Troy was not raised in a Christian home, but he learned about God through Vacation Bible School and the influence of his grandmother. As a high school student in Florida, Troy started attending New Smyrna Beach Christian Church at the invitation of his high school girlfriend (now wife!) Valerie. After three weeks, Troy was immersed into Christ.

Calvin Warden was the minister of the church and encouraged Troy’s growth in the faith. In addition to providing opportunities to lead, Calvin encouraged Troy to attend the Florida campus. But Christian college was not a part of Troy’s plans.

After graduating high school, Troy joined the family construction business, building houses in central Florida. When the housing market crumbled in 1988, Troy and Valerie lost everything but their house. They tried several other jobs to meet family needs, but it was the Navy that proved to be the family’s door to a more secure future. Troy spent 20 years serving in the Navy, and through his service he earned a pension and the G.I. Bill that would pay for a college education.

After growing in the faith, Troy became more interested in theological education. He took a couple of extension courses Florida Christian College offered at Christ’s Church at Mandarin in Jacksonville. Valerie encouraged Troy to reconsider attending Florida Christian, pointing out that Florida’s online program was designed for working adults. The LEAD program offered credit for vocational experience, and Troy was able to complete his undergraduate degree from the Florida campus in just two years. He worked for a brief time in church planting and assisted Greg Marksberry in planting Thrive Church in Lake Nona, Florida.

During his time helping with the church plant, representatives from É«É«Ñо¿Ëù reached out to Troy about the Strategic Ministry graduate degree being offered through Real Life Christian Church in Orlando. It was a one-year, high-intensity program that included a trip to Israel.

The combined value of this ministry training and hands-on experience prepared Troy to lead a church himself, and today Troy serves as the lead pastor at First Christian Church in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Troy went to the church, his first ministry, in 2020 amid the Covid pandemic and a great deal of uncertainty. But the church is healthy and growing. On his first Sunday, only 20 people showed up for services. Today more than 80 worship together each week.

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Although I was a few years older than the traditional students, I enjoyed interacting with them and appreciated their hearts and their humility to learn. I was also surprised at how many nontraditional students were here to prepare for ministry and embark on new seasons in their lives. It was a great experience.

After graduation, I immediately began my M.A. in New Testament at É«É«Ñо¿Ëù and also worked for the University in admissions before transitioning to full-time ministry in 2014. I’m currently pastoring at Grays Wood Church in Port Matilda, Pennsylvania, and graduated with my M.A. in 2018.

Daniel Overdorf played a role in God bringing me to central Pennsylvania, and he has also been a resource for me in the years since as I’ve navigated church leadership issues. I can’t  say enough about the relational value of the É«É«Ñо¿Ëù community and the way professors and staff invest in students.

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I said no, and then that turned into a yes. I ended up not only interning there for a summer, but also doing a second-year residency during my senior year and then joining the staff after graduation. I began part time, working with the high school girls’ ministry, and I now serve as associate pastor of high school ministry.

I always knew I wanted to be a youth minister. My family situation was difficult when I was growing up, and having life group leaders and pastors who showed Jesus to me changed my life. God showed me he can redeem the hard things I’ve been through and allow me to make the same difference for others.

The foundational Bible classes at É«É«Ñо¿Ëù have been so helpful in equipping me for ministry. I understand the metanarrative of Scripture, the story God is telling all the way through. I’m also grateful for the preaching classes I had to take; I hated public speaking, but Dr. Overdorf’s encouragement was a game-changer. When you’re a woman going into ministry, it feels like you have to be excellent at everything, so having professors who said, “You can do this and you’re qualified” was a big deal.

Ministry is hard, but it’s also the greatest. I’m grateful for what I learned at É«É«Ñо¿Ëù and for the people who continue to encourage me.

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I showed up for soccer conditioning a few weeks before my freshman year, never having been in Knoxville before. I think it was 100% humidity. But I had a great experience. People supported me and encouraged me, and professors invested in me in and out of the classroom.

While a student at É«É«Ñо¿Ëù, I did an internship at Compass Christian Church in Colleyville, Texas, and through that experience I met leaders who then invited me to be the student pastor at Manchester Christian Church in Manchester, New Hampshire. I graduated in May 2011, and a week later I flew east.

Now I am planting Beacon Church in Derry, New Hampshire. We started an online worship service in March and will launch with in-person services this fall. We have a core team of more than 100 people, and we’re excited to see what God will do through us working together.

I am so grateful for the people I met at É«É«Ñо¿Ëù. I still stay in touch with David Legg and some of my professors, and it’s through the network of churches and alumni at É«É«Ñо¿Ëù that I am where I am today. It’s not just a job for many people who serve at JU; it’s a ministry.

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“I wanted to do, through journalism, what we now call public theology,” she says. “Since women weren’t allowed to be preachers, writing was to be my platform. I realized in my first year at IU that I couldn’t hold my own in defending my faith to the political science majors. I hadn’t had enough exposure to people with different beliefs. I decided to attend É«É«Ñо¿Ëù for just one year, and ended up making wonderful friends while also realizing the need for more study. I completed my degree in missions in 1984.”

Soon after graduation, Jill moved to Zimbabwe to teach in high schools. She planned to stay for three years. She actually stayed for thirteen.

“The initial experience was like a three-year internship,” she says. “The wonderful headmaster guided me well. After that, I worked with more than 30 churches teaching, discipling, and leading youth Bible studies and retreats in and around Mashoko Christian Mission and at Zimbabwe Christian College in Harare.”

Jill lived in Zimbabwe during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s as well as the devastating famines that hit Africa during that time.

“I never learned how to coordinate famine relief at É«É«Ñо¿Ëù!” she says. “But through the hospital, a network of schools, and even the help of a local radio personality, we managed to feed 16,000 children for six months.”

Jill completed a graduate degree at Cincinnati Christian University in 1995 and attempted to return to her home in Zimbabwe, but the country had stopped approving work permits for internationals.

“I’d never gotten residency, but I had planned to spend the rest of my life there,” she says. “When I wasn’t allowed to return, it was like my heart had been ripped out of me.”

In 1999, Jill moved to Auckland, New Zealand, to support church planting and discipleship with Jeff and Robin Vines, friends from É«É«Ñо¿Ëù and her time in Africa. In an environment where 97% of the population had no previous connection to church, her assignment was discipleship.

“Raising support to serve in New Zealand was more difficult, because it was about poverty of the soul instead of poverty of the pantry,” she says. “Some of our work in Zimbabwe had immediate results and could be communicated with a picture, but spiritual formation takes longer and can’t be photographed.”

Jill is now in her twenty-second year as a “Kiwi,” continuing to disciple and to do public theology.

“My ministry is three-pronged: church, campus, and community,” she says. “I work with Shore Community Church in Auckland and mentor church planting teams. I am a chaplain at Massey University and Laidlaw College. I volunteer with refugee young people. Every person I meet reminds me how creative God is and how he expresses himself through our differences. Every new person I disciple reminds me just how good the good news is, and it excites me all over again.”

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Simba graduated from É«É«Ñо¿Ëù in 2018 with a degree in cross-cultural media communication and today serves as a video production coordinator at Brookside Community Church/Brookside Community Development Corporation in Indianapolis. His wife, Amanda, who graduated from É«É«Ñо¿Ëù with a double major in intercultural studies and English as a Second Language education, works as an ESL teacher at Crispus Attucks High School in the Indianapolis public schools.

“We believe mission work starts by serving our local community,” Simberashe says. “Brookside’s mission is creating opportunities for renewal and transformation for people in the neighborhood. Brookside carries out this mission by helping individuals reenter society from incarceration, reversing the effects of trauma through a play-based program for kids, and providing stable housing for those experiencing generational poverty. In my role, I love sharing the stories of how God has transformed people’s lives. By sharing our stories of restoration with each other, we can create a unified, diverse community that our city desperately needs.”

The Nyamutoras also believe in living intentionally in their neighborhood, value they gained from their experience in É«É«Ñо¿Ëù’s Urban Plunge program. They live in an apartment complex where many refugees have been placed by the local refugee resettlement agency. Along with their close friends, they have enjoyed serving this community by coordinating a children’s VBS and family movie nights.

“We hope to someday serve overseas,” Amanda says. “But for now, we are blessed to serve the city of Indianapolis.”

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“I came to college to play volleyball and study business,” she says. “My sister majored in business, and although I was interested in intercultural studies, I chose to follow her path for the first two years of college.”

During the pandemic, Kayla says she had time to reconsider her goals and how God was working in her life.

“I was in a discipleship group with Dr. Howells Douglas, and we prayed for missionaries and mission organizations,” she says. “The next step was talking to missionaries, considering a mission trip, and finding answers to my questions about how you raise money and what it’s like to live in another country.”

Kayla switched her major and spent this past summer completing an internship in Jordan.

“I had no expectations about the experience because it all happened so quickly,” she says. “I was supposed to do the internship in Japan and couldn’t go because of COVID. At the last minute I was able to go to Jordan, and there God showed me the beauty of its culture and its people. I especially appreciated the spirit of hospitality and the way the people take time for each other. That is something I brought back with me.”

Kayla graduates in May and hopes to return to Jordan next summer. She is considering a master’s degree in counseling with the goal of eventually becoming a cross-cultural therapist.

“It’s easier to now to say yes to the unknown,” she says. “I know God is faithful.”

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“Missionaries often say, ‘I was called to the mission field to do ministry, not create newsletters,” she says. “But I love connecting stories from the field with the supporters who need to hear them.”

Bekah knew she wanted to use her communication skills to build these bridges between the senders and the sent, and she was surprised to discover that É«É«Ñо¿Ëù had a degree designed especially for this type of work.

“No other school I looked at offered this,” she says. “At best, you could try to create a customized degree or do a double major. But É«É«Ñо¿Ëù offered the cross-cultural media communication program along with courses in Bible, theology, and other aspects of intercultural studies. I knew this was the place for me.”

Today, Bekah works as a storyteller and photographer for New International in the media department, helping 240 missionary families around the world tell their stories to the state-side churches and individuals supporting them. She completes much of this work from her home in Knoxville, with frequent visits to missionaries and to New International’s home office in Florida.

“I write corporate pieces, edit newsletters, and take photos as opportunities arise,” she says. “Missions isn’t just about going overseas, and it’s an honor to help people connect with missionaries, hear their stories, and pray for their work.”

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Ian, who graduated in 2019 with a degree in intercultural studies, first connected with Casas through an assignment.

“We had to interview a missions agency representative, and I decided to do the interview while I attended the International Conference on Missions,” he says. “Casas was the first exhibit I saw in the exhibit hall, so I asked to interview them. But the more we talked, the more I asked questions for me instead of just completing the assignment. I did an internship with them in Juarez that summer, did a second internship in Acuna the following summer, and applied for a job my senior year.”

Alyssa graduated a year later with a degree in missions and was excited to join the work after their wedding.

“I wanted to empower local churches, and I loved that principle in Casas por Cristo’s philosophy,” she says. “I always wanted to work cross-culturally, and É«É«Ñо¿Ëù prepares students to do that in a helpful way including study of different religions, perspectives, and cultures. We studied how Jesus connected with people and how that needs to affect our own approach to other cultures.”

“We’re both really passionate about doing more help than harm,” Ian says. “Our coursework focused on serving holistically in practical ways, and it helped us find the right ministry where we could serve.”

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Today, God and family are helping Bradley complete his online bachelor’s degree in ministry leadership. He began the program in 2014, taking one class at a time, and plans to graduate this December.

“He said he wasn’t planning to attend graduation,” says Bonnie Kirtlan, Bradley’s mom. “I said no way–you HAVE to go!”

Bradley will use his education to continue growing in his ministry as a Sunday school teacher, supply preacher, and church leader. He especially enjoyed his classes in Old Testament and theology.

“It’s amazing how we study through the entire Old Testament in 14 weeks,” he says. “I have read some of these stories since I was a kid, but these classes allowed us to dive into the Scriptures in new ways.”

“It will be amazing to see what God does with all of this,” Bonnie says. “Brad has received a very solid education in this program, and I’m impressed  with É«É«Ñо¿Ëù. I hope our story encourages other people to start an online program and consider kingdom work.”

We’ll see you in December, Bradley!

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