Will & Laura: England

Fast Facts

• Sent: 2006-2009 (India), 2012-2020 (Greece), & 2023 (England)
• What we did before we became missionaries?
  • Will: Restaurant manager & lay leadership/interim pastoral roles
  • Laura: Worked in real estate
• Most missed American food: Chick-Fil-A & Kyoto Gardens
• How do you rest?
  • Movie nights with popcorn or family game nights

England

• Favorite Food: Fish & chips, biscuits (cookies)
• Favorite Experience: Watching the Clash of Knights at Dover Castle and seeing Stonehenge
• Favorite quality about the local people: They are extremely helpful and kind

Prayer Prompts

• Pray that our boys would thrive in their different school environments and in making new friends.
• Pray for Will as he and others work together to find and engage the remaining unreached people groups in Europe. Pray that God would lead them to the right people and places.
• Pray that each of us would grow in our relationships with God and prioritize abiding in Him as the most important work we can do.

Barry & Carolyn: Caucasus Region

Fast Facts

• Sent: 1992, 2006-2009, & 2020
• What we did before we became missionaries?
  • Barry: Pastor & BGPD Police Officer
  • Carolyn: Teacher at Warren Elementary
• Most missed American food?
  • Zaxby’s, Chick-Fil-A, Cracker Barrel, & Rafferty’s
• How do you rest?
  • Reading, running, & power naps

Caucasus Region

• Favorite Food: Khatchapuri & Khinkali
• Favorite Experience: Meeting our Iranian friends and experiencing life with them
• Favorite quality about the local people: Very hospitable and willing to help if we have a need

Prayer Prompts

• Pray for opportunities to train our Iranian church members and conduct outreach.
• Pray that our Iranian church members can find jobs.
• Pray for our Iranian church members as they are having residency status cancelled.

Ryan & Jenni: Eastern Europe

Fast Facts

• Sent: 2022
• What we did before we became missionaries?
  • Ryan: Firefighter & worked in Living Hope Global Impact ministry
  • Jenni: Substitute teacher & women’s ministry volunteer
• Most missed American food?
  • Mexican food & Chick-Fil-A
• How do you rest?
  • Ryan: Catching up on sports
  • Jenni: Reading historical fiction

Eastern Europe

• Favorite Food: Fresh produce, Sarmale & Placinta
• Favorite Experience: The villages are like going back in time to where everyone knows each other
• Favorite quality about the local people: Once you meet and deepen relationships, they are so hospitable & selfless

Prayer Prompts

• Pray for the family as they learn the local language & build friendships.
• Pray for local believers to be hurdened for their neighbors and villages. Many villages have no evangelical church. We are praying for new partners to help train in evangelism and discipleship.

Mark & Parker: West Africa

Fast Facts

• Sent: 2006
• What we did before we became missionaries?
  • High school pastor at Living Hope (2002-2006)
• Most missed American food?
  • Mexican food, Kyoto Gardens, & Chick-Fil-A
• How do you rest?
  • Mark: Piano, house projects, read, play ball with sons
  • Parker: Baking, organizing, watch Hallmark movies with her daughter

West Africa

• Favorite Food: Dembou & Surundu
• Favorite Experience: The firsts – first person to confess Christ, to be baptized, first church to be planted in a place where Christ has never been names before.
• Favorite quality about the local people: Unrelenting hospitality. They treat you as a gift.

Prayer Prompts

• Pray for AXIS Ministries as we develop a scope and sequence theological training program in multiple languages to train pastors how to rightly handle the word of God.
• Pray for AXIS Ministries children & students (75% of the population is under 25). The ministries will include sports outreach, university English clubs, skill developments & after-school tutoring to reach the next generation with the gospel.

Jacob & Cara: Portugal

Fast Facts

• Sent: 2014
• What we did before we became missionaries?
  • Jacob: Part-time jobs at Living Hope
  • Cara: Taught flute lessons
• Most missed American food?
  • Chick-Fil-A
• How do you rest?
  • Being in fellowship with believers, exercising, and being outside

Portugal

• Favorite Food: Francesinha sandwich or roasted chicken
• Favorite Experience: We love visiting our zoo!
• Favorite quality about the local people: The Portuguese are very friendly and helpful

Prayer Prompts

• Pray that our children would make good friends and be good friends sharing the light and love of Jesus with their classmates.
• Pray for creativity and boldness in evangelism as well as wisdom and clarity for pursuing a regular meeting place.

Hope House is a gospel-based development center in Bowling Green with the mission to alleviate physical and spiritual poverty through Gospel restoration. They provide faith-based education, transportation, workforce development, addiction recovery, and financial empowerment programs. Hope House believes that poverty is more than the physical symptoms we see, but it is rooted in broken relationships with oneself, with others, with creation, and ultimately with God. Knowing that we are all spiritually poor without a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, Hope House seeks to walk alongside our neighbors in physical poverty to do with rather than do for them. They provide dignifying opportunities for people to overcome poverty and see God transform every area of their lives. 

The Centers For Hope is a nonprofit ministry dedicated to sharing the love of Christ and loving others through meeting physical and spiritual needs in our Center for Pregnancy, Center for Biblical Counseling, and Thrift Store. The Center for Pregnancy provides clients with pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting education, and physical items for their families.  Our volunteers love and support our clients during their pregnancy and up until the child is two years old while sharing the gospel and praying over their families. The Center for Biblical Counseling provides individual, group, financial, and grief counseling at no cost to the client.  The goal of the counseling center is to meet people where they are and provide them with spiritual tools to navigate the battles of everyday life. The Centers For Hope Thrift Store exists to serve the community by meeting physical needs while sharing the love of Christ.  The Thrift Store is stocked with quality donations that are sold to the community at an affordable price.  Every sale made will support the operations of The Centers For Hope and enable us to continue this ministry in the community.  

The Centers For Hope Thrift Store is open Wednesday-Saturday 10-4.  During our hours, we also accept donations.  We will accept clothing, toys, furniture, home decor/home goods, and small home appliances.  We are currently in need of furniture and small home appliances. 

If you are interested in volunteering at The Center For Pregnancy, please CLICK HERE.

If you are interested in serving at the Thrift Store, please CLICK HERE or contact Olivia Reed at olivia.reed@centersforhope.org. 

Curbside Ministries is a non-profit organization and street ministry that connects disciples of Jesus to our community. Their desire is to encourage and equip others to break barriers and focus their lives on others. Curbside meets people right where they are to share the love and hope of Jesus. Their ultimate goal is to share the Gospel of Jesus with kids in Bowling Green. Curbside does this by going into the community to bring a message, supply a meal, and play with underprivileged kids. 

Refuge Bowling Green is a nonprofit intra-church organization that seeks to provide supportive, Christ-centered services to international individuals and families in the Bowling Green area through local churches. Refuge BG empowers local churches to embrace refugees as their neighbors with the love of Christ, through training, coaching, connecting, and resourcing churches and their members to build Gospel-intentional relationships with their international neighbors. Refuge BG serves refugees and immigrants through education (English language classes, driver training, and health education), occupation (job placements and industrial training), and recreation (soccer clubs and mentorships) with the goal of seeing individuals come to faith, be built up in a local church, and released to make more disciples.