Going Farther: New Places!

CMF is always on the lookout for new places to create Christ-centered communities and new partners to help us do it effectively. So we’re excited to share that we have six new countries on our radar right now. We recently began work in two of them, and plan to launch new ministries in the others in the near future. Take a look at where we’re going!

Peru and Ecuador Mike and Danelle Bukta have been working in Trujillo, Peru, and Santo Domingo, Ecuador, as Team Expansion missionaries with Project New Hope for the past seven years. PNH recently asked CMF to begin working with the ministry. The goal is to develop a holistic church-planting movement where local leaders are trained, physical and spiritual needs are met, the community is developed, and people come to know Jesus. Additional missionaries are now being recruited for this ministry.

Uruguay Globalscope will launch a new campus ministry in Montevideo this fall. All seven teammates have been selected and are raising support. Uruguay has the highest rate of depression and suicide among young people in the West, but very few Christian ministries are working with the country’s university students. We hope to influence Uruguay’s students for Christ and change the course of the country’s future.

Australia A new Globalscope campus ministry is planned for a university in Melbourne or Brisbane in the fall of 2017. Two team members are on board, and others have recently made a scouting trip there. The country’s culture is post-Christian, but Australian young people are friendly and open to the Globalscope style of relational ministry.

Going Farther: New faces!

Erin Githiru loves people and enjoys being part of their life transformation stories. It’s that passion, plus her experiences serving with CMF in Africa and in the home office, that made her the perfect person to step into the position of Director of Mobilization at CMF in January.

The Winchester, VA, native developed her heart for missions and serving the poor as a counseling student at Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, TN.

“I volunteered with a ministry to the homeless, ‘Lost Sheep,’ in downtown Knoxville when I was a student,” Erin said. “God worked through that and a REACH internship in Nairobi, Kenya, to draw me into missions. I could really see myself ministering in that way as a career.” After graduation Erin returned to Nairobi as a missionary with CMF for several years. She met and married her husband Robert there. The couple returned to Indianapolis and CMF in 2013 when Erin took the position of Associate Mobilizer, overseeing the REACH internship program. 

In her new position, Erin will get to do what she loves best: send well-prepared missionaries to the field where they can serve effectively in ways that respect the national culture.

“I felt a probing from the Spirit to take the leap into this job,” she said, “and I prayed about it a lot. I don’t have all the answers, so God will have to guide me. 

“I love being a part of people’s stories of ‘getting there,’ ” she added. “I’m excited to see that beautiful collision that occurs when a missionary joins a team and begins breaking down barriers in a new culture and producing fruit for the harvest.” Contact her at eringithiru@cmfi.org.

Jordan Shelton
Multiple mission trips to Haiti and nine months as a Reveal missionary in Brazil were the catalysts that led Jordan Shelton to his new position at CMF, where he began directing the Reveal short-term missions program just a few weeks ago.

“I have always loved traveling and learning about other cultures,” he said. “Once I gave my life to Christ I began to think about doing mission work.”

The 2014 graduate of Manhattan (KS) Christian College grew up in Rockford, IL, and counts his mom, older brother and youth minister as the biggest influences on his faith. Now, he’s ready to pass on his enthusiasm for missions to others.

“I am excited about recruiting, encouraging and equipping future interns for international ministry!” he said.