Missions

About:

At First Friends we directly support career missionaries locally, nationally, stateside support for international organizations, and internationally through our tithes and offerings. We support missionaries through our denomination alongside other churches in the Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region through our giving to the Great Commission Budget.

We pray for the missionaries and organizations we support.

We go on mission trips to serve and spread the gospel in person.

FMFeatured Missionary:

News from India…continued

In May (see 5-21-17 bulletin), the focus was on Jenna and her heart for evangelism which was leading her to return to India, where she had also spent time on a short-term mission team in summer 2016. The Lord did indeed protect her on her return trip to India, which she made on her own – not with a mission team! While there, she saw many organizations that are providing aid to men, women, and children. There is great need in India as untold numbers of people live in extreme physical poverty and well as extreme spiritual darkness and oppression. However, many of the children with whom she had the privilege to work are growing in their faith in Jesus!

Jenna encourages us to remember to pray for 1) the many victims of human trafficking, the orphans and street children, and all those who suffer from extreme poverty, and 2) the faithful people who are serving the Lord there long term in an effort to reduce these severe problems. And although she did not specifically ask this, let’s also pray for Jenna’s future as she trains to be a nurse and diligently seeks the Lord’s will for how to continue serving Him!

Get Involved:

Mission Trips

Holy Land 2017

November 28th – December 7th, 2017

“I’m excited to offer this “once in a lifetime” opportunity to come with us to the Holy Land and explore Israel firsthand. As I have read through the Bible this past year, I have longed to see with my own eyes the places about which I have read. It has been said that after you experience the Holy Land, you will never read the Bible the same; it comes alive! I’m looking forward to that reality in my own life!! I invite you to come with us and experience it for yourselves.”
-Stan Hinshaw, Trip Leader

For questions, call the church at 330.966.2800

Click HERE for More Information

Youth Mission Trips

Our Middle School students and High School students have the opportunity to participate in local service and ministry days at Refuge of Hope and to travel nationally and internationally on summer mission trips. For more information on their trips please see:

High School Youth

Middle School Youth

Local Missions

Locally, we support the following organizations and people. If you are looking for a place to serve within our community we encourage you to look into the following options:

CSRM (Church Sports and Recreation Ministers)

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Stark and Carroll Counties

Lighthouse Ministries

Pregnancy Choices

Refuge of Hope

Young Life of Stark County

Cindy Mandrell, Director of C.O.O.L.

Chad Frank, of H2O church in Kent

Pray for our Stateside Missionaries

In order for international mission organizations to be able to function effectively, the international missionaries need support staff in the U.S. who will oversee recruiting, administrative needs, logistics, and the pre-field and ongoing training.

M. & S. A. work to recruit, train, and support missionaries in closed countries for People International

Glen Osborne is the director of China Outreach Ministries

Lynda Gravier works for Heaven Sent Ministries coordinating their emergency food packaging projects, and overseeing their volunteers

Dave and Susan living in Orlando and serving on the Global Strategy Team with The Jesus Film Project.

Ming and Mako Nagasawa – Intervarsity Christian Fellowship

Tom Young – Campus Crusade For Christ

Pray for our International Missionaries

Africa and the Middle East
David and Debby Thomas
GLLT (Great Lakes Leadership Training)
H. & W. B.

India
Jacob and Jaya Beera – Hope Ministries, International

Asia – All these missionaries work in hostile, closed countries, and for their safety and the safety of local believers we cannot identify them online. For more information please see the mission books in the Coffee Commons at First Friends.
J. & A. J.
K. & K. K.
M. & V. K.
S. K.
S.A.L.T. (Systematic Asian Leadership Training) and C.C.

Mexico, Central, and South America
Nishe Rothschild – Guatemala

Caribbean – The Dominican Republic
Grace and Peace Missionary Fellowship

Russia and Ukraine
Abe and Diane Bible

Pray for our Denomination Missionaries

We participate in the sharing the truth of the Gospel and the completion of the Great Commission through the work of our denominational missionaries:

Evangelical Friends Eastern Region

Evangelical Friends Missions