LGCC Missions
At LGCC we live out our values of Giving It Away and Going To The Lost through support of local and international missions organizations. Listed below are the mission organizations that we support.
Africans Reaching Africa: Billy & Jen Nelson
Our vision is to evangelize, disciple, and plant churches among unreached people groups in Muslim majority countries in Western and Northern Africa by mobilizing, equipping, and supporting African believers.
ARA works together with evangelical leaders in our target countries to identify missionaries who then go through an application process in order to serve with ARA. We equip them with training and ministry resources. We support them with prayer, finances, and admin. The missionaries focus on evangelism in regions with little or no Gospel presence (mostly villages in rural areas.) They use various strategies such as sports outreach, kids clubs, sharing the Jesus film, etc. As they disciple people, they bring those new disciples together to form house churches. We currently have a team of 70 African missionary families and 22 singles serving in 8 countries. We work in countries that are less than 1% evangelical Christian and close to or greater than 90% Muslim. We also have about 45 house churches currently meeting together that are led by our missionaries.
Construyendo Familias Sana: Diomedes & Victoria Franco
The kingdom of God continues to advance through the groups of pastors and leaders who spend two years in theological training and pastoral practice. Last year 17 graduated in the in the city of Montecristi and 25 graduated from La Romana. Now these fellow servants of the ministry are better equipped to exercise their calling from God. We glorify God for the opportunity to be a part of this team to prepare men and women for ministry.
We have developed The Kids’ Clubs and we thank God very much for the work we have been able to do among the children of the clubs. Children have been receiving Christ into their hearts, being discipled, and challenged to serve Christ. In addition, we provide food and basic utilities for school.
We have also developed home groups. People are receiving God's word, accepting Jesus Christ, and being discipled. This has been a great way to reach out to the community and minister to their needs.
We want to express our gratitude to God for giving us favor and grace in this city. Also, we want to thank each of you who have committed to this ministry to support us with your prayers and financial help.
Thank you that together we can make a difference in a world that needs God so much.
Deer Ridge Ministries: David & Louise Decker
We have been in clergy retreat ministry since 2003.
VISION: In recent years it has become increasingly evident that the homes of so many pastors have been invaded by Satan’s determination to bring strife and destruction to clergy marriages and families.
This burden has been on our hearts. As a result, we have recently broken ground on a new 4,000 sq. ft. facility for the training of men and women who sense a call to “minister to the ministers.”
There will also be added suites to accommodate more couples for retreats. Additionally, we are launching a ministry of intervention by licensed Christian counsellors to help clergy couples who are in deep trouble get their marriage and family back to healthy balance. The new building is well on the way to completion. We are hoping and praying to take residence in a mortgage free facility!
Faith Acres Foundation: Jeff & Jodie Clow
Faith Acres Foundation is a Christ centered non-profit help others in need through prayer, relationships, health and finance.
Faith Acres works to meet the basic needs of people struggling financially to make ends meet by distributing free food, emergency clothing and household items through Sharing Center Pantries located in McHenry and Lake County, IL. We also provide volunteer and educational opportunities so our “hand out becomes a hand up”. .
Faith Acres Foundation has no requirements to receive services.
Faith Acres Foundation is an independent 501c3 charitable organization incorporated in 2006 and funded primarily by individual donors and churches.
Faith Acres Foundation is led by a volunteer Board of Directors and the organizations Founders Jefferson and Jodie Clow.
Faith Acres Foundation is a partner agency of the Northern Illinois Food Bank and Feeding America.
My greatest role as Executive Director and Co-Founder of FAF is to first seek the Lord daily on His wisdom, direction, understanding for FAF and to thank him continually! To pray over and thank God for all the volunteers, churches, donors that he has gathered together to accomplish this job that he has set before us. To ask God to continue to build a strong foundation for Faith Acres and that the job before us is bigger than we can accomplish without HIM, so that it keeps us on our knees, walking by faith, following behind HIM!
LGCC Prayer and Financial support has been a gift to FAF. Many parachurch independent non-profits fold and don't make it past 5 years, your prayer and support keep us going forward so we can share the love of Christ with many people who don't go to church, nor grew up in churches. It helps us be able to share generously to the needs with many.
Home of Love: Martin Alphonse
Home of Love (HOL) caters to the holistic needs of 130 girls. Some are completely home-less, others are children of economically disenfranchised single moms or utterly poor parents. We house them, provide parental care, food, the care of their medical needs. We take care of their education from kindergarten thru college levels in a Christian environment. Our mission is to empower them through education and evangelism.
We are located on a beautiful 9-acre campus in a village called Alamathy on the outskirts of Chennai City, (South) India. My role is the Founder Chairman. I mainly function as the vision caster, raise funds for the ministry and provide overall leadership directives to the Board of Trustees. I am also the Founder President of Love India Missions Endeavor (LIME) registered non-profit in Portland, Oregon. LIME’s sole mission is to facilitate the running of HOL by raising funds for HOL. Its ministry is run by a Board of Directors.
I started it in 1992. I was inspired by the wretched conditions little girls of begging in the streets of Chennai City and horrified by the stories of child trafficking, sexual abuse and domestic violence against girls in India. I was moved by the Holy Spirit to embark on a Christian mission of a) Prevention of abuse to such girls, b) Protection of their life in a safe Christian environment and c) Provision of the educational opportunity to succeed in life.
What we have been receiving from LGCC has enabling us to put most of our girls in private Christian schools where they are not only given a quality education, but also where they are treated with dignity, in comparison to public schools where, by-and- large, children from poor economic families are discriminated against. It also has partially helped us to put 17 girls, in liberal arts college and 3 in a four-year Nurses Training College, a total of 20 in all.
Legacy Reentry Foundation: George & Re Gina Moore
Legacy Reentry Foundation is a ministry that reaches out to the formerly incarcerated and those in need of a second chance. We also minister to youth offenders and troubled youth that need direction.
We are located in Waukegan and we see our role as necessary in the community for outreach.
Our ministry was founded over twenty years ago. We officially became a 501c3 in 2015. We were inspired through the testimony of founder George Moore Jr. and his testimony of incarceration.
The support from LGCC has been essential for us to reach those in need. We are able to assist our clients with everything from work boots, basic living essentials,clothes, food and transportation passes. It has impacted lives in a profound way and we are grateful.
Mission Impact: Kathy Dostal
Mission Impact Guatemala office is located in San Pedro El Alto, near the city of Antigua, Guatemala. We reach multiple communities in the surrounding area with Christian education, medical care, appropriate technology, community development, discipleship, wheelchair placement for children, and women’s ministry.
I am personally located in Littleton, Colorado and pre-COVID was part of the Servant Team staff assisting short term U.S. team leaders in logistical planning for outreach. Currently, with traveling teams still on hold, when called upon, I assist with translation of newsletters for our Guatemalan staff.
My husband and I started with ministry in Guatemala in 1995. We enrolled in language school in Guatemala and Primary Health Care school with Youth With A Mission in Guatemala City. From there we were recruited to work in the Antigua area with Students International and Mission Impact. We spent 10 years in Guatemala and returned to the states to meet the medical and educational needs of our adopted Guatemala son, Issac.
After several trips into Juarez, Mexico we were impressed as a couple to live out our love for the poor and the gospel across the border. We pursued selling our small business, receive further training with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and language school. We had served in all available capacities in our home church in Colorado and felt it time to take our experience and passion to the poor of Guatemala.
The support from LGCC has meant the world to us. Many of you may remember Char Hartzel. Char was the first to believe in our call and pursue not only financial support from LGCC but encourage short-term teams from LGCC to serve in Guatemala. Char had previous missions experience in Guatemala that dated back many years. Erika Burns and Tony West followed in Chars footsteps with forming teams and leading teams. We look forward to the day when we can resume that important link of collaborating with LGCC teams.
As I, Kathy, have continued on staff with Mission Impact, I have also had the care of my husband George who has Alzheimer’s. The support of the church allows me to serve both MI and my husband from our home base. We deeply appreciate your faithful support.
New International: Drew & Christine Van Tiem
Our ministry is two-fold. We have a local ministry that is primarily focused on our neighborhood of Leith, in the city of Edinburgh. The people here are those we are trying to reach. The second aspect of our ministry is in care for our fellow New International (NI) staff. These roles within NI are new (to us and the organization) and we will begin these in Autumn 2023.
In our local, Edinburgh-based work, we focus on creating spaces and activities for people who are interested in faith but might not be interested in traditional church. We see our neighborhood as our congregation - we are pastors to people that don't have pastors.
In New International, Christine is NI’s Director of Third Culture-Kid (TCK) Care Services. This means she'll be leading a newly formed team to develop, guide, shape, and deliver great TCK care to NI families living overseas.
Drew will be NI’s Director of Soul Care and Wellness. This will include facilitating retreats, creating resources, and developing ways for NI staff to open themselves up to God, to others, and to experience wellness.
We moved to Edinburgh in May 2013. We both felt a call to mission work in the UK after two years of living there in a discipleship and mission program for young adults back in 2006-2008. We felt our gifting and experiences lined up well with needs in the UK.
LGCC has been such a blessing! Through prayer, you've kept us encouraged and sustained. Through encouragement and friendship, you've been a blessing to us and support in what can often be difficult work and through difficult personal challenges such as Christine's health. And financially, it's made it so we can focus on the work itself rather than need to find another source of income. This ministry wouldn't be possible without LGCC!
Rotolu Children Home: Julius & Mary Lawal
Rotolu Children Home is registered in Nigeria as a Christian non-governmental and not for profit organization. Its main objective is to reach the poor and vulnerable children whose parents are unable to care for them which may be caused by either the death of parents or poverty. The home gives all round quality education which is not devoid of Christian morals.
Rotolu Children Home is located in Igbaja, Kwara State, Nigeria. Our role is to see that each child that comes into the home is mentored in such a way that he/she will become a responsible citizen of Nigeria after he/she might have left the home.
The ministry started in 1995 in partnership with Long Grove Community Church, Illinois, USA. We were inspired to start the ministry as a result of poverty we saw in the country and the inability of the government to do enough to elevate the burden put on the innocent children. And having gone through the same experience of poverty, we felt the need to contribute our quota in bringing hope to this group of hopeless children. We are out to do this by sharing the love of Christ with them and providing them with quality education and a home filled with Christian love.
The support received from the Long Grove Community Church has greatly helped the home in different ways, including:
Provision of University and other education for those who are qualified, Pastoral training and at least secondary (high school) education for those who could not go further.
Provision of professional training in different fields which include auto mechanics, fashion designing, cake baking and decoration, etc.
Provision of a building which now accommodates the children.
Provision of building which accommodates the library where the children read and do their schools' assignments. It also serves as a room where Bible study and other related Christian activities are done.
Provision of fishponds which are still on-going and chicken pens.
Many of those who have graduated from the home are now married and have settled down, living responsible lives.
Teach Beyond: Pete Sanderlin
I serve with TeachBeyond, whose desire is to serve God and to see individuals and communities transformed by His Spirit through education. Our 1150 members serve with over 130 schools in 77 countries. These are often K-12 schools, some of which are for the children of missionaries, but others are for nationals. We also help educate refugee children and children who have not had the chance to go to school. In addition, we run English camps and serve in English language learning programs. We want these students to come to know and love God more deeply.
My wife Pam and I live in Buena Vista Colorado, and I am a mobilization coach, a part of TeachBeyond’s US and Canadian mobilization team that recruits 60-90 teachers and staff each year. We have many more opportunities to serve than we can fill so our job is never done! I talk with those who are interested in serving and then take them through our application process, answering their questions, encouraging them, interviewing them and helping them find the right school and role.
My wife and I taught for 22 years in the Middle East and we saw that teaching opens wonderful opportunities to see God work in the lives of students. When we returned to the US in 2010, we found TeachBeyond and began serving with them at that time. I was inspired by realizing that I could multiply my impact by being a part of sending many others to serve overseas. The school we had served at became a TeachBeyond school, and it has been particularly rewarding to have been the coach for about a dozen teachers TeachBeyond has sent there. I typically coach about 20 people a year and God has done much more through those I have coached than I did on my own.
Over the years, Long Grove has been very encouraging, welcoming us when we visited and often asking about how things are going with us. Certainly the financial support has played a significant part in enabling us to serve, earlier in the Middle East, and now with Teach Beyond.