Prayer Needs for Mission Partners

6/2026: Please pray for Carlos and Suzanne Tejada who are serving in Cartago, Costa Rica with ReachGlobal. Carlos leads a program which teaches hermeneutics to pastors and church leaders, working closely with indigenous pastors who are planting churches among their own people groups. Many Cabécar pastors have little to no formal theological training, and Carlos believes healthy churches can only grow when leaders are first equipped. In 2025, he trained eight pastors and leaders from different villages, and in 2026, the program will continue with hopes of training four more. Suzanne primarily serves at home with their family while also connecting with local pastors to promote Casa Viva, a Christian foster care agency.

  • In March, they went to Telire to meet with church leaders, be an encouragement, learn about the ministry there, as well as deliver audio Bibles, Bibles, and medicine. This is the most remote region of Costa Rica, and it takes multiples days of walking to reach the community they visited called Betbata. The people there live in extreme poverty, there are no jobs, and the children are malnourished, so bringing these things was a big blessing to the community.
  • They were also in Laguna Seca, in the village where Carlos grew up. There, he led a workshop on biblical hermeneutics. It was wonderful to be with them, many of whom he has known since childhood. They are interested in receiving this workshop every year.
  • Continue to pray for the planting of a church in a Cabecar village. There is opposition from the indigenous government to the gospel. God is opening doors for them, and they are reaching out to leaders in the community. Please continue to pray more people in the community will come to know Christ as Lord.
  • They thank the faithful group of partners who support them through prayer, financial partnership and encouragement.
  • Pray for a good family time over the kids' school break in summer.

6/2026: Please pray for Mike and Ann Wheeler, who continue to serve with Serving in Mission (SIM) on the US Home Based Team while maintaining international ministry from Wascea, MN.

  • Mike recently led a reaccreditation visit to a seminary in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and continues to both work virtually with seminaries and visit them around Bolivia and Colombia as they pursue meeting the standards of accreditation. Please pray for wisdom and clarity as reports are finalized and new accreditation efforts move forward, and for steady progress.
  • Ann supports members of the SIM US Home Based Team through annual reviews and encouragement. This fall, she will serve as interim supervisor for seven home-based-staff teams, in addition to mentoring missionaries as they prepare for ongoing ministry.
  • Ann also teaches English, coaches four missionaries serving around the world, and continues onboarding courses. Please pray for her students to gain confidence in English. They are encouraged by the continued growth of their church’s Latino Ministry—please pray that more people will be drawn to it.

5/2026: Please pray for Wayne and Barbara Brink who continue to serve with Cru and the JESUS film project and are now based in Prescott, AZ. Based on the Gospel of Luke, the "JESUS" film has now been translated into more than 1,600 languages, with new languages being added every month.

  • Please pray God would continue to use the Jesus Film to reach those who have not yet heard the gospel. Ask Him to guide ongoing translation efforts, prepare hearts to receive the message, and strengthen our two mission partners who serve in support roles with this ministry. 
  • Please pray God would help us prioritize what is best amid many good opportunities and may He keep us healthy so we can serve and minister well.

5/2026: Please pray for Gerry Buchholz who continues to serve with Cru and the JESUS film project:

  • Pray God will lead me as I help the “More Than Welcome” Christian, immigrant ministry here in Austin with their English classes. Many of the students are Muslim women. Since this new ministry uses the Bible to teach English as part of their sessions, pray they will be open to showing our films in the heart languages.  
  • Praise God the director of the ESL classes told me 2 Iranian women prayed to receive Christ at the showing of “The Story of Jesus For Children”. Of our 3 main films, this one is the most popular. I connected with the Iranian pastor and one of the new believers is attending his church. I’m so excited about this and plan to attend his church soon and meet this new believer.
  • Praise God He continues to heal my new hips. I’m so thankful to have no physical hindrances in serving the Lord.

3/2026: Please pray for Francesco and Manuela, missionaries with Mesa Global and serving at the Italian Evangelical Bible Institute (IEBI) in Rome. As a missional scholar for the Theological Education Initiative (a branch of the UWM), Francesco is involved in the ministry of theological education, both residentially and in the decentralized schools around Italy. Together with Manuela, they also serve as mentors, providing counseling and hospitality to students living away from home. Their passion and prayer are for Italian believers to recover the importance of a sound and holistic biblical formation for the life and witness of the church in Italy. IBEI (Rome) is intentionally and concretely invested in this regard. Praise & prayer requests include:

  • Praise God, last Sunday we met for the first time as Church of the Castles, which takes its name from the area in which we live. We are happy to be part of this new project in collaboration with our local Church. God willing we’ll be involved as a family together with several others for this church planting project.
  • Please pray for the people we are inviting along with other events planned for the coming months.
  • Francesco is very busy with the Bible college (as Associate Dean this year, he has many meetings during the week) plus traveling around Italy to teach.
  • As a family, we are experiencing a bit of tiredness. We pray to have some rest during spring break and during our next Mesa Global European conference in late April. Thankfully, our girls are doing very well. We are very happy to see them grow with the Lord, day by day.
  • We are very grateful to the Lord for the CrossLife family, who has given us so much love and support throughout these years.

3/2026: Please pray for Cheque and Hope Garcia. Cheque and Hope spent 9 years working in Monterrey, Mexico with Back2Back Ministries. Back2Back Ministries is an international Christian non-profit organization dedicated to being a voice for orphans. In 2018, they began the process of setting up a Back2Back presence in the Dominican Republic.

  • Praise the Lord, we are an official NGO (non-governmental organization) in the DR! This will open many doors for us to serve and function locally.
  • Praise the Lord, more kids are coming to our monthly kids club! In February we had more kids come to hear about Jesus than ever before. We also have new local volunteers serving alongside us.
  • Pray for more staff to join our DR team. We need a social worker and teacher to join us this year. Pray for God to bring the right people to fill these roles.
  • Pray for grace for Cheque and me as we learn about Dominican labor law, finance, taxes, and reporting. These are all new things that come with becoming a local NGO.
  • On a personal note: We applied for a green card for Cheque a year ago and have yet to hear anything from the US government. Please pray for this process to speed up and for favor with those reviewing his file. We are hoping to take a sabbatical this fall but are unable to do much preparation without knowing about his green card.

2/2026: Please pray for Youssouf and Awa Dembele. The Dembeles are contributing to the work of the church in Bamako, Mali and throughout the world through leadership in the local church, seminary, evangelical associations, and bible translation projects. Youssouf shares the following: 

We are pleased to share an update of our ministry with you. We would like to share only praises and thanksgiving this time. The Lord has been so good to us!

  • We praise and thank the Lord for Christmas 2025. We had more than 600 participants in the Church during the celebration.
  • We celebrated four weddings in our Church from December 2025 to now. It is a joy to see the children we had at Sunday School some twenty years ago are now getting married.
  • We thank the Lord for the weddings we celebrated last year. They are bearing fruit. We have had many new babies in the Church already at the beginning of this year. Praise the Lord!
  • We are very happy about the wedding on January 17th of our son Ariel, who was a little boy, when my family went to Libertyville. Around 1000 people ate that day in my house. It was just fabulous. Our Church and many brothers and sisters helped us with abundant gifts.
  • We are grateful to the Lord for the safe return home of our daughter Eliette after completing her MBA at ISU in Normal. Eliette and her sister Claudia spent memorable time with the Turners and the Petersons. They were happy to see my professor D. A. Carson. Claudia is back at Marshall for her studies.
  • Praises and thanks for the ordination of Pastor Luka Traore on January 24th. He is the young Pastor I am mentoring before passing over the baton to him.
  • I thank the Lord for the opportunity to share the Word of God during the Annual Assembly of the National Association of Evangelicals in Mali in February 2026 on the topic of the faithfulness of God toward his people.
  • I also thank the Lord for the completion of the Parkwa entire Bible in Cameroon this year and the opportunity to work with two new Bible translation projects in Cameroon. I have four Bible translation projects to work with plus the Bamanan Bible project which is close to completion.
  • We are grateful to the Lord for the good health he has granted us and we are grateful to the Lord for the fruitful partnership we have had with CrossLife Church.