The Craigs have served with MTW since 2002, working in Ciudad Juarez and Monterrey, Mexico, and in Costa Rica. Scott and Kathy work alongside national pastors and church planters in the coordination of short-term teams. The short-term teams open doors for the gospel and provide encouragement for the local church.
Now the Craigs are returning to the place it all started for them with MTW. Ciudad Juarez is in a strategic location on the U.S. border just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. First seen as a stepping stone for those seeking passage to a better life, the city has now become a place where folks are putting down roots. Scott and Kathy will serve in facilitating short-term teams and working alongside nationals in supporting and encouraging their ministries.
In past years the small church plants there struggled to establish themselves. But now, with a firm foundation, dedicated church planters, and a core of committed leaders, there is a strong mother church, two rapidly growing church plants, and new church plants in the works. Please pray with the Craigs that God will raise up gospel-centered churches that will transform lives and communities along the border.
Sam grew up in Ohio and South Carolina. He became a believer as a child. After graduating from college, Sam worked in the computer field as a software developer, and later attended seminary. During his time at seminary Sam felt the call to cross-cultural ministry, and after earning his M.Div. at Columbia International University (CIU) he was ordained in the PCA.
Elizabeth grew up in Germany, the daughter of church-planting missionaries, and is a native, fluent German speaker. She attended CIU for her undergraduate studies and later obtained her master’s degree in Germanistics from the University of South Carolina.
Sam and Elizabeth married in 2004 and began pursuing missions as a couple. In 2012 they arrived in Munich and have been partnering with a German church planter, establishing and growing churches in southern Munich. They and their three daughters engage in active lifestyle evangelism and outreach, using their home and family as their ministry base. Other ministries include teaching, counseling/discipleship, youth and children’s work, and translation.
Joe and Ann have been in Taiwan with MTW since 1991. Their ministry with students at Christ’s College involves teaching English, developing relationships, providing encouragement, evangelizing, and mentoring. A growing number of international students, many from mainland China, are going to the college to receive a Christian education. Christ’s College is the only Christian liberal arts college recognized by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. Over the years, graduates from the college have spread the gospel not only in Taiwan, but throughout Asia and the world.
Their roles at Christ’s College have grown. Ann has taken on new roles in academic advising and working with students interested in cooperative relationships with U.S. colleges. This has opened doors for developing deeper relationships and influence for Christ. Joe continues to develop new courses, seeking to integrate a Christian worldview and affecting students’ lives and thinking.
Whether Joe and Ann are connecting with students in the classroom, on campus, or in their home, they encourage and challenge them to come to Christ, to grow in Him, and then to make disciples wherever they go.
In July 2016, South Sudan’s fragile peace was shattered in a hail of gunfire as shooting broke out once again between government troops and rebels in Juba, the capital city of the newest country in the world. As the violence escalated, reports of ethnic killings and atrocities from both sides filtered across the airwaves, and thousands fled the cities and towns to hide out in the bush or seek shelter across the Ugandan border to the south.
That’s when missionary Jeremy Martin and MTW’s team in Kampala, Uganda, got the call—people were trapped between Juba and the Ugandan border. They needed help. The call came from Rev. James Bab Manyol, a South Sudanese graduate of Westminster Christian Institute Uganda, the Bible school run by the Presbyterian Church of Uganda and at which a number of MTW missionaries teach. He saw his people in crisis and was determined to offer aide.
Jeremy asked MTW for help, and received funding from the PCA Compassion Fund to get as many of the refugees out of South Sudan as they could manage. Initially Jeremy and his team estimated that with the available funding James would be able to transport 250 people out of harm’s way, but when the MTW and Presbyterian Church of South Sudan team sent vehicles north to the rescue, they fell in with a Ugandan military convoy of large trucks that was also heading into South Sudan. With the army’s assistance, James and his team were able to transport 480 South Sudanese safely into the Kiryandongo refugee settlement across the border—nearly twice as many as they had thought possible.
Since then, Jeremy has been working in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in central Uganda in partnership with the leadership of the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan and the South Sudan Christian International Fund for Refugees (SSCIFR). What began simply as emergency financial support has evolved to address the long-term needs of the refugees in Kiryandongo.
Founded as a Presbyterian ministry in 1875, Thornwell is a full service, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to providing the most innovative and effective solutions to help children and families in need. It provides Christian love and support to hundreds of children and families throughout Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Their mission involves a complete continuum of care that enables them to fully support the child and the family wherever they are in their journey to wholeness and healing. More about Thornwell can be found here: https://www.thornwell.org/
Links to Other Helpful Ministries:
Andrews PCA 