Beth B
Beth B joined Wycliffe to help Bible translators produce better
translations by using the computer to help with their linguistic analysis, and to adapt completed translations into related languages. She served for a season in the software development department in Dallas, and traveled throughout Asia equipping teams to use linguistic software more effectively. She currently supports field teams working on dictionaries, and is beginning to explore some ways that natural language processing can help in Bible translation. Beth grew up in Silicon Valley and currently lives in Dallas, TX.
Andy and Laura Conner
The Conners founded the Genesis Project in SeaTac, WA, in 2009. Andy has been a sheriff’s deputy in King County for 24 years, and was motivated to start a comprehensive recovery program for women caught in sex trafficking and prostitution after his interactions with women and girls on the streets of South Seattle. He has now served for more than ten years on the FBI sex trafficking task force. The Genesis Project now partners with Federal and Local Law Enforcement, serving as their victim advocacy organization. Andy and Laura have 3 kids and live in King County.
Luke Frank
Luke has always felt a calling to love and care for the marginalized and those most tend to look beyond. He has worked with older adults, youth, individuals with dementia and Alzheimer’s, and now with homeless/unhoused neighbors in the Greater Seattle area. Luke grew up in Idaho with eleven brothers and sisters, and came to Seattle for college at Seattle Pacific University. He served for 12 years as an associate and youth pastor at Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland. During this time he found a passion for volunteering at the Union Gospel Mission with their Search and Rescue program. He currently serves as a Church Partnership Manager at UGM helping churches and the mission partner more effectively. Luke and his wife Heidi live in Monroe, WA, with their 5 kids.
Philip & Ashleigh Irwin
The Irwins currently serve as the Student Strategists for the Asia Pacific Rim Affinity of the International Mission Board. In this role, they help mobilize university students, churches, and collegiate ministries to go on short-term trips and engage the lost both at home and abroad. They have been in this temporary position for the last 2 years due to Covid border restrictions and other international issues, but have always had hearts for students and young people. Previously they lived and worked for eight years in a large East Asian country, mostly in university ministry roles. They currently live in Hawaii with their daughters Bella and Emma.
Joy R*
Joy was first drawn to Central Asia on a short-term missions trip during her college years at Moody Bible Institute. Since 2018, she has been serving in a Central Asian country with fewer than 5,000 evangelical believers. While there, she works full-time at a local company, encourages local believers, and models healthy ministry that can be accomplished in a secular setting. Before her current assignment, Joy served for ten years in a neighboring country living with a host family, teaching English in a large village, and coordinating for a medical training startup company directed by a local believer. During her time in Central Asia, she has also been a student, a Bible study leader, and a Bible storytelling trainer. *Name has been changed for security reasons.
GIC Alumni:
Regan & Robin Miller
The Millers were a part of LifeWay’s Global Impact Celebration in 2021. Before that, they spent 15 years living in Vietnam working with the IMB. Regan taught at a national university and Robin worked as a school nurse while they also trained national leaders in church planting. They returned to the U.S. to care for Robin’s father. Regan is now pastoring Nassau Bay Baptist Church in Houston, TX, while Robin continues to coordinate medical care for IMB personnel in five countries in Southeast Asia. Regan and Robin will serve as our speakers at the Kick-Off Service and Commitment Service.
GIC Alumni:
Gotta Go Staff
Gotta Go is a ministry working to spread the Gospel to those without a voice in persecuted Asia who have never heard. Their teams rescue people from commercial and sexual slavery, introducing them to the freedom found in Jesus Christ. Their founder prepares people to go, live, and share in closed countries. She has been a Global Impact Celebration guest in the past, and will join us this year to encourage fellow workers, share with small groups, and for a Saturday workshop.