This year marks the 54th Annual Rush Creek Bible Church Missions Conference. This is a week long event beginning Saturday, March 5 through Sunday, March 13. This year we have a total of six missionary families joining us for the conference. Below you will find a list of when each speaker will be speaking. Along with each Sunday service and second hour, each speaker will have a chance to speak to our youth through Drop Zone, Awana, or our youth groups. We will have a Men’s Prayer breakfast and a Women’s supper where the missionaries will be invited back as well. Below is the 2016 Missions Conference Schedule.
Saturday, March 5
8:30 AM – Men and Boys Prayer Breakfast
Sunday, March 6
10:00 AM Service
- Parade of Nations Flag Ceremony
- Gabriel & Hannah Wilson
- Chuck Befus
KIDMO 1st – 6th grade Children’s program
- Jerry & Sandi Bomers
11:30 AM Second Hour Classes
- Auditorium – Chuck Befus and Tim Heath
- Fireside Room – Jerry & Sandi Bomers and Gabriel & Hannah Wilson
- The End Zone – Steve & Barb Sherman
- 5:00 PM – “Game Night” and Desert Social
Monday March 7
6:15 PM – Women’s Supper
Tuesday, March 8
3:00 PM – Drop Zone – Gabriel & Hannah Wilson
Wednesday, March 9
5:30 PM – Supper – All missionaries are invited
6:20 PM AWANA
- SPARKS – Jerry & Sandi Bomers
- TNT – Gabriel & Hannah Wilson
Thursday, March 10
3:00 PM – Drop Zone – Chuck Befus
Sunday, March 13
10:00 AM Service
- Jerry & Sandi Bomers
- Steve Sherman
KIDMO 1st – 6th grade Children’s program
- Jason & Amanda Helmholdt
11:30 AM Second Hour Classes
- Worship Center – Jerry & Sandi Bomers and Steve & Barb Sherman
- Fireside Room – Tim Heath and Paul & Mariana Craesmeyer
- The End Zone – Jeremy Clark and Jim Moore
5:00 PM Dinner
- Paul & Mariana Craesmeyer
- Barb Sherman
- Jeremy Clark
Missionary Information
Gabriel was born in Summit, New Jersey, where his family stayed for a couple years until moving to Eastport, a small town on Long Island, New York. He grew up in a Christian home and from a young age heard the gospel and came to know the Lord as his Savior. In his late high school years he was encouraged and challenged to consider full-time ministry by his youth pastor. Gabriel attended Grace Bible College receiving training in the areas of youth ministry, pastoral ministry, and missions. He first felt the burden for overseas mission work when the Holy Spirit used a chapel speaker at GBC to show him the immense need and how he could be used to make a massive difference.
Hannah was born in Tacoma, Washington, but didn’t stay there for long. Being the child of missionaries (Ken and Kathy Kemper), she grew up in Tanzania, a country in East Africa. She loved her experience as a missionary kid and appreciates the vast and varied opportunities she was able to have. She has always had an inner desire and burden to go back to Africa to serve. Hannah graduated from Grace Bible College in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Human Services. She has a passion serving special needs, having done so from her time in college, and is excited about the new opportunities the mission field will bring.
Gabriel and Hannah met at Grace Bible College and were married in 2013. They knew from the beginning that God made them to be involved in foreign missions and He was calling them, but had no idea what the timing looked like. Gabriel and Hannah desired to be available and willing to God’s leading, no matter what direction that looked like. God used a six-week-long mission trip to Eastern and Southern Africa to give clarity and peace to their specific calling during this time of their lives.
Gabriel and Hannah look forward to working alongside fellow missionaries and nationals in Tanzania, East Africa. God has given them a burden and a vision for a city in the northern area of Tanzania, a region where GMI does not yet have a missionary presence. Their plans are to begin church planting efforts, leadership development through discipleship, mentoring, educating, and any other ministries that they find to be effective in advancing God’s work in this area of the world.
To read Gabriel and Hannah’s most recent prayer letter click HERE.
Prior to their arrival in Costa Rica, a small church had been started by Chuck’s dad and mom, Clarence and Elnora Befus. Chuck and Joy met at Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree (1984) and a Bachelor of Christian Education degree (1983) respectively. They had heard of the need for Bible-based churches and schools in Costa Rica and felt a desire and leading of the Lord to work with the Befus family in such ministries. So, after being married five years and living in Grand Rapids, they decided to begin a new life in San Antonio de Belén, Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica, Chuck and Joy were involved in establishing a full church ministry and three schools. Chuck and Joy most recently were involved in a church plant in Alajuela which is a church that continues to grow. Together Chuck and Joy counsel, visit, and teach a marriage course which includes both Christian and non-Christian couples. Joy is involved in the women’s ministries and youth ministries. She is also involved in AWANA and helps out in many other areas of ministry.
When moving to Costa Rica, Chuck and Joy had one child and now they have nine children. They have been blessed beyond measure with these wonderful gifts from God.
To read Chuck and Joy’s most recent newsletter, click HERE.
Visit Chuck and Joy on Facebook
The Lord led Steve and Barb to be involved in leadership training in Africa in 1994. For ten years they worked with Tanzania Grace Bible Institute’s pastoral college in administration and teaching. In 2004 they began developing a Swahili curriculum to be used in lay-leader Bible Schools under TGBI. The year 2006 saw the launching of seven Bible Schools in various regions of Tanzania with two more Bible Schools being added in 2010. Steve continues to work closely with TGBI as an auditor and adviser to the college and Bible schools although they are all being administrated by Tanzanian leadership at this time.
Through the years Barb has homeschooled their two children, taught the women part time at TGBI, worked with a women’s Bible study in a local church, and helped to develop children’s ministries in several churches in the Makuzani region. Barb continues to be involved in two medical ministries—daily treating protein-malnourished children, as well as burn patients. She also continues to conduct a weekly Bible club for children in the Mumba area.
Since 2011 Steve has been working with a group of missionaries to develop curriculum for lay-leader Bible Schools in all of the English-speaking countries of Africa where GMI works. The year 2013 saw the opening of the first of these schools in the country of Malawi. In the spring of 2015 a plan was made with the Grace Church of Zambia to start Bible schools in that country. This curriculum development is an ongoing project.
Presently, the Shermans are working with the leadership of GMI and the Grace Church of Tanzania to plan for Steve and Barb to move to a new region in Tanzania where they will participate in church planting and the development of Christian literature to be published in the language of Swahili.
Their son, Trevor, will graduate from Calvin College in 2016 with an engineering degree. Their daughter, Stefanie, has begun college at Cornerstone University in 2015 where she is pursuing a degree in Digital Media and Teaching English as a Second Language. Both of the Sherman children have expressed a desire to one day serve internationally.
Visit Barb on Facebook
To read Steve and Barb’s most recent newsletter, click HERE.
Tim and Judy Heath met and married while attending Grace Bible College in Michigan. Tim graduated in 1974 with his Bachelor’s Degree in Theology. During Tim’s fourth year at GBC, he and Judy were challenged to go to Europe for ten weeks for an evangelistic ministry. After gradation they worked with Prison Mission Association in Riverside, California, for three years. They have pastored in Washington, North Carolina and Florida.
From the very first Bible study Tim led to his ministry at Cascade Mountain Bible Church in Leavenworth, Washington, Tim endeavored to be a missionary-minded pastor. Tim’s parents, Bill & Eunice Heath, served in the Philippines, and his daughter Jessica serves with her family in Thailand. God has opened doors of ministry for the Heaths in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Curacao, Brazil, Bolivia, England, Philippines, Africa and Thailand to teach seminars which encourage missionaries in their work for the Lord. On June 29, 2010, Tim and Judy were accepted as TCM missionary candidates to Southeast Asia.
Paul was born and raised on the Brazilian mission field and has a strong missionary heritage. He is the son of Word of Grace Mission missionaries, Bernardo & Carol Craesmeyer and grandson of missionaries Warren & Shirley Keiper.
In 2004 Paul graduated from the Berean Bible Institute and joined Word of Grace Mission for missionary work in Brazil. There he married Mariana, a Brazilian believer, and moved to Araraquara, where they spent a decade helping to further establish the church there. They were blessed with a son, Mathias.
This year the door opened for them to join TCM and work in South Africa, helping the Padayhags in the training of leaders and future national church planters.
The Craesmeyers are currently visiting churches in the North Central region of the USA. They plan to return to Brazil in the spring to train a Brazilian pastor to take over the church plant they have started in Sorocaba. They anticipate leaving for South Africa by the end of 2016.
Jerry was born and raised in Muskegon, Michigan, and spent the majority of his childhood years in a single-parent home. His mother worked hard to keep him involved in church ministries almost every night of the week and contributed greatly to his spiritual growth. Jerry felt the calling to full-time ministry as a high school student and went on to pursue youth ministry at Grace Bible College. While at Grace, Jerry felt a passion for foreign missions while participating in several short-term trips. He later changed his major and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services. Jerry has been working in the mental health field ever since and is grateful for the experiences and knowledge he has gained.
Sandi was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, and lived as a missionary kid most of her life in Kenya. Growing up, Sandi appreciated the rich experiences only missionary kids get to have. Her father, Dan Spooner, was a missionary pilot who mostly served other missionaries and her mother, Nancy, worked at a guesthouse. Her parents were a great example of people willing to serve the Lord wherever they were called and significantly contributed to Sandi’s desire to serve. In Sandi’s later teenage years and during college, she began to develop a deeper personal relationship with the Lord and felt a strong desire to follow Him.
Jerry and Sandi met at Grace Bible College and got to know one another during a short-term missions trip to Puerto Rico. They were married in 2009. Even while they were dating, they both felt a calling to missions and knew they would pursue it in God’s time. They have been blessed with two wonderful children, Addison and Clayton. Jerry and Sandi are excited to be in the process of becoming missionaries to Paraguay and can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store as they start this new chapter in their lives.
To see Jerry and Sandi’s most recent newsletter, click HERE.
Missionary Bios Provided By:
