MISSIONARIES and works WE SUPPORT
We believe in the importance of coming alongside missionaries and leaders in their own communities and supporting them as they work to serve and bring the gospel of Jesus to all nations. There are needs that can only be met by long-term, stable help, and by supporting our missionaries, we are able to assist in long-term spiritual growth and the development of healthy churches and communities.
Download: Quarterly World Missions Report
Croatia for Christ
Croatia for Christ is a registered 501c3 non-profit. Its Board of Directors oversees work in Croatia, Serbia, and neighboring countries.
Mission work there began in the 1980’s with Mladen Jovanovic, the first Church of Christ minister in what was then communist Yugoslavia. Mladen helped establish congregations in Zagreb and Belgrade before the Iron Curtain collapsed. Bammel supported Mladen for 40+ years, until his death in 2013.
Jura Lazar served as Managing Director in Croatia from 2015 until April of 2023 when he began full-time employment with EEM.
Željka Vuk, is now the Executive Manager in Croatia. Paul Wert from Fairfax, Virginia and Kyle Thomas from Tulsa, Oklahoma represent Croatia for Christ in the U.S.
Draško Denović, based in Belgrade Serbia has served as Bammel’s missionary since 2018.
Croatia | Željka Vuk
Work in Croatia includes:
Croatian Christian Broadcasting (CCB) broadcasts 15-minute Christian TV programs on multiple days and times throughout the week and reaches more than 90% of Croatia’s TV audience.
A free Smartphone app has the exclusive rights to e-publish the Easy-to-Read Croatian New Testament.
"The Family Magazine” is published free of charge every three months in both print and digital form.
Week-long spring and summer “Church Camps” with daily prayer sessions, spiritual seminars, small group studies, and activities for children. Attendees from all denominations as well as non-church friends are welcome.
Serbia | Draško Denović
Draško’s work includes
One of the primary distributors of EEM Bibles and Bible-based materials in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Serbia.
Work on translations and layout and on a large-print Serbian Bible, which they have not had since 1973.
TV appearances and sermons at other church denominations to talk about things like the Christian opinion against same-sex marriage, what the New Testament church is like, and the place of the Christian church in modern society.
Coordination of annual summer camps that serve participants from other denominations, and sometimes from other countries, that often result in baptisms.
Costa Rica | Carlos & Roxana Ulate
Bammel began supporting Carlos and Roxana in September of 2008. Their goal is to plant and develop local churches that are self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating and have locally supported preacher, elders, deacons, and Bible teachers.
Their primary location is the church in Heredia where attendance is between 110 and 120. There are several men who seem to be candidates for eldership, and at least ten who could become deacons. The church owns its own facility.
Their women’s ministry meets every Thursday morning. The Youth Group meets every Saturday afternoon and attracts up to 30 members.
El Salvador | Marco & Miriam Florez
Bammel's support of the work in El Salvador began in Santa Ana. As the church there grew and matured, Marco and Miriam moved on to establish a church in Atiquizaya. Ongoing work there includes:
Preacher training and youth classes such as “21 Laws to be a Good Leader”
Area-wide leadership seminars
Door-to-door evangelism in Atiquizaya
Marriage seminars and counseling
Distribution of food and services to families living in poverty
The next step in their vision is to plant and develop many churches in the area.
Guatemala | Byron & Lorena Huertas
Marco Tulio & Heidy Vivar
The church in La Union, Zacapa began in May of 2005 with three people at the initial worship. The church has grown significantly and in 2018, Bammel began partial support for Marco in addition to full support for Byron.
In this rural area where average family income is about $10 a day and most people walk wherever they go, a centrally-located self-supporting church is not a realistic goal. Church growth is ongoing, however, as house churches have been established in a number of small villages in the surrounding area.
Kenya | Larry & Hollye Conway
Larry and Hollye Conway have been in Kenya since August of 1986. They minister to street kids, assist with support and skills training for teen-age mothers, encourage and mentor brothers and sisters in Kenya, Tanzania, and beyond, in churches they have planted and worked with over their 30 years in Africa.
Eastern European Mission (EEM)
EEM began more than 49 years ago finding ways to smuggle Bibles past the Iron Curtain.
They print/distribute Bibles and Bible-based materials in 30+ nations and 20+ languages through a vast network of partner individuals, churches, and organizations to individuals, families, youth camps, refugees, mission churches, public schools and universities, public libraries, prisons, orphanages, hospitals, and anywhere else Bibles are needed.
Always free of charge.
Mexico | Elmer & Ingrid Huertas
In October of 2011, Elmer Huertas and three other Baxter students celebrated the inaugural service of the Church of Christ in Alborada, a Mexico City suburb in a large neighborhood where no other church of any kind existed.
They acquired land for a building and on May 5, 2019, met on site under a tent. With the location change, the church became Iglesia de Cristo en Tultepec.
The Alborada/Tultepec team also provided leadership at the church in Ecatepec, and began working there full time in 2021.
The Ecatepec church purchased a building with the vision of using the building for a variety of educational, social, and other activities, in addition to worship services and Bible classes, as outreach to communities in the area.
The team is sponsored by Great Cities Missions. Bammel provides partial support for Elmer and his family.
Baxter Institute
Baxter Institute is a non-profit Christian education institution with a four-year, university-level, academic program to prepare students to be preachers, teachers, missionaries, and leaders among Churches of Christ throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
Baxter students have been deployed to Cuba and every country in North, South, and Central South America except Canada and Uruguay.
Baxter Clinic serves students, staff, campus visitors, and neighbors from poor communities around Baxter. It provides medical, dental, and pharmaceutical services to more than 10,000 patients each year.
The Children’s Nutrition Program works with mothers of malnourished children to provide meals, cooking lessons, life skills, education, and encouragement.
The Hope to Walk Clinic located on the Baxter campus provides custom prosthetic legs to amputees. In seven years, 600+ legs have been provided, always free of charge.