About TFC
Missionaries
Bryon and Sandy Brock
Bryon is the Director of United Indian Mission’s (UIM) aviation ministry. He ministers with his wife, Sandy, and his children, Danielle, Joseph, Joshua, and Caleb. The purpose of UIM is to establish indigenous churches among the Native Americans and Hispanics. Through the airplane, they help provide logistic support to missionaries who are ministering to the remote tribal people of Mexico. They do not just transport missionaries but we try to become intricately involved in the ministries they serve by assisting the missionaries any way they can. This may include helping with community development, purchasing supplies, flying in short term teams, and medevac services. The motto of their ministry is “missionaries flying to where the people are.”
Jason and Shelly Estelle
Jason and Shelly are missionaries with the Pioneers in their home office in Orlando, Florida.
Shelly works as a Mission Mentor, so she spends a lot of time connecting with people who are interested in missions but not sure how to get involved. Her personal experience oversees really helps as she walks along side those who are trying to determine if God is calling them to be a part of reaching unreached people groups around the world.
Jason works as the Director of Candidate Assessment, so he has the opportunity to encourage, help and prepare future missionaries through the process of joining Pioneers and getting to the field. Their goal is to mobilize qualified long-term church planting candidates through prayer, individual attention, in partnership with the local church.
Loren and Susan Hawthorne
Loren and Susan Hawthorne serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators in support of Bible translation efforts in Mexico. Loren is 2nd Associate Director and Director of Publications for the Mexico branch. Susan does music copyright research in support of those teams preparing hymnals in local languages. Loren has had major involvement in creating the new outlet for Scriptures from the Americas at www.scriptureearth.org .
Nate and Abby Kugler
Nate and Abby Kugler work with Summer Institute of Linguistics in Oaxaca, Mexico. They are currently working in the Oaxaca Office as Assistant to the Office Administrator. This office assists SIL members in getting their visas, selling and shipping materials translated into the languages of Oaxaca, some workshops, finance, etc. and Nate and Abby are usually involved in all of these in some way. Abby was raised in western South Dakota and Nate in the St Louis, MO area. They met while attending Bible college in Kansas City, MO. They have 2 married children and 8 grandchildren in Alaska and Arizona. They have ministered with SIL for 38 years, 17 of those years in Guatemala and 18 years serving Mexico.
Thomas and Laura Requadt
Thomas and Laura work in Fourou, Mali among the Shempire who are primarily farmers and oriented toward traditional religion (animism). Thomas' main ministry is Bible translation, mentoring and facilitating the local church in its outreach projects. Laura's ministry centers on reaching children with the Gospel through Bible clubs and also developing a literacy project among the Shempire. They have been ministering in West Africa with WorldVenture (formerly CBInternational) since 1991. Of their 3 children, two (Jennifer and Jeffrey) live in Arizona and one (Philip) lives in Mongolia.
Wes and Julie Shoemaker
Julie, a farm girl from central South Dakota, and Wes, who grew up in the Amazon jungles of Bolivia, met while on staff at a Christian high school near Julie's home town. After joining Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1984, they first served in Papau, New Guniea and then received an assignment to the Tarahumara people of northern Mexico in 1990. Their three children, Tressa (25), Ryan (23-now married), and Jeremy (20) are studying and working in ministries in Missouri and Arizona.
Wes and Julie act as consultants and advisors for the team of native speakers that work on Tarahumara Scripture translation and literacy material development. These leaders also work together on the development of evangelical churches in their various communities.