Decatur Church of Christ has a long history of foreign missions with a great emphasis on heeding the instruction of Jesus to “…go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt. 28:18-20). Partnering with foreign and domestic missionaries is a church wide effort for us. Every other year, for a week in the summer, we embark on a youth and family mission trip. Previous trips have included destination such as Brazil, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. In addition to an active missions committee that meets routinely, where members of our missions committee are passionate advocates for the people we support, we dedicate a season each year in the fall to focus on our missions partners and our calling to be ambassadors for Jesus locally and worldwide that culminates in an October Sunday that we call “Mission Sunday” dedicated to mission fundraising.
Randy & Angela Warzecha
Barra dos Coqueiros, BRAZIL
Sharing Jesus Heart to Heart and Home to Home
One of the key goals for our mission is that our lives and work as disciples of Jesus be ever-more focused on living and sharing this love, hope, and salvation revealed in John 3:16 beginning in our hearts and homes.
An essential part of this goal is to learn from JESUS to Think and Love like Him as dearly loved children of GOD Our Father with an ever-growing Trust in THEM, Their Great Love and Salvation. A basis for realizing these principles is focusing our and others’ lives, studies, and efforts on Jesus observing His Life, Heart, and Relationship with Our Father.
This focus is a vital part of being ever-more transformed into Jesus’ nature through adopting His way of thinking and loving, and helping as many as possible to do the same.
Randy has been serving in Brazil since 2002. During that time he helped establish the School of the Bible (Escolia de Biblia) in Aracaju. Hundreds of people entered the school each year for a 12 week study which was located across the street from the central bus terminal in Aracaju. Randy and the church in Aracaju have been involved in starting other churches in neighboring towns and villages. Randy and Angela married in 2007. Angela first came to the church through the School of the Bible and has been a blessing to Randy and the church in Brazil through her dedication to the Lord.In 2019 Randy and Angela handed over the School of the Bible to the Aracaju congregation and moved to a city located on the northeast coast of Brazil called Barra dos Coqueiros, just across the river from Aracaju, the capital of Sergipe. Randy, Angela, Davi, and Celine are blessed to serve by evangelizing and aiding individuals, families, and house churches in their growth as disciples as envisioned above.They do so not only in the city where they live but also in the surrounding cities and states. Their prayer, in which they deeply thank God for all who join them, is to reach as many souls as possible with this precious salvation and discipleship in Jesus, heart to heart and home to home.
The Hacienda Of Hope is a long-term project devoted to helping the children of South America. This project is located in San José Chico, Ecuador. Currently there are two facets: the Hacienda Of Hope Orphanage and the Hacienda Of Hope Bilingual School. The Hacienda of Hope Children’s Home seeks children whose parents have died or children that have been abandoned. These children are given a new home, a top-notch education and most importantly, an environment where they can learn about God. The Hacienda of Hope Bilingual School is a Christian-based learning center where our orphaned children can be educated in both the Spanish and English languages. The idea is for them to be ahead of their peers in Ecuador so that they will have doors of opportunity open to them by being bilingual.
Paul Renganathan
Chennai, INDIA
Paul Renganathan, a native Indian and medical doctor, was of the Hindu religion before converting to Christianity and giving up his standard of living to follow Jesus. Paul began his philanthropic work in Chennai, India, by opening a Bible college followed by a medical clinic and bus, orphanages, and three Christian private schools. This incredible organized outreach touches lives by providing basic medical necessities such as free healthcare, wheelchairs, and crutches, as well as providing sewing machines and goats to widows giving them a way to provide for themselves rather than them receiving a free handout, and if they desire, they are taught about Jesus.
Roland & Rose Mohsen
FRANCE
Roland and Rose have been serving the Deodat Church of Christ in Paris since 1984 after spending the previous 5 years in Dijon, France. The church has gone from just a few families each week to well over 100 people each week and now provides support for other mission churches. Roland and Rose are both active in teaching Bible studies in Paris and surrounding areas, teach practical skills to help people obtain jobs and host activities in their home on a regular basis.
Eastern European Mission
EUROPE
https://www.eem.org
WHAT WE DO…God designed His manifold wisdom to be made known to the world through the church, as we read in Ephesians 3:10. Ephesians 1:4 shows us that it was His blueprint from the beginning. All across Eastern Europe, New Testament churches are being planted. EEM has assisted the growth of the church in the former communist nations by supplying Bibles and Biblical literature to individuals, families, church members, churches, missionaries and campaign groups. Additionally, EEM also provides them with other support services. In Ukraine, EEM is heavily involved in a comprehensive approach to share the Gospel, which has resulted in over 100 New Testament congregations being started in just the last few years. What could be better than putting Bibles in public schools, entire states at a time? Training teachers in those schools how to understand the Bible and how to use it in their classrooms, of course. EEM has been allowed to hold seminars to train teachers in some of the states where we have put Bibles in public schools. The benefit of these training seminars is immediate comprehension of key concepts, morals and spiritual values. These principles can then be taught in the classrooms of those schools. THE BIBLE…WE WANT EVERYONE TO GET IT.
Josh and Divine Austin & family
Arizona, USA
My mission is evangelize the Native American population in the Phoenix metro area and plant a congregation and to equip young men and women to go back to their respective reservations to spread the gospel.
The Sudan Project
Pajok, SUDAN
https://www.sudanproject.net
The primary goal of The Sudan Project is to establish God’s church throughout the country of South Sudan. We believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God and obedience to it to be the key to life for everyone, both now and in eternity.
Greg & Sonia Clodfelter
Nyeri, KENYA
Since 1997 he has served in Nyeri as an evangelist and minister of the church of Christ. Clodfelter, a 47-year-old minister for the Queensview Church of Christ in Nyeri, and a team of Kenyan Christians comprise Right Choices, a ministry that teaches school children to combat East Africa’s AIDS epidemic through Bible-based principles of morality. The Andrews Church of Christ in Texas oversees the work.
Everett Chambers
FRANCE
For over 25 years Everett Chambers has done extensive mission work in Europe, Africa, Asia, South and Central America and the Caribbean. His focus has been to help congregations and their ministers grow in their knowledge and love for our Lord Jesus Christ so they are motivated to spread the good news of Christ’s love to all whom they meet. While living in the US he also served as preaching minister for several churches in Texas.
Everett moved to France 2022 from where he continues to mentor men for ministry all over the world. He concentrates on supporting European brethren—especially those located in the UK and the Netherlands. However, Everett still does extensive work with ministers and Christians located in Costa Rica, Brazil, India, and Jamaica, and he still maintains a thriving ministry in the US. He also focuses on sharing Jesus in his village while absorbing both the French language and culture.
Ronald Coleman
Wylie, TX USA
Since 1997 he has served in Nyeri as an evangelist and minister of the church of Christ. Clodfelter, a 47-year-old minister for the Queensview Church of Christ in Nyeri, and a team of Kenyan Christians comprise Right Choices, a ministry that teaches school children to combat East Africa’s AIDS epidemic through Bible-based principles of morality. The Andrews Church of Christ in Texas oversees the work.
Wise Foundation Ministry
Adrian Tapia, MEXICO
Wise Foundation Ministry is an evangelical ministry that shares the Gospel with children and supports low-income families on the northern border of Mexico. Wise Foundation Ministry runs ‘Making Dreams Come True’, an open-air evangelical program sharing God’s Word with children. They also deliver pantries to low-income families twice a year and deliver diapers for adults and children with disabilities, as well as support several schools in northern Mexico with donations. Wise Foundation Ministry has recently started working together with New Life Ministry conducting mission trips to southern Mexico to share the Gospel with children and their families through the ‘Making Dreams Come True’ programs in which not only the Word of God is shared with the children, but they are also supported them with donations of toys, school supplies as well new clothing and giving donations to low-income families in the states of Puebla, Hidalgo and Veracruz located in southern Mexico. Wise Foundation Ministry currently serves more than 350 families and an average of 650 children annually.
Living Hope for Honduras
Gualaco, HONDURAS
https://livinghopeforhonduras.org
Their mission is to model the love of Jesus through relationships, education, and community development while encouraging individuals to flourish.
Global City Mission Initiative
USA
Adriano and Karoline Freire
Recife, BRAZIL
Adriano is a product of our church’s first mission work in Brazil through the work in Aracaju (Escolia de Biglia) School of the Bible with Randy Warzecha. Adrian has a heart for ministry and worship and has his hands in many mission rolls. He is a teacher at AME missions program, Youth and Worship Leader at Luna Church of Christ in João Pessoa-PB, coordinator of Cantares Ministry and director of ARCA Worship Leader School.o
Arab Christian Ministry
USA
Matt & Janille Stephens
IRELAND
Matt and Janille Stephens met at Abilene Christian University and were married in 2010. They have three children; Abraham, Samuel, and Joseph Patrick. Janille holds a bachelor’s degree in education and is completing a master’s degree in literature. Matt holds a Master’s of Divinity and a Master’s of Marriage and Family Therapy. After graduating from ACU, Matt worked in the Texas mental health system and did family therapy in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Massachusetts, Matt volunteered as the preacher for the Brookline Church of Christ. In 2018 Matt and Janille went to Ireland to meet with the Ranelagh church. After spending several weeks with the church, Matt was offered the position of minister. Despite the difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic, they were able to complete their move to Ireland in October 2020.
The Ranelagh church was planted in 1970 by Tony and Leslie Coffey. Tony, an Irishman, was supported by churches in the U.S. Since the 70s, Ranelagh has seen slow, but steady growth. It is now a warm, thriving community and a spiritual home to its members. Ireland is a challenging country in which to convert people to a non-denominational, bible-based relationship with God. Predominantly Catholic, they have been skeptical of alternatives, but this is changing and more people are becoming open to different points of view.
Phill & Rebecca Jackson
Athens, GREECE
Phil & Rebecca Jackson worked in Romania as missionaries for 9 year prior to serving as the European Coordinator for a missions development and training organization based in Dallas-Fort Worth for 17 years. They moved to Athens, Greece in 2020 with the goal of sharing Jesus with displaced people groups moving across the Middle East, Near East, Southeast Asia and Africa into Europe through Greece. They are concentrating their efforts on seekers and new believers who are emerging in their faith in Jesus. Phil and Rebecca also continue to mentor refugees who have relocated into Greater Europe. In addition to that, they seek to equip and empower Christian leaders and disciple makers that are serving in Western and Eastern Europe.
MISSION TEAM
