Global Outreach

Secret Church Signup

Friday, April 19th from 7pm-1am.

Years ago, Pastor David Platt taught and ministered among underground house churches where believers were forced to gather in secret, sometimes at the risk of their own lives. Secret Church is an opportunity for us to intensely study the Bible and pray like and for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

STUDY: Take a 6 hour deep dive to study God’s epic tale of redemption in the story of Ruth. It’s a story that reminds us that each of our lives–no matter how ordinary they may sometimes seem and no matter how difficult they may sometimes be–is indeed a part of a plan much larger than ourselves and much more thrilling than we could ever imagine.

PRAY: This year we will explore the story of the persecuted church in North Korea, considered by many the most hostile-to-Christians country in the world. Together we will pray and support our brothers and sisters in North Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia and other persecuted places.

ACT: We will be challenged to live on mission–in our neighborhoods and to the nations.

Global Missionaries We Support

Chip and Kathy Sanders

Chip and Kathy serve with SIL International and Wycliffe Bible Translators. (Wycliffe is the chief resourcing partner of SIL; SIL is the chief implementing partner of Wycliffe.) Chip serves as an International Leadership Consultant and Kathy is Hospitality Coordinator at the SIL International Linguistics Center in Dallas, TX. Inspired by God’s love, SIL advocates, builds capacity, and works with local communities to apply language expertise that advances meaningful development, education, and engagement with Scripture. SIL has a staff of over 5,000 people from 89 countries of origin currently involved in over 1,660 languages, representing 1.07 billion people in 162 countries.

Despite the limitations on travel due to the pandemic, Chip still keeps many global connections though two teams he leads and two others on which he serves. One of his main assignments now is to lead a global team that helps SIL staff around the world be involved in missiological reflection. As we reflect on the mission of God, it changes our perspectives on our work and our relationships with colleagues who are also participants in God’s mission. Another multicultural team he is leading is looking into the long-term effects of COVID-19 on SIL and on the language communities we serve. We will be helping leaders throughout SIL consider these effects and provide advice to SIL’s Executive Leadership Team on organizational adjustments we need to make. Chip is also working with colleagues from Ethiopia, Cameroon, the UK, Japan, Australia, and Peru to develop training on how to lead well in the current global environment. A fourth team on which Chip serves works to improve SIL’s planning, monitoring, and organizational learning systems.

Kathy’s ministry is to provide hospitality and information for the many people who come to the International Linguistics Center in Dallas, whether for meetings, on furlough, as students, as volunteer workers, or on assignment. Her vision is to build community in order to enable staff to better fulfill their roles in God’s mission. While the pandemic has caused Kathy to shift some of her work to being on Zoom, she continues to connect to people in meaningful ways.

Prior to basing in Dallas, Chip and Kathy lived in the Philippines where they were part of SIL’s work in Southeast Asia. And prior to that, the Sanders lived in Boston for many years. Chip began attending Ruggles during his first week of college at Northeastern University in 1978. Together Chip and Kathy were sent out as part of a church planting effort by Ruggles on Mission Hill. Chip still roots for the Patriots, even from Dallas.

Chip and Kathy can be reached via Chip_Sanders@sil.org .

Neel and Chalor Roberts

Neel joined Ruggles Baptist Church back in 1984 when he was a student at Gordon Conwell Seminary. He was commissioned by Ruggles and went to Thailand with OMF in 1987. In 1993 he married Chalor. Chalor is Thai and is a graduate of Phayao Bible Institute. Chalor works with Shan Migrant Children in Mae Sai and Chiang Rai in North Thailand. Neel supervises Christian workers in the Upper Mekong Region. Many of these workers are engaged in a variety of development and educational programs designed to help people who have very limited opportunities to improve their lives. In all of these activities the ultimate objective is that the many ethnic groups throughout the region will come to know Jesus Christ in a personal and life transforming way.

Email address: theprester@gmail.com

Fran MacNeill

Fran was born and lived in Massachusetts until she attended Houghton College (NY) and Presbyterian Hospital (NYC), graduating in 1951 with a BS in Nursing. After 1 1/2 years at Columbia Bible College in SC, she joined Wycliffe Bible Translators, and spent the next 32 years in Bolivia. Most of her work there was among the Aymara people who live high in the Andes Mountains around La Paz, Bolivia and Lake Titicaca. It was her privilege to work mostly within Aymara-speaking churches in literacy and, along with Aymara believers, to prepare Sunday School materials, hymnbooks and other Christian literature. She was always glad that the medical work could continue, but in second place to giving God’s Word to the people.

After leaving Bolivia, she spent 3 years in Guatemala doing similar work, then joined the staff at the NE Wycliffe Home office in Lancaster, PA, working fulltime at first and then part-time until complete retirement in 2006. Now she is thankful to still be able to serve the Lord in teaching Bible studies, helping with music and in other ways as He makes it possible.