Missions Is Our Mission

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:8

One of the core principles that our Go Lead Team operates under is that to be truly effective we must have partners in our efforts to “make Jesus known.”  God intends for us to work together, hand in hand.  Our partners serve locally, nationally, and internationally.  Aldersgate provides financial and prayer support for our partners and sends work teams to serve with many of them (view service opportunities).

 

Aldersgate's Missionary Partners

These missionaries need our prayer support as well as the financial assistance we provide through our Faith Promise giving.  Please pray for them, their families, their ministries and those they serve.

 

Ed and Linda Baker, Professional Resource Consultants - TMS Global

Ed and Linda Baker are the team leaders and water and sanitation team specialists for the Professional Resource consultants (PRC) ministry of TMS Global.  The PRC is comprised of various specialists and professionals answering a call to serve as support for field missionaries; indigenous churches or groups; and other mission agencies.  The mission of the PRC is to demonstrate the holistic Gospel and enable transformation by providing specialized consulting to help Kingdom workers address local needs.  

Ed and Linda have been full-time missionaries with TMS Global since 2000.  They spent seven years in Paraguay and two in Nicaragua using the gift of clean, abundant water as a mechanism for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  While there they completed 48 water projects and coordinated the construction of churches, schools and homes for pastors.  Since coming back to Atlanta in 2011, Ed and Linda have worked on water projects in South and Central America, Haiti and Africa, serving most recently in Liberia.  Ed and Linda have had a very effective ministry over the years.  They pray God will continue to use them and bless their ministry as it expands around the world. Check out www.aguadevida.org to learn more about Ed and Linda and their work. 

 

Kristin Fisher, Myanmar - She Is Safe

Kristin Fisher works for She Is Safe, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent, rescue, and restore women and girls from abuse and exploitation in high risk places around the world, equipping them to build a life of freedom, faith and a strong future.

As the Country Director for She is Safe in Myanmar, in Southeast Asia (formerly Burma), Kristen builds and leads partnerships with local churches and organizations so that together they can prevent human trafficking and share the Gospel.  Through her work with She Is Safe teen girls and children from slums are equipped with education and vocational skills with a focus of understanding their value, strength, and purpose.  You can learn more at sheissafe.org.

 

Cameron & Anne Gongwer, Professional Resource Consultants - TMS Global

Dr. Cam  and Anne Gongwer are part of TMS Global CoServe group working as Professional Resource Consultants in healthcare, literacy and library ministry.  Their service in Ghana, West Africa, began in 1998; their work focuses on health, literacy and discipleship ministry.  Now based in South Bend, Indiana, they continue to collaborate with Methodist Church Ghana in helping to plant churches through evangelism and mobile medical clinics.  Cam is assisting in the development of the Methodist Health Service system and collaborates with Ghanaian Christian health professionals on school health screenings and internship programs.

Cam developed the Ankaase Methodist Faith Healing Hospital into a district hospital providing physical and spiritual care to local patients under the authority of Methodist Church of Ghana.  He directs Crosspoint Global Health Ministry to collaborate in community health transformation and equip health workers for servant leadership.  Anne founded the Methodist Reading Town Library in Ankaase which continues to develop and grow; she is involved in mother tongue literacy work in Ejura, Ghana.  Their daughter Caylor will be a student at Asbury University starting in the fall of 2017.


Neal and Shirley Hicks, Japanese Outreach - TMS Global
Neal and Shirley Hicks serve God through TMS Global.  After serving in Japan for over 30 years with his late wife Mari, Neal relocated his ministry to the United States in 2012 and married Shirley in 2014.   They work to bring the Gospel to unreached Japanese families living in the greater Nashville, Tennessee area where a cultural shift has occurred, creating a thriving multi-cultural community.  There are currently over 150 Japanese-owned companies in Tennessee.  

The Hicks are involved in daily English conversation classes and Bible Study classes, weekly Japanese worship services, cooking classes, and monthly outreach to Japanese businessmen through the International VIP Club.  When Japanese workers return to Japan, the Hicks help them establish a relationship with their local church to continue in their Christian growth.  The ministry of the Hicks has been greatly enhanced by the recent establishment of a church and multicultural center they call Crossroads of the Nations which provides the opportunity for a collaborative community to engage in service and impact lives for Christ. 

  

Szabolcs Kerekes, Hungary - NOVO

Szabolcs Kerekes has been involved in church planting in Hungary since 1998. He has published several books and translated materials for use in mentoring key pastors, church planters and future leaders. Szabolcs teaches by example, evangelizing and serving the poor, sick and outcast in many ways. He conducts several youth camps each summer and ministers regularly in a Budapest prison for girls.  He also has a passion for teaching and mentoring pastors and youth leaders in post-Communist eastern Europe.

Szabolcs and his wife Hajni live in Budapest.   He appreciates our support and considers our prayers, financial support and love as a backbone of his ministry.  

 

Mark and Eliza Wittig, Colombia - Christian Union Sports Club

Mark Wittig served as a missionary with OMS International in Colombia for 25 years as well as serving as a professor at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia.  He lives in Medellin with his wife Elizabeth and two children where he supervises the Christian Union Sports Club (CUSC) as a means to evangelize and disciple youth and their families in the lower socio-economic areas of the greater metropolitan valley of Medellin.  

The Christian Union Sports Club, officially founded in 1991, evolved out of a neighborhood soccer tournament that was organized as a way to reach out with the message of the Gospel to young men who were being recruited into a life of violence and crime spawned by the Medellin Drug Cartel.  Today the CUSC has 42 full-time sports staff, 166 soccer teams with 3,500 participants, a city-wide soccer league and a sports complex with three soccer fields.  Mark's work also includes small business ventures such as a brownie factory and clothing factory as a way to provide employment for local residents and resources for the ministry.  If you are interested in learning more, visit  www.cosdecol.com.

 

Church Planters, Central Asia - Youth With A Mission

This missionary couple serves with Youth with a Mission Strategic Frontiers in Central Asia.  He has been planting churches since 2005; she joined him in 2011 when they were married.  They served in Turkey until early 2018 when they moved their ministry to its current location.

They have a heart to see the Gospel spread throughout the Middle East with many leaders being raised up and equipped to reach their own people.  They are working to plant house churches in an area where most have never heard the Gospel.  He attended Aldersgate with his family when his father was stationed at Maxwell AFB.  She is from Azerbaijan and was raised a Muslim before coming to the Lord in 2002.

 

General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM)

Aldersgate helps support the following missionaries with the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) of the United Methodist Church through our Alabama-West Florida Conference apportionment giving.

 

German Gomez, Clanton, AL

German Gomez, a native of Mexico, is assigned to San Juan Mission in Clanton, AL, through the National Plan for Hispanic and Latino Ministries.  He serves as the pastor of mission, jail ministry, social work, and mission development and has planted several churches.

German says he has a calling to preach, teach and make disciples.  He sees God moving through his ministry when he sees families changed through the work of the Holy Spirit, when he goes to the jail to preach and sees the change the Lord brings to the prisoners, and when the prisoners leave the prison and the Holy Spirit brings them to the church.  German and his wife Leticia, who is also a GBGM missionary serving at San Juan Mission, have three children.
 

Rev. Rhett Thompson, Panama City, Panama

Rev. Rhett Thompson serves as pastor of an Evangelical Methodist 
Church in Panama City, Panama, and as the national coordinator of Volunteers in Mission in Panama, helping construction and medical 
mission teams from the UMC.  Additionally, he has coordinated efforts 
of the church to strengthen its outreach into surrounding low-income neighborhoods through a day-care program and other projects.

Rhett has also been involved in the development of a comprehensive rural health project which serves the Ngobe Indians, the poorest of the poor in Panama. This project includes the provision of potable water, adult literacy classes, community organization, and pre-school education for the Ngobe children.  A native Alabamian, Rhett is a graduate of Davidson College and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology and a Masters in Family Counseling from the Catholic University of Panama.


HOW TO PRAY FOR MISSIONARIES

Pray for the missionary’s
• own relationship with God.
• physical and emotional wellbeing.
• marriage and family.
• ability to communicate effectively.
• ministry and for discernment and wisdom.
• interpersonal relationships.
• country of service.
• financial support.
For more guidance go to
go.efca.org/resources/document/how-pray-missionaries


The Missions Prayer Team invites you to join them in learning more about and praying for our
mission partners. As updates are received via email, they are forwarded to participants for personal
prayer. On the second Monday of each month at 1:30, those that can gather together for group
prayer. To be added to the email list, contact Sarah Mingledorff at [email protected].