Spreading the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ locally and globally. The following are missionaries Knoxville Christian Center supports monthly. Please pray for these missionaries and consider donating to the "Missions" fund.
Daniel & Rebecca are missionaries to families in the US. Their ministry Deep Roots Mission is about growing and strengthening godly families by empowering parents to model and instill Biblical values and principles in their homes. “Parents are God’s ambassadors to their children, representing Him and pointing children to Him, and reminding them that we serve an Almighty God whose Word is true and unchanging.”
The Barthalows are actively engaged in reaching those in extreme poverty, training up church planters and discipling new believers in Southern Asia. They have a Christ-centered tutoring center for 20 young girls as well as a Bible School that trains and develops new leaders to establish Christ-centered communities all over the country.
Jimmy & Theda work with Global Initiative in equipping and mobilizing the Church to reach Muslims everywhere. They enlist believers as intercessors, encourage an understanding of Islam, equip Christians to provide a culturally sensitive witness, train people to disciple believers with a Muslim background, and assist in planting churches among Muslims.
Stuart & Wendy Brown are celebrating 20+ years of missionary service! Stuart works with the Sustainable Development area at CompassionLink. He is part of a team of dedicated consultants who partner with field personnel, community leaders, and pastors to create and restore healthy communities around the globe. Stuart is involved with numerous projects such as water filtration, hydroponics, square-meter gardening, solar cooking systems, and much more.
Wendy serves as International Ministries’ Regional Missionary Trainer preparing new global workers for lifelong learning and service.
Don & Jacquie Cartledge have served as missionaries in Latin America since 1981. They have labored in Chile and Costa Rica and have trained missionaries from Cuba.
They are now the Assistant District Missions Directors for the Tennessee Ministry Network of the Assemblies of God. They have spent time traveling and ministering to missionary couples in Spain, India, and Egypt.
The Claytons are missionaries to the Never Reached of the Northern Pacific Rim. They live in an area made up of nomads, orphaned children, and widows who have never heard the Gospel. They’ve opened a community center for kids and are actively engaged in teaching English, community outreach and development, as well as travel to remote villages across their province.
Kyle & Porscha completed a one-year CMIT program with Chi Alpha at Arkansas Tech University, then served as career associates at our UTK Chi Alpha for three years. They are now serving in Mozambique.
Their vision is to see universities across the continent of Africa become hubs of revival and revitalization through discipling students. Universities are one of the most strategic mission fields where future leaders can be reached with the gospel and then transforming the continent with their influence.
Convoy of Hope is a humanitarian, faith-based organization on a mission to feed the hungry and bring help and hope to communities that need it most. Convoy works in dozens of countries around the world each year, working alongside communities to bring solutions to the root causes of poverty and hunger.
Whether through established programming, strategic short-term interventions, or through partnerships, Convoy is always looking for ways to serve vulnerable people and communities.
Matt and Jacki first got involved with Chi Alpha as students at the University of Tennessee. After serving for 8 years on staff with Chi Alpha at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, Matt and Jacki moved across the state to establish a Chi Alpha ministry at the University of Memphis. They have three awesome kids and are passionate about seeing the lives of university students transformed by the love of Jesus.
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Jeremy & Faith began serving in ministry in 2003. In 2017 they, along with their three boys, began a new season as itinerating missionaries working with Builders International.
In their role with Builders International, Jeremy and Faith mobilize churches, individuals, and industry by partnering with construction projects and short-term missions trips throughout the world. Their oldest son, Elliott, has joined the Builders International team as the Business & Donor Development.
Haley ministers at a Center where 100 impoverished and at-risk-children are given access to education, hot meals, clothing, school supplies, English classes, skills training, and discipleship. The Center also has a cafe where students and young people from the community gather to practice English and spend time with one another. These ministries engage young people, giving them tools for the future, and give Haley and other believers opportunities to share the gospel. Please pray that of those who receive the gospel, some will answer the call to plant churches where there are none.
Sheila is the Founder and President of SaveOne, a global outreach ministry helping men, women, and families recover after abortion. Sheila’s first book, SaveOne – A Guide to Emotional Healing after Abortion, has been translated and distributed in 23 languages. Jack is the Vice President and Men’s Director for SaveOne. SaveOne currently has 400 chapters in 28 nations. Abortion has a deep ripple effect. Someone you know may have chosen abortion personally, lost a child to abortion, or their life has been profoundly impacted by abortion. SaveOne can help them through the healing process.
God called both Jason and his wife- independently of each other just five days apart…before they ever met! Both knew God had big plans for their lives but had no idea what the “big picture” would ultimately look like. Once they married, they served together as associate pastors over missions and discipleship. Then God called them to work in a predominantly Muslim country in 2013, and in 2015 they launch a newly-formed training team. Post-graduation from local language school they joined a church-planting team, where they continue to bring the light and hope of Jesus to the millions.
Sam & Joyce’s involvement with ministry training began in 1966 as they assisted with the founding of the Bible School in Ronda, Spain. The school began with four students from only a handful of churches. They had no idea at the time it was the beginnings for the concept of Priority One.
Jesus said the church’s first priority is to go into all the world and make disciples. Sam & Joyce are passionate about investing in the lives of future leaders.
In 2001 they named the ministry Priority One to go along with their passion and invited others others to join them. Because of these dedicated partners, Priority One has been able to assist in building Ministry Training Centers in over 50 countries.
For more than three decades, Keith and Christy served as AG missionaries in a closed region. They know and understand the rigors of being an effective long-term missionary family, the fire of trials and personal crises. Because of their experience, missionaries have informally sought their friendship and mentorship. World Missions leaders noticed their effectiveness and asked Keith and Christy to lead The Garden House serving the vast AG missions community. Missionary families benefit from intense debriefing, counseling, prayer support, endurance resources, rest and a fresh outlook for their unique and challenging ministries in their target area.
The Kuerts have dedicated their lives to sharing the gospel in Africa and have served in Kenya for 46 years! Dr. Kuert served for four years as the Protestant Chaplain for Nairobi University and has worked with East Africa School of Theology. The Kuerts were actively involved in collecting support for the construction of Kenya’s AG EAST University, which opened in January of 2015, and is where Bill teaches undergraduate courses in education, as well as, courses in graduate leadership. As a self-funded professor, Dr. Kuert offers his services free of charge.
Angie became a Missionary Associate with AG US Missions in 2017 for Appalachia and the Smoky Mountain Dream Center, making connections and getting support to serve “at-risk” teenagers of poverty stricken, dysfunctional homes though Impact Appalachia. After moving to Tennessee, Angie started chorus clubs in outreach schools and food distribution ministries. She met & married Paul, a long time Chaplain with the Sevier County fire department.
Currently, both Paul and Angie continue serving in food pantries, leading a small chorus, Bible time on Wednesday mornings, hosting special events like a Mother/Daughter Tea and Fall Fun with Fathers & Sons, and all the in between filling in for PE and Art. Both also serve as Chaplains to Sevier County FD and install smoke alarms.
“We share Jesus’ love in what ever form it may be that particular day.”
In August of 1997 Chuck and Laurie came to Knoxville Christian Center to start Chi Alpha at UT Knoxville. They started small group services on campus and hosted many activities to connect with students. After 20 years of being directors of Chi Alpha UTK, Chuck is now district director and oversees 5 Chi Alpha chapters: UTK, Tennessee Tech, Austin Peay, University of Memphis, and UT Chattanooga. Chuck pastors the directors and staff of each chapter and helps with recruitment for more campuses.
Chuck and Laurie love seeing God’s destiny come to pass in students’ lives and have seen God call many students to missions and the marketplace to be His light in the darkness.
Light for the Lost’s mission is to “empower the church to provide God’s Word for every person on the planet.”
LFTL seeks to fulfill this mission by providing critically-needed evangelistic resources for missionaries and missionary partners throughout the world through five platforms: print (printed literature, Bibles, tracts, devotionals), audio (audio devices, language-specific programs), video (video presentations), internet technologies (programs and films), and apps.
Jonathan and Melissa, along with their two daughters, have been serving as missionaries in Tokyo, Japan since 2014. They serve as pastors of ICA Tokyo, an incredibly diverse international church in the heart of Tokyo. With a diverse background of ministry experience, including over 20 years of church and evangelism ministry, they have a heart to grow an outwardly focused community that is actively engaged in reaching the next generation in Japan and Asia.
Michael & Melanie began as missionaries to Bulgaria in 1994. Both were ordained AG ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in 1996 and served the Lord in Poland. They spent 4 years ministering in Mongolia (1997-2000), then were called to Belarus in 2001 until the government kicked them out because of its disdain of Westerners and missionaries. They have served the Crimea Tatars and Ukrainians ever since – over 20 years via English (ESL) classes, cooking clubs, and “tiny church”. In Feb. 2022 at the urging of the US State Department because of war, they left for the US. They continue to share Jesus with their Crimean Tatar & Ukrainian friends over the phone and internet every day. They have friends on the frontlines and God is doing miracles to keep them safe and reveal Himself to them. Pray for salvation and an end to this war.
Llyod Jr and Ana Maria Marsh have been serving in South America since Spring of 1994. Llyod was a missionary kid and Ana Maria was led to the Lord by a missionary starting a church in her community in La Paz, Bolivia. They met in high school in La Paz and married years later. They began serving in Bolivia then in Venezuela. In 2015, the Lord opened a door in the northern desert of Chile to start a new church. The Lord connected them with a family from India who desired to study God’s Word in English. That Bible study grew to be an English church in a Spanish country reaching Hindu people in a catholic nation.
Ron & Mary Martens started as Missionary Associates to Unison TV International in Ecuador. Ron’s mission was to build a satellite network from the Cuenca base to serve the Spanish speaking world. Within the next several years Unsion’s family-values programming was such a success it was added to the national internet TV service and impacted the Hispanic community Worldwide. This brought an end to the need of Ron’s satellite service, but God had bigger plans for Ron & Mary at International Media Ministries (IMM) – also an AGWM enterprise. Ron was tasked to build the first private radio station in Togo then Liberia, West Africa. He has also aided technical support in a production company in Spain and facilitated the movie production there for the Arabic speaking world! IMM produces a wide variety of Christian media, including Bible-based dramatic films and children’s television programming.
Tyler & Brooke Martin are directors of Chi Alpha UTK. Both Tyler & Brooke believe that university students are the most strategic mission field in the world. This semester Chi Alpha UTK has 18 leaders, under Tyler & Brooke, ready to share the Gospel. After a busy summer of weekly discipleship groups, outings for students, and a mission trip to Central Asia, they hosted their 9th annual cereal bar in the basement of a dorm to welcome students for the new fall semester – over 250 students attended! This school year they have already hosted hikes, basketball and capture the flag tournaments, a back-to-school party, and several worship nights. Please pray as they continue to share the Gospel with international students of all faiths.
National Black Fellowship is a movement of hope transforming communities by developing and deploying African American leaders, planting and revitalizing churches, advancing biblical justice, and restoring families. The National Black Fellowship exists:
Jodi and her husband, Zac, have been licensed ministers of the Gospel for over 23 years. This year Jodi took over the role of Executive Director of the Smoky Mountain Dream Center. The ministries of the Dream Center include Transitional Housing, Community Garden & Feeding Programs, Prison Outreach and Community Outreach. The vision is simple: Freedom. Flourish. Fly. They want to bring Christ-centered solutions to every woman and child in Appalachia to have the opportunity to find freedom from poverty, abuse and incarceration, flourish in their homes, schools, work and community, and fly toward the dreams God has placed in their hearts.
Rhonda serves in an area of the world not open to the Gospel. Support Rhonda through prayer for her safety, Gospel ministry, and that Christ would be made known through her work.
Kelly and Cyndi are missionaries to Cambodia. They have been appointed missionaries with the Assemblies of God since 1987 and have spent their time in Thailand and Cambodia. Their main focus has been church planting and leadership development. They have been involved in ministry to children-at-risk through orphanage and child-sponsorships with public school kids. They have about 1000 children in their care as they oversee the Salaa Hope Christian School in Battambang and the Prey Dach Primary School child sponsorship project.
Mel & Jillian just celebrated 6 years of ministry with Global Initiative, an International Ministry that serves the various regions of Assemblies of God World Missions. They have taught classes at Bible schools and missions training schools in Africa, Asia, and Europe, hosted seminars for believers in multiple locations in Asia and the US, equipping them to reach their Muslim neighbors, and taught online classes in various locations in Asia & Latin America. Many of these students have gone on to plant churches and engage in missions work in their contexts and beyond.
We are an ordinary family from Memphis, Tennessee answering God’s call to preach the gospel to those who have never heard it. We serve in the least reach country on the planet; a nation without a single national AG church. Our mission is to proclaim the Gospel to those without access and to plant the church. Through the leading and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we see a church planting movement spreading throughout all of Central Asia.
Jack and Delores were appointed as AG World Missionaries in 1997 and arrived in Colombia in 2000. They have traveled all over the country doing evangelistic crusades and Holy Spirit Impacts where they have seen the power of God poured out upon the people. Their focus is church planting in the state of Boyacá. In 2005 they planted the 5th church in Tunja that has about 200 in attendance with a young Colombian pastor who Jack continues to mentor. Today that church now has 3 daughter churches. They have a training center in Tunja where they are training young ministers and with these young ministers they will plant new churches. Jack is also serving as the Executive Director of Teen Challenge Colombia.
Abe, Jill, and their son have been living and serving in the beautiful mountains of PenAsia since 2011 with over 100 Never Reached People Groups. In 2022, they began serving the 5 countries of PenAsia as Area Directors – leading and training the 200+ cross-cultural workers across the area. In July they are launching a library and then leading their first PenAsia retreat as Area Directors in August.
Richard & Hope have been called to serve the Native American community since 1993. The first decade of their ministry focused on church planting. Currently, Richard and Hope serve as the Native American Ministries Representatives for the Montana District Council. “Our responsibilities are facilitating church growth, leadership development, and coordinating construction projects for Native American churches in Montana.” In Bigfork, MT the Stewarts are also raising up the next generation of Native leaders by working as the directors of Indian Youth Camp (IYC). In August 2024 they launched a School of Ministry to educate and equip students with an emphasis on training healthy Indigenous church leadership.
After 16 years of full-time Pastoral ministry the Lord called Adam & Melissa as Missionaries to the Dominican Republic. Their desire as a family is to Reach, Restore and Release: Reach families and young people in the DR by using baseball as a tool of outreach, Restore their HOPE in the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ, and then Release them to build the Kingdom of Heaven. Families in the DR love baseball. Many see their baseball talents (their children’s talents) as their Hope or ticket to a better life. Their hope is not in a little white ball, but in the saving Grace of Jesus Christ! Through baseball they connect with families to build Relationships then share the Hope of Jesus with them, connecting them with their local established church for further discipleship.
Dr. Vorster is passionate about equipping those who sense the Call of God in their lives. He is a prolific speaker, pioneering new church planting movements, as well as revitalizing established denominations to plant more churches. Dr. Vorster founded the Church Planting Institute in 1986 and has mobilized over 132,000 Church Planters in 78 Nations to pioneer new churches. The research of the Barna research Group found that 2.5 churches are planted, on average, through each of those who complete his 3-day training.
An average of 46 people come to Christ through each of these new churches within the first 3 years of existence. Over 330,000 churches have been planted with an estimate that the Body of Christ grew with around 15,180,000 as a direct result of Dr. Vorster’s Disciple-making, Church Planting work.
Terry & Debbie have served as AGWM missionaries since 1983. They began their ministry serving in Thailand and the Peninsular Asia area focusing on compassion projects for children and literature translation and distribution. They currently serve as Field Reps for Asia’s Little Ones and the Coordinators of the Asia Pacific Board of Regents.
Kelli & John have been serving with Missionaries Glenn and Nancy Garrison at Happy Horizons Children’s Ranch (HHCR) in the Philippines since December 2010, helping the hurting, loving the abused, restoring hope to the forgotten and fighting against the injustice of human trafficking.
In 2018 the Garrisons after serving in the Philippines for 25 years, transitioned back to the USA for state side ministry and installed Kelli and John as the acting directors of HHCR. With the help of the Admin Team of HHCR, they keep this incredible ministry moving forward!
James & Delrae minister to the remote tribes Guatemala. Their ministry began with a one-week mission’s trip in 1995. That trip grew into spending three months each year, serving pastors in remote jungle villages. Finally, at summer’s end 2000, they decided to move forward into full-time missions ministry and completed the application and itineration process to be Assemblies of God career missionaries. Since 2005 they have been serving full-time, proclaiming the gospel, planting churches, praying for the sick, and equipping indigenous pastors.
Jess was born in Germany, is half Colombian, but has spent the majority of her life in Tennessee. Growing up in a rough home, Jesus became her refuge at a young age. She felt called to do full time ministry at age 13 and decided to serve with Chi Alpha after being a part of it all four years of college. She completed her CMIT at Austin Peay State University and is now back on Rocky Top ministering at UTK!