Morning Star Missions
February 2024
Volume 1, Issue 1
Hello church family,
Hopefully by now you’ve heard about our new Local partners and Global Partners as well as the mission team that just returned home!
Here, in our first regular update for Morning Star Missions, we focus on our GLOBAL PARTNERS. These are people who serve around the world in various ways. It is important to share with you first WHY we are working with these Global Partners. Without a doubt they are all following Jesus and serving him in wonderful ways as they make a Kingdom impact around the world. In
addition they each have unique giftings and passions that serve the body of Christ well.
You can learn more about each of these people by searching our Global Partners here on the website, or if they are able to share, the direct link to their contact info.
In Alphabetical Order:
Dave Irby, Surge International (partner since 2004) – Dave is our Global Partner who inspires and mobilizes Christian soccer players and coaches to share Christ’s love – even to the ends of the earth. He uses soccer to creatively partner with churches, church planters, Missionaries, Christian Schools, and secular organizations. I’ve known Dave for 20 years, and I am in awe of how humble he is. He truly has a wonderful ability to GO where the Lord leads him! Dave inspires people to seek Jesus through the common language of soccer and it is one that catches peoples attention. Learn more about Dave and his ministry below.
Dave says: “We are a 501c3 non-profit organization that exists, not just to play soccer and entertain, but to impact and serve others globally. Sport has the power to inspire and empower young people to believe in themselves. Sport also has the power to unite countries and cultures that may not have anything in common other than their love of the game of soccer.”
Learn more at: https://www.surgesoccer.org
Christian & Scott (new Global Partners in 2024) – Both Christian and Scott have been very instrumental in helping get Morning Star Missions launched over these last could years and to have a vision for the people of the Muslim world who do not have access to the Gospel. As we started having casual conversations about God’s work in the world and His love for people it became clear that God was bringing us together to take more bold steps in Missions. I am constantly inspired and encouraged by how these two and their wives are willing to step into places that most of us would be unwilling to go.
Scott & Christian serve with love and respect, inviting all Muslim peoples to follow Jesus. Did you know there are nearly 1.7 billion Muslims with no access to the Gospel, and only 3% of missionaries venture to these regions to share Jesus? Their goal is to inspire transformational movements to Christ within the least-reached Muslim people groups by sending teams to catalyze change, because even the most faraway places need Jesus.
Christian and Scott are part of our Missions Board and helped us start our current Missions ministry in 2021 as we dreamed together of what God could do as we faithfully followed Him. After attending Morning Star during their college years at Corban and the first couple years after school, they now live in Idaho with their wives as they prepare to go to the Muslim world.
For more information email Jared@mstar.church to set up a time to share with you in person about what God is doing in their ministry.
Jeff & Sarah (partner since 2017) – They are Global Partners who serve in the Caucasus region of the world. There are many refugees in their country who need help. It is really amazing to see how the experience Jeff & Sarah have had for the last couple decades in caring for refugees and loving people has now opened doors for them to care for refugees in ways that others are not doing.
Jeff & Sarah have a process to help care for these refugees by teaching them how to read & write. Learning how to read and write in their country gives them confidence, ability to adapt to their new culture, and of course it is a skill that will help them get a job so they can provide for themselves and their families. There are not many others doing this kind of ministry in this region of the world, so they are pioneering this process in many ways.
Pastor Jared and our Missions Board are happy to share in person many more details on how God is working in their ministry and how you might be able to assist them if you are interested. Please pray and them reach out to us about how you can help them as a Rope Team.
Jeremy & Mindy Tice, with World Partners (partners since 2001) – Jeremy and Mindy have a great heart to go where the Lord leads. They have been all over the world and ministered in different ways for different seasons. We love their desire to see the next generation of Missionaries raised up and sent out. God wants to involve people of all ages in His mission for His people and the Tice family sees this.
With two decades of experience in the Mission fields of Africa, and Europe, now we have with the opportunity to be Missionaries in residence at Bethel University. We are excited to be rolling out some new programs that will launch the next generation of missional disciple makers into the harvest field. As many missionaries are aging, training up the next generation to continue the great work of sharing the Gospel and Discipleship among God’s people is critically important. As we develop this program to train the next generation of workers, we would love to have your prayers and partnership along the way.
Learn more by subscribing to their newsletter at: https://mailchi.mp/a483fd13c23c/winter-2024-prayer-update?e=%5bUNIQID
Max & Tanya Garkavenko (partners since 2005) – From Israel, Max and Tanya are being the light of Jesus in the land of His birth as He took on humanity. Their desire to connect the rich traditions, history, and excavations of the past to the reality of Jesus love in the present is one of the many reasons we love supporting Max & Tanya.
From Max & Tanya: Shalom, dear Friends! We are Max and Tanya Garkavenko. We believe in YESHUA = Jesus with all our hearts and our minds and with the. help of God we evangelize to Jews in Israel. We believe in God’s plan for our Nation and the Land. We conduct several educational programs online to teach people in Hebrew and Russian languages and sometimes in English. We are the lead pastors in the congregation and we do a lot of family counseling.
We moved to Israel in 1997, directly to Bat Yam city. We are leading the Messianic
congregation here, for15 years. Almost for 14 years the big team of volunteers from 17 congregations were preaching the Gospel through the tour bus outreaches. More than 600 buses were launched during that time. More than 30,000 Russian speaking Israelis heard the Gospel through that project.
Both of us want to thank you for standing with us. With huge blessings from Israel. The Light to the World congregation lead pastors Max and Tanya! If you ever had any desire to support a ministry in Israel, we can gladly suggest you to join our team and continue to plow the soil of the hearts of Israelis in order to advance the Kingdom!
Learn more by getting our newsletter at: prayforgarks@gmail.com
Mike Silva, with Mike Silva International (partner since 2003) – As an Evangelist, Mike Silva fulfills a critical role of clearly sharing the Gospel to people in need. He does this so effectively and faithfully. It is beautiful to see how Mike cares for the whole person, including their physical needs as well as their spiritual needs. We are beyond thankful to be partnering with this organization as they live out what they preach on a daily basis!
From Mike: Dear Morning Star, My bride, Crystal, and I have been married for over 45 years and we have been blessed with four adult daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren— all of whom live near us in Central Oregon.
As missionary evangelists, our calling is not to a certain place, but to linguistic groups. We practice and proclaim the life-changing message of the Lord Jesus Christ in English, Portuguese, and Spanish speaking nations of the world. Why these three languages? Besides the fact that I am an English speaker, and my ethnicity is Portuguese and Spanish; we have found that when we intentionally go after these people groups… we are reaching three of the top six most
spoken languages of the world!
Regardless of where we are serving, or what language we are serving in, we are called to:
- Proclaim the Gospel/Rescue People- “Be merciful to those who doubt. Snatch others from the fire and save them…” (Jude 22-23)
- Invest in the local Church- “It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, and teachers…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built-up.” (Eph. 4:11-12)
- Cultivate Disciples- “They preached the Good News in that city and won a large number of disciples…strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” (Acts 14:21-22)
Our global, passionate pursuit to reach the ‘least and lost,’ is made possible because of faithful partners like YOU, our Morning Star Church Family. You have been strengthening our ministry arm for over two decades! For that, we are forever grateful. THANK YOU!
Yours, to make HIM known,
Mike & Crystal Silva
Learn more at: https://www.mikesilva.org
Petr Samoylich, with YWAM (partner since 1997) –
Petr has been a partner with us for longer than any other partner. He is a faithful servant in Riga, Latvia. We are blessed by his creativity in sharing the Good News with school teachers at conferences and with kids at camps. He exemplifies the life of a faithful follower of Jesus.
From Petr: We are the Samoylich family, Pastor Petr and my wife Emma. We came to Latvia in July of 1997, as missionaries from the Morning Star Community Church.
One of our goals is to work with public schools – training public school teachers, by holding Public School Teachers Conferences three times a year, and providing Bibles for each school in Latvia. Through 26 years, we have printed more than 100,000 Latvian and Russian full Bibles and almost 200,000 Children Bibles in Latvian, Russian and Ukrainian. We have trained more than 10,000 teachers through our Teachers Conferences over these years.
Another our goal as missionaries is to plant new churches. We have planted three new churches and built a new church building. The present church where I am pastoring is Vecmilgravis New Evangelical Church, which I started 9 years ago, and through these years, we have developed a wide children ministry, and an average of 250 children every summer participated in our VBS’s and camps. We continue working with these children throughout the year, inviting them to Sunday school and organizing Christmas events for them and their parents and grandparents.
Another special ministry is working with orphans. Every summer through all these years, we have sponsored 60 orphans coming and staying at our summer camps where they hear the Word of God and receive a lot of love. Each Christmas, we provide Christmas gifts for three orphanages.
We praise God for Morning Star family for faithfully supporting us at all of our projects for 26 years. For 26 years, now, we have had no sabbatical. God has given us His grace and we have stayed full time here in Latvia. Thank you for your faithfulness!
Reid Saunders, with Reid Saunders Association (partner since 2006) –
Reid is like UPS…he accomplishes more by 10am than most of us do in an entire day. The thing we love about Reid is he doesn’t do it for the glory, or fame, or ego. Reid genuinely does it “All for Jesus” as he says regularly. We love having Reid as an Evangelist on our team of Global Partners!
There are tens of thousands of churches across the world that have been united and trained in evangelism under Reid’s leadership. His trademark message, “all for Jesus!” is heard wherever Reid goes. He attended Western Baptist (now Corban University) for his undergrad, and earned his doctorate in Global Evangelism from Multnomah University.
In 2002, Reid founded the Reid Saunders Association, which has proclaimed the Gospel across the globe. In the last 22 years he and his team have delivered the message of salvation to over 4 million people in 95 countries through face-to-face presentation of the Gospel. Over 500,000 have made decisions to follow Christ and are being discipled through local churches.
RSA’s evangelism festivals focus on areas of the world there less than 10% of the population call themselves Christians. They form partnerships with local churches for ongoing discipleship after the festival ends.
Learn more at: https://reidsaunders.org
Leading People To Pursue A Jesus-First Life,
Pastor Jared & Morning Star Missions Board