Jony and Jenny trained at Cornhill (expository preaching/women’s expository stream) and then Jony trained at Oak Hill (MA focused on NT Greek exegesis). Understanding that ‘the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few’ (Matthew 9:37) and after 4 years seeking to revitalise the church in Rosario (including the pandemic), the door opened to move across the Andes to Chile to teach NT Greek, NT Exegesis and expository preaching at the Anglican seminary ‘Centro de Estudios Pastorales’ (CEP), serving also as Academic Coordinator.

The long-term aim, however, has always been with Argentina in mind, dreaming of a “CEP” there, where there seems to be an abundant harvest, but very few well trained workers. But, before that, in the mid-term and as a stepping stone, the plan is a Ph.D. in Greek linguistics (with an Australian College) starting part-time in the second half of 2025 in Chile and then moving to Cambridge to continue full-time as from 2026.

Benja is leading a church plant called Iglesia Jesús el Camino (IJEC) in southern Chile, in the city of Temuco. It is the Araucanía diocese’s first church plant since the Anglican Church of Chile became an official ecclesiastical province.

Temuco is a highly evangelical city where there are many prosperity and neo-Pentecostal churches (churches that are governed by local apostles and prophets). This makes evangelism difficult because many people have had bad experiences of church, and the prejudice that exists is that “all churches are the same”. There is great economic and power abuse in these types of churches and legalism is very strong.

IJEC wants to show that the gospel brings freedom and joy and peace. IJEC is a conservative evangelical church that loves Christ and loves the local neighbourhood, which means that they are always seeking to link to the social activities of the area, and create opportunities to serve the neighbourhood. We do social help and also outdoor recreation activities for the neighbours, seeking to form sincere relationships and friendships, always thinking about the possibility of presenting the gospel. After the strict regulations related to COVID 19 in Chile, IJEC can again begin to have face-to-face meetings during 2022.

Ellie was a member of Emmanuel Westbury for 15 years and for much of that time was been on the staff team working with students and training church family for ministry in various areas. St Mary’s have strong links with Emmanuel Bristol and have come to know Ellie through M+M holidays.

Emmanuel Bristol, with the help of UFM, sent Ellie to the local evangelical church in Marousi, Athens in 2023.  The long-term aim is for her to be part of a team working with eleven evangelical churches who want to equip their members to teach and disciple one-another, and to reach the communities around them.  To do this well long-term, Ellie is currently giving most of her time to language learning, whilst also seeking to understand the culture.

David and Rachel work at St Andrew’s Hall in Melbourne, training missionaries for CMS-Australia and NZ. They also teach about mission around Australia and visit missionaries overseas. Rachel works with David three days a week and is involved in mentoring and raising up missionary applicants in Melbourne one day a week.

Their family are: Tom, Mia and three children in Darwin; Sam, Melanie and two children also in Darwin; Jonathan and Lizzie and one child in London.

Tim and Anna have been in Southeast Asia since 2021. Their focus is to support the biblical training and pastoral care of local believers who are considering cross-cultural work. Tim is currently studying a master’s in theology at a seminary in Southeast Asia and hopes to continue to PhD level. They are part of a small team which tries to mentor local believers in a variety of settings, and they live in a neighbourhood which provides lots of opportunity for sharing life and faith with people from different backgrounds.