Read or watch more about what God is doing around the world and around our city! Click any node to read more about what God is doing in that part of the world!
Salem Angels
Salem Angels mission is to to walk alongside children, youth, and families in the foster care community by offering consistent support through intentional giving, relationship building, and mentorship.
More info HERE
Dave Irby
Dear Morning Star, our goal at Surge International is to inspire and mobilize Christian soccer players and coaches to share Christ’s love – even to the ends of the earth. My journeys have now taken me to forty- countries as we use soccer creatively to partner with churches, church planters, missionaries, Christian Schools, and even secular organizations. From taking men’s teams, women’s teams, youth teams, small groups of players and coaches to support Christian workers all over the world in their quest to share the Good News! We have been blessed to share Christ in prisons, at soccer fields, national stadiums, little jungle villages, with orphans and refugees, to top government officials, and on radio and television. You have granted us the privilege of sharing the gospel with millions; smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, holding hands with orphans, praying with prisoners, hugging refugees and inspiring pastors and Christian leaders to use the power of soccer to reach the unreached. No task is too small nor to big when we have faith and the clear purpose of assisting other ministries to share the Good News. love, Dave & Susie Irby
Support Dave HERE
Petr Samoylich
We are the Samoylich family, Pastor Petr and my wife Emma. We came to Latvia in July of 1997, as missionaries from the Morning Star Community Church.
One of our goals is to work with public schools – training public school teachers, by holding Public School Teachers Conferences three times a year, and providing Bibles for each school in Latvia. Through 24 years, we have printed more than 100,000 Latvian and Russian full Bibles and almost 200,000 Children Bibles in Latvian, Russian and Ukrainian. We have trained more than 10,000 teachers through our Teachers Conferences over these years.
Another our goal as missionaries is to plant new churches. We have planted three new churches and built a new church building. The present church where I am pastoring is Vecmilgravis New Evangelical Church, which I started 7 years ago, and through these years, we have developed a wide children ministry, and an average of 250 children every summer participated in our VBS’s and camps. We continue working with these children throughout the year, inviting them to Sunday school and organizing Christmas events for them and their parents and grandparents.
Another special ministry is working with orphans. Every summer through all these years, we have sponsored 60 orphans coming and staying at our summer camps where they hear the Word of God and receive a lot of love. Each Christmas, we provide Christmas gifts for three orphanages.
We praise God for Morning Star family for faithfully supporting us at all of our projects for 24 years. For 24 years, now, we have had no sabbatical. God has given us His grace and we have stayed full time here in Latvia. Thank you for your faithfulness!
I am thankful to Pastor Scott and Denise for their support and coming several times to teach at our Teachers Conferences!
I am thankful to brother James Elgin for bringing construction teams to come and re-build the church building!
I am thankful to youth leaders who brought teams to our children and youth summer camps!
I want to thank all the church for supporting our Bible Distribution Project through all these years, and I want to thank my dear friends who have been supporting our family, financially and in prayers!
Support Petr HERE
Jeremy Tice
Morning Star has been supporting us since around 2001. Mindie grew up there and the church was kind enough to take us on when we were first starting out. Initially, we went to Guinea in West Africa to work among the Yalunka- an unreached people group entrenched in Folk Islam/ African Traditional Religions. We worked in evangelism and discipleship, health care and community development. After 7 years we were asked to take on a regional role, which we juggled for two years from the village, then moved to Senegal to have better access to an airport and have our kids attend an MK school without having to board. We served in the regional leadership role in West Africa for 4 more years, then World Partners asked us if we would be willing to do the same thing, but for Europe. That was definitely not what we had planned, but prayer helped us align with the Lord’s will and we ended up moving to Europe in 2016- first France, then over into Germany.
The official title is “Regional Strategy Coordinator.” We are tasked with walking with national leaders that are interested in learning more and living out what it means to be and to make disciples. There are several that we coach in this, and we are also working to help them form their own European network (meaning not lead by someone from the States) of disciple makers. My other task is to work directly with World Partners staff in Europe on their strategic formation, keeping them focused on making disciples. This is key because professional Christians often get caught up focusing on programs long past what should be the programs’ expiration dates. I help missionaries continually look at the fruit being produced, making sure projects and efforts are focused on building relationships that are not dependent on the program, and the relationships are turning into discipleship opportunities. Then I coach to make sure the disciple making is always spreading outward, not dependent on the missionary, rather than inward and only focused on the missionary.
Support Jeremy HERE
Reid Saunders, Reid Saunders Association
Tens of thousands of churches across the world have been united and trained in evangelism under Reid’s leadership. His trademark message, “all for Jesus!” is heard wherever Reid goes. He attended Western Baptist (now Corban University) for his undergrad, and earned his doctorate in Global Evangelism from Multnomah University.
In 2002, Reid founded the Reid Saunders Association, which has proclaimed the Gospel across the globe. In the last 20 years he and his team have delivered the message of salvation to over 4 million people in 95 countries through face-to-face presentation of the Gospel. Over 500,000 have made decisions to follow Christ and are being discipled through local churches.
Max & Tanya Garkavenko
Max & Tanya have a passion for serving Jesus throughout Israel as they Pastor a church in Bat Yam and do bus tours to share the truth & love of Jesus.
Their ministry Reaches out to:
All Israelis (Jewish and non Jewish) with the Gospel and Teaching of Yeshua
Mission:
Outreach bus tours (Jesus, Magdalena movies distribution and all kind of Messianic literature)
English classes outreach (We study English through the Gospel of Luke)
Youth ministry
Children’s ministry
Bringing the spiritual education to Israeli society
Messianic outreach concerts
Support Max and Tanya HERE
Mike & Crystal Silva, Mike Silva International
My bride, Crystal, and I have been married for over 45 years and we have been blessed with
four adult daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren— all of whom live near us in Central
Oregon.
As missionary evangelists, our calling is not to a certain place, but to linguistic groups. We
practice and proclaim the life-changing message of the Lord Jesus Christ in English,
Portuguese, and Spanish speaking nations of the world. Why these three languages? Besides
the fact that I am an English speaker, and my ethnicity is Portuguese and Spanish; we have
found that when we intentionally go after these people groups… we are reaching three of the
top six most spoken languages of the world!
Regardless of where we are serving, or what language we are serving in, we are called to:
Proclaim the Gospel/Rescue People- “Be merciful to those who doubt. Snatch others from the
fire and save them…” (Jude 22-23)
Invest in the local Church— “It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets,
some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, and teachers…to prepare God’s people for works
of service, so that the body of Christ may be built-up.” (Eph. 4:11-12)
Cultivate Disciples – “They preached the Good News in that city and won a large number of
disciples…strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” (Acts
14:21-22)
Our global, passionate pursuit to reach the ‘least and lost,’ is made possible because of faithful
partners like YOU, our Morning Star Church Family. You have been strengthening our ministry
arm for over two decades! For that, we are forever grateful. THANK YOU!
Yours, to make HIM known,
Mike & Crystal Silva
Jeff & Sarah
This region is larger to provide safety for Jeff and Sarah. Jeff and Sarah have served overseas since 2014 in the Caucasus region. During the first few years of their service, all the organizations serving in the country met together sharing about their work and how the Lord is moving. It was encouraging to hear about the various traditional ministry approaches. However, having made a midlife transition from corporate careers, Jeff and Sarah saw an area that was not being served: marketplace ministry.
In this former Soviet, muslim context, people are hard workers and creative problem solvers. However, they were rarely given positions of leadership. A Business Development Center (BDC) provides education and individual mentoring to people with undeveloped entrepreneurial skills. An emerging entrepreneurial class is creating micro and small businesses, providing jobs in both urban and rural areas. By employing staff, paying taxes, and contributing to pension plans these graduates are contributing to stability, enabling people to thrive, and changing the future of this nation. Through training both those within the church and those who are not yet part of it, Jeff and Sarah strive to expand the Kingdom through incarnational living in the marketplace.
Support Jeff and Sarah HERE
Union Gospel Mission
Union Gospel Mission of Salem holistically approaches homelessness. Working to help rewrite the futures of our unsheltered neighbors’ lives, UGM provides for basic needs, yet moves beyond immediate relief by teaching guests self-sufficiency, self-worth, and skills for independent living through our advanced services.
Hope Station
Hope Station offers a variety of resources to the needy families in the Salem community including: Groceries, Various Household and Bedding Items, Clothing, and Classes for computer training and budgeting.
Hope Pregnancy Clinic
Hope is proud to walk alongside their community to inform, empower and support. They offer medical care, options counseling, and a caring, confidential presence as individuals and families make pregnancy decisions.
Simonka Place
Simonka Place provides emergency shelter and meals for females to meet immediate needs in a trauma-informed environment. Often, even a few nights of supportive shelter and trauma-informed care are enough to help single women and mothers with children regroup and identify a safe place for themselves and their family.
Agape Families
Agape Families is an Oregon-based non-profit that aims to provide hope and stability to families impacted by incarceration. We achieve this goal by hosting summer camps, mentorship programs, follow up events and more.
Agape Families was first established in 2012 in response to the estimated 22,000 children impacted by incarceration throughout the state of Oregon. These youth currently face a number of challenges in their lives including economic hardships, health concerns, academic difficulties, housing deficiencies, and more. Without hope or resources, these youth are placed on a trajectory of continued poverty or incarceration, with many of the choices being handed to them rather than made for themselves. This is why we are here — to increase the likelihood of these youth succeeding by providing various programs for not only youth but an entire family unit.
We offer camps for kids specific to their geographic location, youth mentorship and follow-up programs, mentorship and support for individuals transitioning out of prison, inside prison programs for currently incarcerated parents or family members, and more. Since 2012 we have grown to two cities with five camps and two established mentorship programs, as well as hosting events and fundraising efforts throughout the year.