Dave and Lois began praying about whether God would have them relocate to the island of Tenerife to help establish an evangelical church there. In December of 2008 their prayers came to fruition and they moved to Santa Ursula, Tenerife to join missionaries Steve and Cheryl Albrecht in a fledgling church plant effort.

 Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

 

The Lord has opened a door for Nathan and Julie and their three children to minister alongside of Dave and Lois Belch with the church planting team in Santa Ursula, Tenerife.  A 2009 seminary graduate, Nathan served as youth pastor at Maranatha Bible Church, Comstock Park, Michigan while completing his seminary degree.

 

The Denny family transitioned to the mission field in April, 2009 to replace long-term missionaries Peter and Sonya Smith at the small church that the Smith’s planted in 2002.

 

The Dennys are so thankful for God’s goodness to them in their transition.  They have settled into the home the Smiths occupied in the village of Lidice, just outside of Kladno, and are making new friends in their neighborhood.  They praise God for the Kladno church in which they serve.

 

Christ Our Hope Bible Church provides support funding for this Czech pastor who in 2004 planted Fellowship of Bible Christians, an evangelical, Bible-teaching church in Usti, a city in northwestern Czech Republic near the German border.

 

 A Russian Baptist pastor for more than 30 years, Nikolai Devyatkin served as a faithful minister of the gospel under Communism.  Then he and his family lived in Moscow, Russia, but now Nikolai pastors a large church in the city of Arkangelsk, near the Arctic Circle.   Nikolai is also the regional pastor of the Arkhangelsk Oblast, an immense area (more than 226,000 square miles—in comparison Washington State has an area of 71,303 square miles) with a population of less than 1,500,000.

 

 

Phil and Denise Campbell have served with Wycliffe Bible Translators for many years, laboring in the field in linguistics, In the past few years Phil has continued his work for Wycliffe Bible Translators from Spokane.  In addition to training, equipping and consulting with members of the Bambam Translation Team in the areas of Scripture Translation, promotion, and production of supplementary materials to assist the Bambam church, Phil also serves as a resource and mentor for workers in other Southeast Asian language projects.

 

Jim and Millie have faithfully served as missionaries in French-speaking areas of Europe for over 30 years. In 2004, following a period of time when they were seeking the Lord’s leading for the final season of their missionary career, Jim and Millie relocated to Brussels, Belgium.  Since then Jim has pastored the Evangelical Free Church of Brussels-Woluwe and trained spiritually qualified leaders for churches in Brussels and in southern French-speaking Belgium.

 

They are currently preparing for retirement in the summer of 2010.

 

Chris and Traci’s mission field is the region of the United States where Mormonism is the dominant faith.  Since their marriage in 2007 they have served on the administrative team of Utah Campus Crusade, a student-led organization that is active on 10 Utah campuses.  Campus Crusade exists to help students grow in their relationships with Christ and each other while pursuing biblical truth.

 

In 1968 the Lord called Evelyn Hattan to Zambia to serve as a missionary nurse for what she initially thought would be a short-term period.  Evelyn retired from this missionary field in the fall of 2007, saying goodbye to the land that had been her home for nearly 40 years and returning to Spokane, the home of her childhood.  She stays busy with ministry at Faith Bible Church, in the community and with churches that supported her in the mission field.

 

 

Kevin Kimball and I shared about the ministry in Arkhangelsk we had in teaching through the doctrine of Salvation to Russian pastors and church leaders. What a humbling opportunity to see their deep commitment to Christ and desire to glorify Him.

 

Thank-you so much for your faithful prayers. We were very aware of God’s sovereign working in helping the men to gain an increased heart and passion for the Gospel.

 

Continue to pray for Regional Pastor Nikoli Devyatkin as he leads the pastors and churches in the Arkhangelsk region (1.5 million people, the size of Washington, Oregon & Idaho). Pray that God would raise up more pastors for this very needy and strategic area and that the churches there would be able to effectively reach out to the lost.

 

 

 As a church we desire to be directly involved in what God is doing in establishing the church around the world. Because of that, each summer we send Short Term Teams that work alongside missionaries we support to minister the Gospel through the church.

 

In 1999 Evgeny was a student at a Bible Institute in the Russian city of Novosibirsk when leaders from Faith Bible Church of Spokane—including COHBC pastors John Smith and Bob DeLateur—were providing theological instruction.  Instructors from the U.S. stayed in Evgeny’s apartment and spent long hours talking with him.

 

Since 2003 Evgeny has served as Director for the Department of Youth Work with the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB).  He and his wife Tanya have desired to plant a church the Russian capital city.