in the hands of the Yurutí by 2015. Rod and Pam also have two adult children, Paul and Debbie, and seven grandchildren.
Herb & Ruth Lyon
Herb & Ruth Lyon
Bangalore, India
Herb and Ruth have handed over the printing and distribution of the Bible Training Centre for Pastors’ manuals to capable people here in Bangalore. It has always been the goal of Herb and Ruth to hand over the ministry to capable nationals. Herb and Ruth have, however, been asked to assist them whenever there is a need. Herb is helping the Rev. Francis Richard, who is the Director of Shepherds’ Training Centre. This ministry is continuing the training of pastors. Herb has also been asked by the Rev. Peter Williams, of Living Word Movement, to help develop a continuing children’s ministry here in Bangalore. This is including a youth camp in April, where the young people will be trained to teach in a children’s camp which will be held in May.
Wayne & Carol Mack
Wayne & Carol Mack
Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
Dr. Wayne and Carol Mack are with Grace Ministries International. Wayne teaches courses in biblical counseling at the Grace School of Ministry in Pretoria . He also preaches and serves as an elder at Grace Fellowship Church in Pretoria . The purpose of Grace School of Ministry is to equip men for Gospel ministry in already established churches and in the planting of new churches throughout Africa . Students attending the school come from Malawi , Nigeria , Zambia , Swaziland , Lesotha , Germany , Namibia and around South Africa . Most of them are pastors who are presently engaged in ministry. In addition to these ministries, Wayne teaches and preaches at pastors’ conferences and marriage & family seminars in various places in South Africa and other part of the world such as Zambia , Mozambique , Europe and Singapore . Wayne also is much involved in counseling individuals and couples and he spends a considerable amount of time personally and by way of Email mentoring and advising pastors and other Christians workers. He has already written and had published twenty two books on biblical counseling and Christians living and continues to write books on these same themes. Recently he published “It’s Not Fair” and a book on In Law Relations (Married with Parents). In the last two months he has competed a major work called “Maximum Impact” which will be (LW) published prior to September of 2010. In October of 2010 Grace School of Ministry with the main base in Pretoria will open a branch of GSM at the Bible Institute of Capetown where the whole program comprising 16 full length modular courses will be taught. Between the two training schools, at opposite ends of the country, it is expected that we will have 120 to 130 students enrolled. Wayne , along with two other teachers, will travel between these two areas to teach the courses included in the program. Carol regularly teaches Women’s Bible Study groups, counsels and speaks at women’s conferences and assists Wayne in many aspects of his ministry.
Visit the Mack’s website: Strengthening Ministries International
Dinesh & Shannon P.
Dr. Dinesh & Shannon P.
From 2004 to 2008, Dinesh and Shannon were stationed SE Asia at a Hospital, where Dinesh practiced surgery, and Shannon was involved in obstetrics/gynecology. Dinesh taught a small house church weekly, and Shannon taught a Bible club for women and children. In August of 2008, Dinesh resigned from the Hospital Association in order to pursue seminary training in pastoral ministries, SE Asia.
Dinesh comes from a Hindu background and remains the only believer in his family. Shannon was raised in a Christian home. She and her family moved to Little Rock and joined BCLR in 1990. Dinesh met Shannon while working in a mission hospital in 2003. They were married in May 2004. They have two children, Anna Grace and Joshua.
Jose' & Jan Solis
José & Jan Solis
Independent Mission
Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico
José was raised in La Boquilla, Chihuahua , Mexico , and became a Christian in his early twenties. Jan was raised in a Christian family in west-central Illinois , and as a child made a profession of faith in Christ. José and Jan met in an evangelism ministry in Mexico . They attended the Instituto Evangelico in La Puente , California before launching an evangelism ministry in Jerez , Mexico in 1974. Presently, José pastors two small congregations in the Jerez area and produces Bible radio programs in Spanish, which are broadcast from Jerez and Edinburg , Texas.
Over the last 17 years, a number of BCLR student ministry teams, along with teams of adults, have traveled to Mexico on short-term summer mission trips. A group of BCLR students and adults served with the Solises again in the summer of 2008. They assisted José and Jan with Vacation Bible Schools and other projects.
