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We’re blessed to work alongside some amazing individuals who have taken their commitment to Jesus out into the world as long-term missionaries. Cumulatively, these individuals have given decades of their lives improving communities, serving others, and spreading the Gospel to individuals who otherwise may never be exposed to it.
Through their work, our church has been able to expand our global efforts to areas we may not have been able to reach without their selflessness. Get to know some of our missionaries and learn about the initiatives they’re working on to expand God’s Kingdom.
Phil and Heidi are Kansas City natives who moved to Israel in 1989, and have been living in Israel ever since as missionaries. They have five children who studied at the Reali Hebrew School in Haifa and grew up Israeli.
They have been through hardships in Israel, but God has used those challenges to open doors for them to proclaim His name. They have served with a local Messianic Jewish congregation, Beit Eliyahu, since the year 2000. Phil serves as an associate pastor at Beit Eliyahu and serves the congregation in numerous practical and administrative capacities.
Israel is a Jewish nation with only about two percent of the population being Christian. Today, Beit Eliyahu is home to over 100 Israeli believers in Jesus!
Ashley grew up attending Journey and moved to Panama in September of 2021 to serve as a missionary. Her primary focus in her first year has been learning Spanish and Panamanian culture.
Her current ministry in Panama is primarily centered around discipleship and leadership development. She and her team do this by encouraging people to take their next steps in global missions. They are laying groundwork to provide opportunities for Panamanians to engage in global missions in their own country and around the world.
Her team is in the process of developing a missions society, Sociedad Latinoamericana de Misiones, to support local churches and pastors as they equip those in their own congregations to the mission field.
Emily is a missionary in Panama, and has been since 2014. She is originally from Lee’s Summit and Journey is her home church.
Panama is home to around 300,000 Chinese, and because of this, she serves in both Latin and Chinese contexts. She and several others have partnered to help equip churches, disciple and train leaders, support church plants, and mobilize missionaries.
They are doing this by establishing a missions society called Sociedad Latinoamericana de Misiones. This will help educate and provide training for churches in Panama to be able to send out missionaries. She also serves through a local church, guiding church members through their own spiritual journeys.
Journey has been blessed to partner with Tami in ministry for many years. Tami grew up on the campus of a missionary training center in Lake of the Ozarks. For 18 years she served in Southeast Asia Mainland, where she was a teacher and director at a Christian school that served children of missionaries from countries all over the world.
In 2020, Tami was asked to join a small team to update a program that her mission organization uses, bringing her back to Missouri. Since then, she has been working on that program, which will help missionaries learn the heart language and culture of the people they are reaching before they teach God’s Word. The materials will be used by thousands of missionaries from many different countries.
Our global partners located in the Middle East have lived in Turkey since 2020. They currently live in an area where only 0.5% of people identify themselves as Christians, and the threat of persecution for being a Christian is high. At times, it’s an incredibly isolating experience for them, both spiritually and culturally.
They are currently 2.5 years into a seven-year process of learning their country’s language so they can clearly share the Gospel in the Turkish language. Their long-term goal is to plant churches in the town they are in, and see believers gathered worshipping the name of Jesus.
Everyday life for them consists of raising their four kids, meeting with a small group of friends who don’t yet know the Gospel and building relationships with their neighbors.
Pasha and Ira and their two girls, Grace and Gloria, moved to Krakow, Poland in the Spring of 2024. They are on staff with Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), a sports ministry that is all over the world working to see people impacted by Jesus Christ through coaches and athletes. One of their main roles is to connect with local athletes and coaches to disciple them.
They also help organize FCA huddles, camps, trainings, and events. They have a special opportunity to teach the Word of God to these athletes and see them grow in Christ as well as connect them to the local church. Pasha and Ira are originally from Ukraine, but they were in the U.S. for an FCA conference when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out. Not knowing when they could return home, they relocated to Kansas City and became part of our Journey family before heading to Poland.
Liosha and Yana are both part of Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Ukraine, an organization whose goal is to lead every athlete and coach into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and with His church through sports. The two of them both grew up in non-religious homes and came to Christ after meeting other Christians through sports.
In the spring of 2022, Liosha and Yana, along with their son, Daniel, came to America for an FCA conference with many other Ukrainian families. During their time here, Russia attacked Ukraine and the two countries went into war. Because of this, they could not return home, and instead ended up moving to Kansas City for 10 months.
During that time, Journey became a church home to them. They continued to seek out what God would have them do and felt called to Krakow, Poland to continue to serve with FCA to disciple coaches and athletes. They moved to Poland in December of 2022, where Liosha is now the North Global Director of Operations. His focus is to develop, support, and care for every FCA ministry leader in Europe and Eurasia by overseeing the planning, development, and onboarding processes for that region.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
