We believe missionary care is very important and desire to promote the wellbeing, growth, effectiveness, and sustainability of Journey Church International’s career missionaries through helping meet physical, spiritual, and emotional needs through all stages of the missionary process. Our Global Partners are doing a very hard job. Many have left their families, friends, communities, cultures, to go to a new culture to share the Gospel with those who haven’t heard. Our missionaries can’t do what they do long-term without a team of people supporting them, encouraging them, praying for them, and financially supporting them. Believe it or not, it is these simple ways that we as a church can make a huge impact on them and their ministry.
Ways to care for missionaries
Phil and Heidi are natives of Harrisonville who moved to Israel in 1989 to serve as missionaries. They raised their five children in Israel and are currently raising their three young granddaughters.
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 0.2 percent of the population being Christian. Today, Beit Eliyahu is home to over 450 worshippers.
Emily has been a missionary in Panama since 2014, with experience serving in both Latin and Chinese churches in different areas of Panama City and West Panama. She and her husband Jeremías currently live in Panama City, where they are serving and building community through their local church, La Gran Comisión. They focus on supporting weekly church operations, discipleship, and outreach initiatives.
Emily and Jeremías have also partnered to help equip churches in a variety of contexts; through discipleship, training leaders, supporting church plants, and mobilizing missionaries. In 2023 the Latin American Missions Society was founded, where Emily serves as the Director of Missions Mobilization and Jeremías as a board member. The goal is to help cultivate a Biblical understanding of missions within churches in Latin America and equip them to send out missionaries.
Tami’s missions focus is using her skills to see a thriving church in every ethnic group, often through teaching and communication.
Journey has been blessed to partner with Tami in ministry for many years. For 18 years she served in Southeast Asia Mainland, where she was a teacher and curriculum director at a Christian school that served children of missionaries from countries all over the world. She also discipled national women from several Asian countries. One woman named Chang is currently evangelizing and teaching God’s word in a Thai community. Tami meets with Chang online for discipleship and encouragement in her ministry as she is quite isolated.
In 2023 Tami began a new position in her organization’s IT (Information Technology) department as an administrative assistant, helping thousands of missionaries in this role. She is blessed to serve on a team that faithfully completes behind-the-scenes tasks as our part in getting God’s truth to the unreached.
Jeremiah, Karin and their family have been serving in West Asia 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.
After learning their country’s language, they are actively sharing the Gospel and building discipleship relationships within their city. Now, there is a church established in their city, and around 50 believers and counting! As the church continues to grow, they are prayerfully looking to train new leaders and send out others to plant churches amongst believers in other regions.
Everyday life for them consists of raising their kids, discipling new believers and hosting small church gatherings, developing discipleship content in the language, and building relationships with their neighbors.
Pasha, Ira, and their two girls, Grace and Gloria, moved to Kraków, Poland in the Spring of 2024 to serve with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which is an organization focused on the discipleship of local athletes and coaches. They are Ukrainians, and war in their homeland has deeply grieved their hearts. In the midst of the tragedy, however, they have experienced God’s clear calling to serve other nations. Their service has taken them from FCA Ukraine to being a part of our JCI family in Lee’s Summit, to Armenia, and now to Poland.
Their primary focus is building relationships with local athletes and coaches in hopes to share the Gospel with them and disciple them through FCA huddles, camps, and trainings. A recent part of Ira’s ministry traveling to and from Ukraine, ministering to and counseling young women soldiers on the frontlines of combat.
Liosha and Yana, with their two children Daniel and Manuel, are a part of Fellowship of Christian Athletes 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.
In the spring of 2022, Liosha and Yana came to the United States for an FCA conference with many other Ukrainian families. Because of the war that began between Ukraine and Russia, they could not return home and instead moved to Kansas City. During that time, JCI became a church home to them.
They continued to seek out what God would have them do and felt called to Kraków, 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.
Chris and Robin have three children and 10 grandchildren in the United States. Beginning with short-term trips to Zambia in 2016, Chris and Robin made the decision to move to Zambia in 2021.
They are employed by Shepherd’s Staff, a missions facilitation organization in Knoxville, Tennessee and Zambia Christian Missions. Their mission includes evangelism, discipleship, and resource development for the Lunda people. Chris and Robin connect with local pastors, church leaders, and Sunday school teachers by teaching Bible School sessions at Nyangombe Christian Training Centre. They also have opportunities throughout the year to preach and teach in villages and women’s gatherings, as well as at regional and general conferences.
Through partnership with Sapporo Garden Church, a relatively new church plant in Sapporo, Japan, Jake serves in a pastoral facet to help teach new and long-term believers about Scripture, assists in preaching, helps cast vision for new ministries, does leadership training for new leaders, mentors existing leaders, oversees outreach and worship teams. And of course, he is always reaching out to the local community to share the Gospel with all who will listen!
Jake and Saeko were married three years ago, and their daughter Airi was born in 2024. Their time at Sapporo Garden Church began in 2022 and in that time, God has done amazing things. They have seen new baptisms every year, wayward Christians have faith reignited, and the church itself doubled in size outgrowing its previous location.
Jacob is a young man who grew up at Journey and is currently learning and serving through Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in New Zealand with a program called Furnace. His missions career first led him to a season in Australia, back to the United States, and then now in New Zealand where he is participating with other young adults in missions such as street evangelism, worship and prayer events, medical ship ministry, and other outreach into the community. Jacob also has the opportunity to equip himself and lead others through internships which focus on themes such as abiding in Christ, leadership, and Scripture memorization.
"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."