Fellowship in the Gospel Ministries
Janice and I have been called to serve the Lord through a partnering ministry that assists church planters and pastors, primarily in the country of Haiti, to more effectively reach the people of their area with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Serving as liaisons in ministry partnerships, then, our goal is two-fold: 1. To see people living outside the Family of God come to saving faith by entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and 2. To see individual believers and local churches grow to maturity in Christ to the Glory of God The Father.
Our actual involvement in foreign missions had its start in Haiti. In 1997 God gave me (Brian) the opportunity to assist in the training of Haitian Pastors in the area of discipleship ministry. Through subsequent short-term medical mission trips, Janice also received an introduction to the Haitian people and culture. Trips to other fields followed, as the Lord gave us greater exposure to short-term missions and different cultures.
In August of 2000, I was ordained as a minister of the Gospel and served as the missions pastor of our church. The following year Janice and I were asked to prayerfully consider serving a group of Haitian Pastors and church planters already at work, as the Missionary Field Coordinators for that country. Having a growing desire to work in missions, God confirmed that He would have us serve Him in that position as facilitators and liaisons in many ministry partnerships between American churches and individuals and the Haitian workers. Over time and with experience, we have come to realize that this model of partnering with other nationals is not only biblical, but one of the most effective ways to reach indigenous peoples with the eternal life-giving news of the Gospel in as short a time as possible.
After twelve years with a mission agency, the Lord led us to continue our ministry to nationals with that specific model in mind, but to simply reorganize that ministry under our local church, Strodes Mills Baptist Church of McVeytown, PA. “Fellowship in the Gospel Ministries” got its official start in April of 2013, and is the offshoot and expansion of what we had done over those first twelve years of ministry.
After living, raising our children and ministering in Pennsylvania for 26 years, we felt The Lord leading us back to our native Wisconsin in order to help with aging family members and some who were struggling with various health issues. As far as where we felt we were most needed on a day-to-day basis, the scales simply tipped from PA to WI in 2018. That proved to be the case more than we could know in the months following our move in August of that year. Though relocating our home base, we knew that we could work our ministry to Haiti and even the Dominican Republic, simply by flying back and forth to the foreign field from a different set of airports. In Wisconsin we became members of Edgewood Community Church in Beaver Dam, where we attend and serve to this day.
For the accountability structure we have in place for FITGM, please see two pages on this site – Just click on the highlighted links below: