This July, as we collect funds on Missions Sunday, we’re not just thinking about the coming year. We’re planning for the next three years. We’re using the talents God has given us to tell everyone — from our neighbors down the street to people a continent away — the Good News of Jesus.
For all of us at Memorial Road, this is a year to Pray and Prepare. At home and around the globe, we’re getting ready for all of the opportunities God will send our way. Many of our ministries and ministry workers will focus this year on transformation.
We’re also preparing by collecting funds for 2027, when we will Go and Make as we participate in missions at home and abroad. Then, in 2028, we will Share and Celebrate what God has done and continues to do.
As we prepare for the future, may we immerse ourselves in prayer and Scripture, remembering the apostle Peter’s words: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3
TOTALS
$ 705,000 | 825,000 | 895,000
Support for scholarships. This has been requested several times, but we have not reached the funding goal. HCC seeks to become an educational force in Christian education in Africa. Connected to Village of Hope by students who have been at VOH and with an emerging nursing program with which OC nursing students can partner, this is a unique opportunity to initiate a connection to a college making an impact within a nation in which we have provided ministry assistance for years. HCC is the natural “next step” for VOH and MRCC.
A longtime fixture of MRCC’s Journey Land and location of significant mission outreach efforts, this support will provide a consistent source of funds for needed projects to enhance the operation of VOH’s mission.
Memorial Road supports 19 individuals working with Churches of Christ in Mombasa – from full-time evangelists to teachers to security guards. The amount represented touches all aspects of the ongoing outreach efforts within the church of Mombasa.
This project was initiated by the congregations in Mombasa, working together, to create a strategy for expanding evangelical outreach through Kenya by the congregations in Mombasa. The plan has moved into a phase of the adoption of oversight of an existing health clinic in an area several hours outside Mombasa.
This scholarship assist students with tuition for attending NGCS.
Support for scholarships. Another multi-time, but unfunded request, SABC is an outstanding, growing and increasingly stable Christian College with students from more than a dozen nations in Africa. Much like Baxter Institute, students at SABC go out from the school for internships/training for extended periods of time. Moreover, SABC works to assure graduating students are matched to potential long-term positions at those churches. Annually, SABC hosts an international Lectureship program which utilizes programming (such as Mary Nelson’s Missions Bible Class) and seeks a closer professional connection to MRCC and OC for training and situating graduates throughout the continent to preach and teach.
Support to assist the congregation in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, complete its building project. This is a one-time request.
Memorial Road became the overseeing congregation for the Cherry family in 2019. They have been working as missionaries in an Auckland church plant for nearly 11 years. This congregation is at a literal world crossroad as immigrants from throughout the Pacific Rim are working in the country and then going back to their homeland.
Support for scholarships. SPBC has been in the contribution for many years and overlaps with Mary Nelson’s work (her husband is an instructor) and Justin Cherry (who also assists with courses). Through the pandemic, they worked to keep students enrolled and recognized the need to entice students with consistent scholarship support and a stable, effective on-line presence.
Support for Don Buo, worship minister for the Moulmein Church of Christ in Singapore.
Jake & Amanda Haskew have been long-term missionaries, successfully developing and launching a congregation in Vienna – Donau Gemeinde Christi – with members from across the Vienna districts. This will provide support for updates in the new facility initiated from the 2025 contribution.
A returning item to assist EEM, a longtime partner, provide Bibles in Croatia and Austria to support the on-going outreach of the MRCC-sponsored mission work in those nations.
Memorial Road has helped support this work in Niteroi, Brazil, a metropolitan city near Rio de Janeiro for many years. From sending team members, to supporting through work funds and now, as North American missionaries are returning and leaving a functioning congregation, this support assists during this time of transition.
A returning item to work with Brazilian Christians establish new congregations in that nation. Matched by Brazilian-based support and other congregations from the US, this ministry identifies, recruits, trains and helps place Brazilians in locations where new congregations are needed and able to grow.
Salary support for the two mission teams overseen by Memorial Road. These families are having a significant impact in their communities in Cuba and continue to be a source of good news through their work. These families have been trained at Baxter Institute, are closely connected to our other mission families in Cuba and jumped into their work rapidly.
With a new line item to support former member Katie Ritter as the on-site nurse for all mission trips, funds from Missions Sunday help support a full-time Guatemalan dentist who works with Health Talents International, a medical mission associated with Churches of Christ, in the mountain villages of this Central American nation. Funds also assist with the costs of medical clinics while Memorial Road members are in the country providing care. Additionally, funds help defray trip expenses for Christians working on campaigns with Health Talents.
This year, former MRCC member Katie Ritter will become the HTI nurse in Guatemala, replacing a long-time worker.
Support for scholarships. Memorial Road serves as the sponsoring congregation for the Baxter Institute, a ministry training school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that prepares men and women for ministry across the Spanish-speaking world. Among the school’s students are ministers and wives from the island nation of Cuba. Memorial Road supports these students, and those of other Spanish-speaking nations, as they study and prepare to return to plant churches and spread the Gospel.
Memorial Road has been involved in missions within Honduras for nearly three decades. Over the years numerous groups including families, youth, college, medical missions and more have traveled and worked within the country. Our Campus Ministry and others continue to campaign there each year, providing physical, spiritual and emotional resources. These funds give more people the ability to travel to Honduras as we seek to create more opportunities to bless the Baxter Institute as well the church and community there in and around Tegucigalpa.
Funds help the Lighthouse Medical Clinic – an outreach of the Capitol Hill Church of Christ in downtown Oklahoma City – to provide life-saving medicines for people in need.
Several years ago, this Oklahoma City congregation began asking how to better minister to a community that was dramatically changing around it. The answer has been a significant shift of outreach through 2nd and 3rd generation Hispanic Christians. Our role has been to assist with support as these evangelists begin working with the congregation and will continue although at this reduced rate.
Memorial Road sponsors a two-year mission apprenticeship for young Christians. In past years, participants have traveled around the globe to serve alongside veteran missionaries, learning how to serve. Several have become missionaries or church leaders. Funds support a new worker going to Belgium/Netherlands and substantial new recruiting efforts of sites and workers.
Missionary care is a core value of our mission efforts and the TCK program, created by MRCC families, is one of the most notable among churches of Christ. Focusing on young people who were raised primarily outside the parent’s culture and who are coming back into the US for school, jobs or to live (1st culture – that of the parent or home of origin, 2nd culture – that in which they have lived a large portion of their lives, 3rd culture – the US, where they are usually seen as “Americans returning home” but who have lived their lives outside of that culture). For many participants, TKC programs are, literally, lifesaving.
Mary Nelson, a missionary in New Zealand, has developed a website that offers free, easy-to-use and easy-to-reproduce Bible lessons for missionaries and church members in nations around the world. The lessons are designed to be used anywhere – including developing nations where traditional Bible class material can be scarce. The web site is www.missionbibleclass.org.
Global Christian Studies primarily serves as a scholarship program for preachers and Bible college professors residing and ministering outside the United States. This educational experience culminates in an advanced online Bible degree through Harding Graduate School. The program is administered by the Eastside Church of Christ in Midwest City.
The program ranges to 20 international students at any given time. The marginal cost per student per year varies depending on the course load, ranging from approximately $1,000 to $5,000.
Operational support for Next Gen, another multi-year request, which has not been able to be funded, seeks to provide mission points, congregations and individuals with multi-disciplined outreach programming. They note “that there are now alive today six generations in the church and society, and each has had vastly different experiences growing up of God, faith, church, communications, and more.
“How do we share the biblical story and gospel and lead people to faith in Jesus Christ today? How do we more effectively pass our faith down to our children and grandchildren and reach out to an increasingly unchurched culture?
If you have a heart to reach out and reach the Next Generation for Christ, we are here to help! From seminars to equip to preaching to inspire and convict to practical tools to share the gospel, we want to help you and your church or organization better reach people for Christ today!” Importantly, they work with Mislav Ilic and the Kuslanova congregation in Croatia, with MRCC connected congregations in Kenya, in Poland and more.
Next Gen is even working MRCC TCK participants and MRCC members to develop the presentations and curriculum.”
For the 3rd time, MRCC is beginning a process for members to engage more fully in mission efforts both domestically and internationally. This item begins to “seed” scholarship funds for members to plan and begin engaging in mission outreach. The 2027 Go and Make activities align with the MRCC overall ministry plan and is a key element of the congregational vision.
This request is connected to MRCC outreach work at Capitol Hill Church of Christ and other, similar, congregations in the US. They are specifically asking for assistance in regards to Spanish-speaking congregations in Oklahoma. “Herald of Truth was founded in 1952 to Share the Story of Jesus. We have continued to share the story of Jesus via Radio, TV, and various ways over the years but now we are focused on reaching those that speak Spanish in the U.S. With over 60 million Spanish speakers in the U.S., that makes Spanish speakers the fastest growing group of people in the U.S., and we need to share the story of Jesus with them. We pray you will stand beside us and help do that. We are actively working with the Capitol Hill Spanish speaking church plants from Memorial Road and we are working closely with Tom Conklin. Tom is soon to be a board member of Herald of Truth.
Funds provide limited assistance for mission projects outside the scope or timing of the regular Missions Sunday contribution. Those with a special request provide information to a committee that determines the request’s connectivity to Memorial Road, member involvement, personal investment and other factors.
Creates ready fund for emergency travel/relocation.
Supporting students on mission trips.