ABWE

Glenda

আচ্ছালামু – আলায়কুম!  নমস্কার! 

My name is Glenda and I have the privilege of serving God in South Asia.

I grew up here at First Baptist of Newaygo and trusted Christ at an early age. I am thankful for pastors, Sunday school teachers, junior church, AWANA, and youth group leaders who taught me from God’s Word. Missionaries also had a big impact on my life as they spoke of the need to share Truth not just in my school and neighborhood but all around the world.

God used various circumstances in my life to lead to me South Asia. My adopted land is one of the most densely populated countries on the earth and so it is not difficult to find people who have never heard the Gospel…in any context. The hospital, in which I work as a nurse, services a catchment area of several million people. The majority of the people are Muslim or Hindu. Healthcare has opened doors in this needy land.  

I joined the medical team in 2010 and since that time have had various roles serving in the medical work.  My greatest desire is to work with students in a formal education type setting and over the years I have had the special opportunity to help train nurses, nurse aides, and medics.  I have also been involved in ward supervision and inventorying donated medical supplies.

Please pray that God would send more workers to join us in South Asia. My focus is hospital ministry and professional medical education, but healthcare is just one, small facet of extensive ministry opportunities. Whatever skills and gifts God has given you…we can use it on our field!

If you would like to know more about the work in South Asia, please contact me through the church address.

Serving in South Asia,

Glenda

Larry & Jane Golin

November 2010

Thank you in 9 languages for your faithful prayer and financial support of our ministries for the past 47 years. We thank Him for the establishment of a rehabilitation center at Memorial Christian Hospital in Malumghat, Bangladesh. We thank Him for the trained national workers who daily witness to patients and for the 27 churches that we were some part of helping to establish. However, the greatest thing He did thru us was to help bring a Holy Bible in the language of the people of Bangladesh.

After leaving Bangladesh in 1998, the work of International Director for Ministries to the Disabled led us to witness to Disabled in 14 countries.  Now we are heading for another challenge. On March 31st, 2011, we are retiring from full time work with ABWE.

Tim & Nancy Hepworth

Tim and Nancy have both retired from ABWE after over 37 years of service to our Lord.  They served at Memorial Christian Hospital for 20 years.  After leaving the 
field due to Tim's health, Tim served as Medical Director for ABWE for 9 years, then stepped down to Associate Medical Director.  Nancy served as Child Safety Officer for 9 years, then TESOL Coordinator for English teachers, and most recently as a sign language coach.

Although Tim's health kept them from returning to Bangladesh full time, they were able to return for 2-3 months almost every winter.  In addition, Tim and Nancy team taught a 1-credit class on Biblical Sexuality "Men & Women: A Study of Holy Sexuality", which is available in English from Amazon and has been published in both Bangla and Russian.

In retirement, Tim continues to write.  Nancy is studying Greek with the goal of being able to read the New Testament in Greek.

We are looking forward to God's directing us into additional areas of ministry.  We are involved in our local church (Oakfield Baptist, Rockford) with teaching Sunday School and Tim as deacon and pianist.

Home address:
11065 Crawford Lake Trail
Cedar Springs MI  49319

Contact Info:
Tim  717-649-3023  drhepworth@abwe.org

Nancy  717-649-9231  nhepworth@abwe.org 

Steve & Sue Mayo

Steve and Sue Mayo head up a church planting and missionary sending initiative 
through Declare International (declare.org.au), the missions arm of the Australian
Fellowship of Bible-believing Churches (afbc.net.au).  Having completed three church
plants in greater Sydney, they now provide coaching and resourcing to multiple church
plants across the country.  They also oversee the sending of missionaries from Australian
and New Zealand churches to the Pacific Island nations, Asia, Africa, and Europe.  For 
leisure, the Mayos enjoy outings with their 22 grandchildren, all of whom live in 
Australia.

Dick &  Betty Sterkenburg

Missionaries with ABWE 1958 - 1998.

We retired after 40 years in Brazil.  While on the field we started and assisted in 5 church plants and aided the ministry in 16 congregations over the years.  Dick taught and served in various capacities in the Sao Paulo Baptist Seminary and as President in his final 14 years.  Betty was always active in teacher training at the church level and or in the Seminary program.  At the seminary she served as office coordinator, dean of women and librarian (putting ten thousand books on computer card files).  In December of 2011 the Seminary dedicated its new edifice.  We were there for the occasion.  I was the dedicatory speaker.  They have named the building "The Dr. Richard and Sra. Betty Sterkenburg Edifice - That in this edifice Jesus Christ might always have the preeminence, Cl 1:18."   A week later the Pan American Christian Academy, where I served as Treasurer for thirty years, presented me with a Christian Service award.   To God be the glory!

I am currently working on a fund raising effort of two thousand dollars for a sign to be placed in front of our Brazilian Seminary (see artist conception).

We continue our  volunteer work  two afternoons a week at the Radio Bible Class Ministries (RBC-ministries - soon to be changed to OurDailyBreadministries).  Betty works in the mail department and Dick in graphics.  I also write a monthly blog for RBC's Brasilian office calling myself the "Word Doctor."   I take one Biblical word and show how understanding that word helps to understand the text. I wrote the time line charts for all the books of the Bible for RBC's "Adventuring through the Bible" by Stedman.   A project of over a hundred hours of work and drawings.  I have returned to the mission field to give Master's level seminars in Liberia, Sao Paulo and Lisbon, Portugal.  I have extensive correspondence with people at the rate of about five hundred yearly. For exercise I play tennis twice weekly for two hours.  while Betty uses the exercise machines.  And with what time is left I make and repair mantel, wall and floor clocks.  And last but not least we recently celebrated our 61st wedding anniversary. 

John & Betty Teusink

Content to come...

Tim & Barb Vermilyea

Tim and Barb Vermilyea responded to God’s call in their lives for vocational missionary service in 1985.  They moved to the Quebec City, Quebec region in 1986 – they’ve called that part of the world “home” ever since.  Their children all grew up in the French-language and French-Canadian cultural setting; all are perfectly bi-lingual and hold dual citizenship.  Church-planting and leadership training have been the driving passions of their ministry since they arrived in what is known as “la belle province” (the lovely province).  The first ten years in Quebec, the Vermilyeas were part of the Baptist Mid-Missions missionary team.  In 1996 they became a part of ABWE’s new initiative in the province – they have now served with the ABWE team for 18 years.

Church-planting has been and continues to be a major part of the ministry in Quebec City.  In 2004 an evangelistic Bible study was begun in the city with the goal of forming a nucleus of believers that would become a new church.  [The greater Quebec City region’s population is approximately 750,000 – there are still only a small number of Gospel-preaching churches seeking to reach the most unevangelized people-group (French-Canadians, les Québécois) in the Western Hemisphere.]  In 2005 Credo Baptist Church was established under the leadership of the Vermilyeas and ABWE colleagues, Mark & Jill Billington.  The church is growing, is being led more and more by national leadership, and is beginning an initiative in 2014 of establishing a missional community in another area of the city, the expansion of Credo Church.

Canada is, per capita, the #1 nation in the world to welcome immigrants.  That reality is part of God’s leading to an expanded ministry for Tim and Barb.  Two years ago a “new” logo was added to their prayer card and their ministry accent.  Crossing Cultures w/o Crossing Borders is possible almost anywhere in Canada, including Quebec City.  God is bringing the nations of the world to North America, which means that multi-ethnic and multi-cultural churches can be established.  Credo Church currently has 8 nationalities represented in the family.  The Vermilyeas are also seeing an expanding ministry as they work with ABWE teammates in Toronto who are ministering in the Chinese community (nearly 500,000 Mandarin-speakers)…and helping with the establishment of a new ministry team in the city of Montreal that will minister in French, English, Arabic and other languages.  On a personal note, they are thrilled that their daughter, Mandi, is currently raising support with ABWE to join the Montreal team!