Missions

R and E

For over 35 years our church has supported a missionary couple serving Mexico, Central and South America. For their personal safety and security, they have requested that we not put their names on our website, but we will call them R&E. 

R was initially involved primarily in church planting and discipleship in the dump areas surrounding Tijuana, Mexico. His ministry has expanded over the years to include tribal groups in Central and South America, as well as in various areas of Mexico. Some of these churches have planted other churches and even sent missionaries out on their own! 

Years ago, R developed the Cimientos Firmes (Firm Foundations) Bible teaching and training program. It has formed the base for much of their ministry, each complementing the other: church planting, children’s education and discipleship, national missionary development and training, chronological Bible teaching, and the development of other educational materials. They disciple others in teaching God’s Word and then they, in turn, do the same. 

This work has led to the development of Edifiquemos Sobre Cimientos Firmes (Building on Firm Foundations) chronological Bible teaching and training ministry. Over the years, R&E have held countless training programs in South and Central America and Mexico, seeing thousands of individuals trained who then multiply this teaching by working with their own villages, communities and nations.  

They continue to get encouraging feedback from their teacher training programs. At a recent session, a participant commented: “It makes so much sense and this is very good. We need to focus our ministry on seeing people understand God’s purposes, story and message, not just blindly accepting it with no understanding as has been our tradition for many years.” 

The fruit of seeing leaders and teachers challenged with foundational principles of integrity, responsibility, team work and discipleship in their own ministries continues to multiply in diverse places. God’s Word is not only being clearly taught in urban areas, but also in some large city prisons. In rural communities, God’s Word is touching displaced families caught up in the middle of guerrilla warfare. In a few isolated areas, indigenous tribal leaders are multiplying their work in previously unreached jungle villages. 

In inner city barrios and in small towns, among university students and the illiterate, with established churches and new outreach ministries – lives are being transformed, churches planted and deep roots of serving others are taking hold in Mexico, Central and South America. R&E have combined Bible teaching with community development efforts and service projects to reach closed and remote communities. They consider it a privilege to work with these highly motivated indigenous churches, ministries and teams. 

For contact or other information about these missionaries, see any member of the Missions Board.  

Hidden Treasures of the Sierras is a ministry to the students incarcerated at the Mother Lode Regional Juvenile Detention Facility (MLRJDF) in Sonora. 

According to the MLRJDF website, their mission is “to provide for the safe and supportive detention of youth requiring secure rehabilitative services. It is guided by the belief high risk youth are capable of changing negative patterns of conduct through active participation in evidenced based and best practices programs empirically proven to promote positive change. In furtherance of this mission, youth detained at the facility have the right to participate in all available programs intended to foster physical, moral, emotional and intellectual growth.” 

Because we know that Jesus is really the true solution and the only way to truly promote change in a young person’s heart, Pat Atkins and her team of volunteers with Hidden Treasures of the Sierras visit these youth weekly – bringing a meal, a Bible story, and a listening and caring ear. 

Molly Rose and Mary Bickley from Twain Harte Bible Church are part of Pat’s volunteer team. 

For more information about Hidden Treasures, please see Molly or Mary, or any member of the Missions Board.  

Marian and Hania Pawlas

Marian Pawlas pastors the Palowice Free Christian Church in the small rural village (population 1,500) of Palowice in Southern Poland. 

Marian is a native of this village. Hardships include very high unemployment, low wages and alcoholism and its effects. Poland’s population is approximately 38 million people, of which 94% are Roman Catholic with less than 1% evangelical believers. Outside the Catholic churches, the majority of churches in Poland are small – about 30 people. 

Because believers are often shunned by even their own families, they often feel a sense of isolation, therefore visits by fellow believers are very much appreciated. 

Marian’s heart is for the lost of Poland and his vision is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ not only in his village and surrounding towns, but throughout his nation. The Palowice church desires to be a central launching point for training and other mission projects in Poland. 

As a church, we have partnered with Marian for over twenty years, sending construction teams as well as individuals and teams to help run his annual “American English & Sports Camps” that are one of his primary outreaches to the youth in the area. 

Construction teams helped Marian add on to his small church. It is important for them to have sufficient space because the church is met with great opposition from the catholic church and they are often not allowed to rent space for events because they are considered a “dangerous sect”. In recent years, construction teams helped build a large pavilion, a stage and safe stairway from the church to the soccer field and expanded restroom and dormitory facilities.   

Recently, as Marian looked back over his life and his ministry, one word came to mind: “Grace”. Marian credits God’s grace for all that is happening in his life, the life of his family, and the people around him. Marian started nearly 40 years ago with a small village church of 25 people, that now, by God’s grace, has grown to one of the largest evangelical churches in Poland – over 300 people plus a church plant! The sanctuary that men from THBC built several years ago is already too small – and the solution is another church plant on the horizon. 

When people ask Marian the secret behind his growing, healthy church, he responds that the answer is simple – encourage people to walk with Christ. The church leadership has tried to lead by example, and the young people are now living it out as well. Hallelujah!  In 2025, Twain Harte Bible Church will send a team of 13 to work one week of their “American English & Sports Camp”. Our purpose there will be to help the young students at camp learn “American” English – and we will use Bible-based tools to do that – as well as to simply build relationships with them and share the joy that comes from knowing Christ. We will be joined by the older Polish students who visited us here in Twain Harte last August. 

Marion serves alongside his wife, Hania, and his four children. You may contact Marian at m.pawlas@palowicekwch.pl or contact any member of the Missions Board.  

Vitaly and Igor Petrov

The Trinity Video Seminary (TVSEMINARY) was founded in 1998 as a joint effort between the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), American pastor/missionary Jim McNeill and his wife Lois, and Russian nationals Vitaly and Igor Petrov. 

Taking advantage of new freedoms in Russia, its original purpose was to provide theological education for evangelical pastors throughout Russia, the former Soviet republics, and Russian speakers throughout the world. But today that mission has expanded beyond the founding leader’s wildest dreams! 

Today, the TVSEMINARY mission statement is “To teach the truth of God’s Word, using the best available teachers and methods, to the most people.” Toward that end, TVSEMINARY has consistently brought in top-notch instructors from the United States, Europe and Russia to the television studio-quality classroom in Kursk, Russia. Local students join in to take the course “live” to provide a more realistic setting as well as interaction between students and instructors. In addition, some of the courses have been taught in other locations including Israel and Cyprus. The course is recorded in the instructor’s native language and then dubbed into Russian as well as other languages including Mandarin, Tajik, Tamil, Turkish, Spanish and French. 

A ministry partnership was formed a few years ago between Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), the Evangelical Free Church Seminary, and TVSEMINARY to record their Master’s level seminary courses on-site at TEDS with permission granted to translate and distribute these courses around the world in any language except English. As of 2024, all of these courses have been made available in Russian on the TVSEMINARY website and many of them are being translated into other languages. 

Today, TVSEMINARY is managed by a professional staff using state-of-the-art facilities in Kursk that include recording studios, editing and production stations, offices, meeting rooms and guest residences for visiting faculty, ministry partners, board members and other supporters of TVS. Modern technology allows TVSEMINARY to rapidly disseminate Bible teaching making it possible to not only reach Russian speakers throughout the world, but to reach any language group by translating courses into their native tongue. 

Currently TVSEMINARY has nearly 1,300 hours of video lectures available in multiple languages, including 13 courses available in English. They have over 3,500 students registered around the world and have formed partnerships with a variety of seminaries around the world who now use the TVSEMINARY courses in their local context including collages, seminaries, Bible schools, churches and church associations. By the end of 2024, they have had over 8,000,000 logins to Moodle – their teaching platform.   

They are active on social media in Russia, allowing them to reach a younger audience who seem to be searching for God. And all courses are available on YouTube as well as similar video services more readily available in Russia and China. In 2024 alone, they had over 1,900,000 views on all TVSEMINARY channels around the world. 

Kevin Koskela currently serves as the Vice-Chairman on the board of TVSEMINARY and Sharon services as financial advisor. They both are in relationship with Vitaly Petrov, TVSEMINARY’s president as well as other staff, meeting annually with the full board and key staff. 

Despite the current political unrest around the world, which has made travel to Russia unavailable and supporting the ministry challenging, the LORD has continued to bless this ministry with creativity and motivation. We remain committed to recording and translating courses, distributing them in ways and places previously unreachable. Through these efforts, we are able to share both the Gospel and top-quality seminary teaching with those who need it most. 

For more information on TVSEMINARY, please see Kevin or Sharon Koskela, or any member of the Missions Board. You can view the courses available in English at en.tvseminary.org .