Sonrise Supported Missionaries:

Sonrise Church supports several missionaries across the world. There are a variety of ways to become involved including prayer, financial support, adopting a missionary, or visiting a missionary. A few of the missionaries regularly update a personal blog which you can read in order to be informed of their work as you support and pray for them. Please contact the missions team at missions@isonrise.com for more information on how you can be a part of our global outreach.

Tanzania

John & Kathe Matlock

Global Missions
email: matlocks98642@gmail.com

Primary Ministry Focus:

Working with national leaders of the Church of God in the areas of organization and leadership development. Teaching at the Babati Bible School to train prospective pastors for ministry. Support and encourage pastors serving in small village churches.

Taiwan

Dwight & Beckie Johnson

Blog  |  email: dwightj@mca.org.tw

Indonesia

Keith and Anita Miles

New Tribes Mission
email: keith_miles@ntm.org

Primary Ministry Focus:
Bible translation specifically working with the Tugutil people.

Baja, Mexico

Jerry and Bobbie Patchen

email: bajamin@nwoutreaches.org

Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire

Rod and Angelika Ragsdale

World Venture
Blog  |  email: rodangelika@web.de

In 1990, Rod Ragsdale began working in a muslim evangelism in Côte d'Ivoire as a member of World Venture. Angelika, a nurse, moved to Togo where she joined a new SIM International team doing outreach in the city of Sokodé, a muslim city of the Kotokoli people.

Rod and Angelika began to exchange emails in July 1998. Their common love for Africa and its people and their dedication to serving them brought them together. After meeting for the first time in February 1999 in Paris, France, they decided to marry. They were married on May 8, 1999, in Gutersloh, Germany. World Venture appointed Angelika to serve in Côte d’Ivoire along with Rod in Muslim outreach.

Primary Ministry Focus:
Equipping churches and Christian leaders to reach out to the Muslim community.

Kempton Park, South Africa

John and Carol Ragsdale

Trans World Radio
Blog  |  email: jragsdal@twraro.org.za , jcrags@iafrica.com
Read Our Prayer Letter

John was born in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa and grew up at International Christian Academy (ICA) where his parents served for 27 years. During his growing up years, John developed a burden to see the people of Africa come to know Christ. In 1992 John took a break from college to serve 6 months with TWR in Swaziland, working in the programming department in production and announcing. During this time God confirmed His call on John's life to serve in full-time missions.

Carol was born in Gabon and spent the first 10 years of her life there. When Carol was in the 6th grade she felt God's call on her life to serve Him full time in missions. Her family then moved to Guinea where Carol lived until she completed high school at ICA in Côte d'Ivoire.

John and Carol applied for full-time service with TWR in 1995, arriving in South Africa in 1998. John serves as TWR-Africa's Islamic ministry coordinator. Carol is a very busy wife and mother of Jean Marc and Nicole.

Kampala, Uganda

Jack Smith

World Venture
email: smithjj@world.cbi.org

Jack has a wide range of ministries in addition to his regular work. Fresh approaches for outreach include the following: workshops for medical personnel, team preaching, seminars for church leaders, and group counseling / mentoring for university students. Currently he is supervising 12 counseling students for St. Francis Institute of Counseling.

Uganda

Darrie and Debbie Turner

World Venture
Blog  |  email: d_d_turner@myway.com

Darrie and Debbie Turner departed to Uganda in 1996, and after studying Swahili for six months, moved to Kasese in southwestern Uganda. There Darrie helped establish an English track at Kiburara Bible College and train a national interim director. Debbie homeschooled three children, offered hospitality to pastors and friends, hosted a Bible club for the Ugandan school children, and taught the wives at the Bible college for one year.

The more Darrie traveled throughout Uganda, training leaders in informal local Bible schools, the more he realized how crucial it was to make basic Bible training available to the many pastors who were unable to leave home to attend formal schools. This coming term he looks forward to helping form a ministry team that will make the training of rural Ugandan pastors its major thrust. This team will implement training methods that can be carried on by the national church.

Primary Ministry Focus:
Training pastors in rural Uganda who are unable to attend Bible colleges.