We Love the Nations

Over 20 years ago, in the Dominican Republic—our missionaries Vic & Dr. Leslie Trautwein (a pediatrician) launched ONE orphan care center with our support.  That single seed took root and is now a forest.  Today 2,400 at-risk children receive care and education through 10 Kids Alive schools and residential campuses.  In nearby Central America—Costa Rica was a nation where foster care and adoption did not exist. That is, until 2005, when our missionaries Philip & Jill Aspegren founded Casa Viva and placed their first vulnerable child with a Christian Costa Rican family.  Since then, Casa Viva has nested over 1,100 children into local Christian families and churches.

Taking “to the ends of the earth” literally, Ben & Mandy Pehrson have served in Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific since 2002. They work in the remote interior training Papua New Guineas—leading a team of over 120 (mostly nationals) who are doing holistic Bible translation ministry in 13 language groups. The new Scripture portions are of tremendous value to both spiritual growth and literacy development in their part of the world, where the languages they work in had never been written down.

In South Asia, our 8 years of investment in schools has empowered girls with no other access to education.  Our partnership with “Raising Esthers” schools in a Muslim-majority nation has enabled hundreds of girls (and boys) in ten communities to gain literacy, math skills, and Bible education— affirming their dignity and opening doors of opportunity.  A 2024 MissionsFest grant is helping to construct a 5-room school alongside a church and medical clinic, which serves a brick-kiln laborer community.  In other parts of Asia, our specialized missionaries are using their expertise in special education and literacy to bring hope, opportunity, and the Gospel.

In 2015, our church dramatically deepened our investment in courageous indigenous leaders in the turbulent Arab-speaking world. We are now partnering with nearly 20 gifted Christian leaders in multiple countries of North Africa and the Middle East. In just one Muslim nation, over 1,400 young adults have come to faith in Christ through our partners in the past 8 years!

We are a church who loves the Word of God. Right now, a couple we support who are gifted software developers are using technology to take God’s Word to parts of Asia where it is presently unavailable!  A Scripture engagement app our church funded for these developers two years ago now has 6,500 users in a restricted context. A new grant WBC awarded last year is building a
new smartphone app to bring Scripture and discipleship resources to another unreached people group in Asia. Imagine what God may do among people in this remote region who are accessing Scripture for the FIRST time!

In 2011 we provided our African partners food for 10,000 drought-stricken Kenyans on the verge of starvation. Today, hundreds of Turkana people are growing their own food, they have started a school, and churches have sprouted up around wells and dams provided by our congregation and Nairobi partners.

In the Dominican Republic, our missionaries Brett & Kelsey Miller and coaches of GO Ministries are discipling over 1,000 at-risk athletes.  Our recent grant will launch a basketball and soccer program for girls and boys in an under-resourced community near Santiago. 150 youth are already practicing, and more are eagerly waiting for their program to begin! GO Ministries already planted a church in this barrio—where drug use and teenage pregnancy are high. Vacant spaces are now soccer fields and basketball courts, where loving Christian coaches are uplifting girls and boys through sports and discipleship.

In Chiang Mai, Thailand, our missionaries Jake & Honah Finn are in key leadership at Cornerstone Christian Foundation, which provides mental health services to 500-600 missionaries every year – as well as to the Thai community. The 15 professional Christian therapists on staff (including Jake) are instrumental in keeping global workers on the field as they offer hope, insight, and resources to help them deal with the personal and cross-cultural challenges they face. Two-thirds of the unreached people in the world live in the 10 nations surrounding this strategically located mental health hub, whose services are in high demand.

In another South Asian nation—AND in East Africa—trusted indigenous leaders who attended WBC while in graduate school are now equipping leaders in their homeland with quality theological education.  Through Robert Sityo of Fountain of Hope Ministries in Uganda and Dr. Thomas of Transformation 10/40 Ministries in South Asia—over 275 church planters and pastors have been immersed in Biblical study and practical ministry training.  Both serve communities where Christians are a distinct minority – yet where the church is growing dramatically!  Our generosity has helped equip these pastors—some with an accredited, 3-year theological education and others with a certificate required by new government standards.