Overseas Missions
Covenant Missionaries
|
Randy Bevis Long-term Missionary - Business as mission, Fish farming, Community development, Speech and language therapy. In-Seine - Mission Statement: "We are a faith-based organization that seeks to work with at-risk communities to develop sustainable fish farming systems based on the local contexts. For the latest update on In-Seine, click here. |
|
Joel & Kim Delp
Serving in Ecuador, South America Joel and Kim were commissioned at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) to serve as missionaries in Ecuador, working in the areas of outreach, compassion, community development and medical ministries. Joel is a pastor with a Masters in Divinity and also has an MBA and Kim is a Family Nurse Practitioner. After almost 2 ½ years of service in Ecuador, they were approved as Long-term Missionary candidates. They recently returned to Ecuador after some time in the United States and have begun collaborating with the Covenant Church of Ecuador (IPEE) to help start homes for at-risk children and a medical clinic. The homes and clinic will be compassion/outreach ministries of the Covenant churches located in the north of Ecuador. Joel and Kim are committed to help children in at-risk situations (i.e. abusive homes, neglected children, children of alcoholics, children freed from human trafficking situations, etc). They also feel called to connect and share the love of Jesus with the families of these children in holistic ministries including healthcare. They are passionate about sharing Christ and meeting people where they are, even if that is in the midst of tragedy and hurt. Joel and Kim want to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the least of these in Ecuador. For the latest update from the Delp family, click here. |
Non-Covenant Missionaries
|
Paul & Lisa Madson/Global Training Network After spending 25 years in the pastorate, Paul and Lisa felt God’s compelling call to help equip and encourage the younger generation of pastors and leaders in those parts of the world that have the least access to biblical and theological training. In the Summer of 2004, God led Paul to begin Global Training Network. GTN now has 150+ staff members that are serving and encouraging ministry leaders in over 80 countries. For the latest update from Global Training Network, click here. https://globaltrainingnetwork.org/ |
|
Kyle & Becky Zimmerle Crosslink Development International - Kyrgyzstan Crosslink Development International (CDI) has been working in Central Asia since 1994, with projects currently active in Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. CDI is a community development and aid organization with an emphasis on local involvement in all aspects of our work. Kyle and Becky Zimmerle are working with the project in Kyrgyzstan. This project is designed to address three areas of needs for special needs children: physical and occupational therapy; education; and medical care. To achieve this the project is organized into the following sub-projects: the mobility project, the therapeutic riding project, the education project, the scholarship project, and the capacity building project. For the latest update from the Zimmerles, click here. |
Local & Regional Missions
On September 2, 2021, Jeff's wife of 4 years, Summer, died at St. Cloud Hospital from complications of a massive hemorrhagic stroke after being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) on August 15, 2021. She left behind her loving husband, Jeffrey, and their beautiful children, 2-year-old Finley, and infant twins Griffin & Zander.
|
Jeff Schmitz United Campus Ministries - Ridgewater Community College Jeff runs the Campus Ministry Center which exists to serve the Students and Staff of Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota. 2021 marks his ninth year at the Ministry Center. It’s obviously been a different season of ministry since March of 2020. The ministry to the students and faculty of Willmar has fixated on making the best connections and meeting the most physical needs possible. The ministry's main outreach has been a weekly to-go lunch, which is served on Wednesdays from 11am-2pm. They have seen anywhere from 30 to 70 students each week, which is obviously down from previous years. The campus has around 300 students on site, which is down from other years where there are around 1300. The general rule is that if it’s a tech program, or there is hands-on instruction that is necessary, the students are on campus. They have recently been brainstorming how to make one day a week be a service project focus for planning, and one day a month for a bigger execution around that project, with a recent project involving making and mailing cards for Brookdale and Westview Village senior care facilities for Valentine’s Day. The ministry also has a well-stocked food pantry, and a blessings box that gets used multiple times per week, and they have been doing a lot of benevolence work with students throughout the past year. JOPPA/Youth for Christ 2021 is Jeff's seventeenth year at Joppa, and they’ve had to be flexible as they have jumped from in-person meetings to virtual meetings and back. They are currently meeting each Tuesday at Harvest Church in Willmar, seeing 30-40 young adults weekly. They typically have a guest speaker or watch a video sermon, then have discussion, Q&A, prayer and musical worship. It’s definitely easier to do this ministry when they are able to meet in person. They saw a lot of people disappear from their group while they went online, and a few have returned and a few new faces from the college and community have gotten involved. In addition to our Tuesday meetings, Jeff has been running a weekly online Bible study that’s gone through Acts and is currently in Romans that sees five people attending. For the latest update about these two ministries, click here. |
|
Lake Beauty Bible Camp (LBBC)
The Mission of LBBC is "Proclaiming Jesus and reflecting his love through a high quality Christian Camp experience". Click here for their website if you would like to go to camp or volunteer. |
Short Term MissionsEcuador Mission Trip
In June 2017 NLECC sent a multi-generational mission team to Ecuador to serve and build relationships with the Covenant church in Mejia. The mission team was made up of of 10 adults and 9 students. During the mission trip the team made great progress on the construction projects, including repairing the Pastor's home from earthquake and flooding. They enjoyed the relationships built with our Ecuadorian brothers and sisters in Christ. Their host homes were such a blessing and God bridged the gap in language barriers and they laughed often! Bible school went extremely well - they shared with 100 children over the course of two days and at two new locations! The team was stayed well and thrived in the local culture as pictures from the slideshow depict. Praise God for an amazing opportunity! |
|