Missions
SDCF is committed to championing the cause of bringing the whole Gospel to the whole world.
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
ROMANS 10:14-15 (NIV)
To learn more about our SDCF Commissioned Missionaries and partner with them in their work, please visit forlovespurpose.org.
Missionaries
EP & LULU BRION
Ep and Lulu Brion have been serving as missionaries to the Philippines since 2010 after pastoring San Diego Christian Fellowship for almost 8 years.
During their first term as missionaries (2010-2016), they were based in Cebu City in central Philippines and established a pastor care ministry for the Baptist Conference of the Philippines/Converge Philippines. They also produced and field tested a discipleship and leadership program which BCP adopted as their national curriculum.
They were based in Metro-Manila during their second term (2017-2021). Ep and Lulu introduced the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality discipleship program to several catalyst churches. They also coached churches and mentored pastors in clarifying their vision in ministry and creating a 'spiritual journey' that would provide a pathway for spiritual vitality and fruitfulness. The Covid 19 pandemic provided another way of helping churches and pastors through online sessions and studies.
Now on their third term, the Brions continue to do Church Strengthening ministries through in person and online coaching and discipling. Ep is coaching an established cosmopolitan church in the area of discipleship, field-testing several discipleship programs like Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Good and Beautiful God, and Zume. He's also coaching another city church in the area of church growth. Starting on January 2023, Ep provides intensive equipping on church planting and church growth to 20 small churches in Luzon. Lulu continues to do her online discipleship with women in different time zones and attends online an SDCF life group. She also helps a big city church facilitate GriefShare sessions and attends the women's programs and activities in that church.
Ep and Lulu can be reached at forlovespurposebrion@gmail.com.
JIM & LISA BLACK
Jim's life verse is Philippians 3:10 "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrections and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."
Jim was born in 1959 to Jim Sr. and Doreen Black while Jim Sr. was still in the US Air Force. Jim came to know and follow Jesus at age 17 and dedicated his life to serve in cross
cultural missions while in Bible college at age 20.
Lisa came to know and follow Jesus at age 7, shortly after her parents, Merritt and Beatrice Rockwell committed their lives to Christ. Shortly after Lisa came to know and follow Jesus, she heard a missionary nurse from Africa talk about her work in Africa and Lisa knew right away that was her calling in life too.
Jim met Lisa in high school. The two dated for a year after high school but then postponed their dating relationship till after they both finished college. Jim went to Prairie Bible College and Lisa went to Biola University to study nursing.
Jim and Lisa renewed their relationship after college and married in 1983. They now have four adult children and 13 grandchildren.
Jim went to North American Baptist Seminary to complete a Master of Divinity degree, graduating from seminary in 1989.
Shortly after graduating from seminary, Jim and Lisa and their three small children left the USA for Nigeria to serve as Field Director with the North American Baptist Conference mission board and Director of Evangelism, working hand in hand with the Mambilla Baptist Convention, Nigeria. While they were in Nigeria the Lord blessed them with a fourth child.
Jim served for 11 years as a pastor in the USA and he served as Director of Mission for the North American Baptist Conference for four years.
Since 2017 Jim has served as International Leader: Africa with Converge. Jim leads four team leaders in Africa and helps to give leadership to Converge International Missions.
Jim and Lisa presently live in Rockford, Illinois, USA.
Ruthie Burton’s long-standing mission has been “Proclaiming Jesus Christ to the Brazilian children, young people and to the hearing impaired (Deaf) of Brazil.”
Ruthie was brought up on the mission field, first in Uruguay and secondly in the Amazon region of Brazil. Her college years were spent here in San Diego and she studied Bible School in Oregon. She has given her life to minister not only in Brazil but also wherever God leads her. Ruthie was a long time missionary of Otay Baptist Church and continues to be supported under SDCF, for which she is very grateful.
Her mission centered on first ministering to the Hearing Impaired (Deaf) for 23 years and now she primarily ministers to the children of Brazil (up to now 38 years). Ruthie is also involved in training volunteers to become effective ministers to the younger generation. (This past week she taught in a training seminar along with Cláudia, her ministry co-worker to 97 volunteers and this coming weekend in another seminar to 85 volunteers).
Aside from her regular activities in Brazil, Ruthie loves to be a part of missionary trips along with other Brazilian volunteers.
She and teams of volunteers have made three trips to Beira, Mozambique to minister to children, young people, and adults alike. She also does missionary trips along with volunteers to villages, towns, and cities within Brazil's border.
How you can partner with Ruthie in prayer:
“Good and faithful servants” is a fitting description of Pastor Cirilo and Dory Doguiles. “Pastor Cir,” as he is lovingly called, was the founding pastor of Fil-Am Christian Fellowship, now known as SDCF. In 2002, Pastor Cir and Dory left sunny San Diego to work for the Converge Worldwide headquarters in Chicago. After years of working at the denominational level in the areas of church planting, Filipino ministries, and Intercultural ministries, Pastor Cir and Dory decided to solidify the commitment they made 28 years ago to return home to minister in the Philippines. On January 29, 2014, they left for the Philippines to embark on this new ministry.
As Converge missionaries, they will be part of the Converge Worldwide Philippine field, with Pastor Cir working as the Executive coach of Converge Philippines national leaders. His job is to help advance the mission of multiplying transformational churches through Starting and Strengthening (S2) churches.
Their five-year vision and goals include:
After serving in the Philippines for eight years, Pastor Cir's missionary engagement expanded last year (2021) by joining the Converge Asia Impact Team (AIT). The team was formed to accelerate the church planting and discipleship movements in the least-reached of Asia by resourcing and training national leaders. He continues to be engaged in the Philippines by teaching at the Cebu Graduate School of Theology and conducts discipleship, leadership, and pastoral training for the Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches.
Please continue to keep them in your prayers:
We were both born into Somali Muslim families. God has graciously saved us in Jesus Christ and called us to share the gospel of salvation with the Somali people in Somalia and the diaspora. Somalis are one of the least-reached population groups in the world, and Somalia is among the top three countries of Christian persecution.
Our ministry – New Life Media, based in Ethiopia, is the most significant Somali outreach containing three websites with extensive Christian resources in the Somali language, active social media pages with more than 200,000k followers, satellite television broadcast, and several fellowships.
Our Roles in God's Mission:
Prayer Request:
Hank & Olga*
HORN OF AFRICA
Hank and Olga have served a large Muslim ethnic group from the Horn of Africa since 1981. Initially they worked in that group’s homeland using health and agricultural community development as their platform for Gospel witness. Later they had to moved to a neighboring land due to insecurity and became involved in media ministry and discipleship. They moved to the USA in 2004 to a city with a very large refugee population from the same nation they were serving. Olga worked as a social worker with an emphasis on recruiting and training church volunteers to witness to their new neighbors. She retired in 2016 but continues involvement with about 10 resettled families with whom she had developed strong relationships. Hank moved his media focus from radio to website and social media outreach. He directs a global outreach with the New Life Media (NLM) team located in North America, Europe and East Africa. This digital media ministry reaches both the heartland in the Horn of Africa and the sizable Diaspora population across the globe.
The vision of NLM is:
While the NLM team works in digital communications, their hope for changed lives rests neither on technology nor communications techniques, rather their trust is in God's sovereign and gracious use of the proclamation of His Word [Isaiah 55:10-15]. They try to network with Christians around the world in order to link up with digital contacts
If you would like to become involved in prayer support, please contact the Missions Committee.
Myrna has been a full-time missionary with Cru-Campus Crusade for Christ International for 39 years now. She has served in many capacity roles in different countries. She was a trainer at the Cru - Great Commission Training Center that emphasizes on evangelism and discipleship, a discipler reaching out to men and women in the workplace, and a life-coach who comes along with student from the Middle East. She also served as a Team Leader with the Professional Ministry in the Philippines.
She was called to serve in many countries in South East Asia; San Diego, CA; Middle East, and currently back in the U.S. and based at the Cru-Headquarters, although her focus of ministry is still in the Middle East and five countries in South East Asia.
Her ministry is called The Significance Project:
Prayer Requests:
V & M were having a fruitful ministry in the Philippines when God called them to serve in Indonesia. They were in Indonesia for 9 years ministering among Muslim and Buddhist university students. A church was birthed through this ministry. Upon the clear leading of the Lord, they left Indonesia and served in Taiwan for almost 9 years. V became the ministry director of their mission organization. The Lord also used them to start a campus ministry in a university. Praise God that this ministry continues to thrive under the leadership of another couple who took over when God led V and M to return to Indonesia in 2020.
V & M's ministry is two-fold:
Prayer Requests:
Dan is serving with Global Recordings Network Thailand assisting the Thai staff on an ongoing basis by designing evangelistic materials, which includes the website and smartphone app. He also helps the office run smoothly which enables the office to get the Gospel out to more people in Chiang Mai and throughout Thailand. God has given Dan a vision of giving every person in Thailand the opportunity to say, “Yes” to Jesus. In 2010, God directed Dan and Na to join GRN to help see this vision become a reality. Na is a gifted teacher, linguist, and Bible curriculum writer who thrives when sharing the Word with children and training and equipping believers. Together they have two sons, Daniel (23) and Tytus (10).
FLINDY LEONES
CAMBODIA
Flindy Leones studied in Baptist Theological College in Cebu, Philippines with a degree in Religious Education. She spent a year in Cambodia as a missionary intern where she taught English as a tool to bring Khmer locals to Christ through small groups and friendships, and started English classes for kids in her local pastor's village.
After graduating college in 2013, Flindy knew God was calling her to return to Cambodia. However, before her return 9 years later, she worked with several Christian organizations to prepare her. She taught preschool kids at a private Christian school in Cebu, became a program leader for a Christian NGO where they partnered with local churches, communities, and leaders to teach values, health, and livelihood skills, and worked with a local church in Tacloban City, Philippines as an administrator before deciding to pursue a degree in social work.
In 2019, Flindy earned her degree and passed the licensure exam shortly after. She was supposed to return to Cambodia in 2020 but because of Covid pandemic, she was stuck in the Philippines. Bethlehem Star of Peace, her mission-sending agency, was able to send her to Cambodia in 2021 after a heinous process of securing all documents that was necessary to enter Cambodia by God's grace.
She is now in Battambang, Cambodia partnering with a local organization that rescues, empowers, and helps trafficked and abused girls, working also with its local preschool and empowering its staff while teaching and encouraging them with God's Word.
*Alternate or incomplete names have been used to protect missionaries' identities.
