MISSIONS
Bob & Beth Xavier
Bob Xavier has dedicated 40 years to working with young people and families. He is Director of Set Free Ministries of Bradenton, Florida, and has been a Pastor and Chaplain. Bob and Beth live in Bradenton with two children Jonathan and Rachel.
Sokney “Chetra” & Julia Liles-Hong
Julia was raised in a Christian home near London, England and accepted Christ as Savior in 2005. She earned a degree in Theatre Design and used those skills on several short-term mission trips, including TCM’s Africa Safari in 2009. During that trip the Lord confirmed that He was calling her into cross-cultural ministry, so she enrolled in a missions program at All Nations Christian College. After completing a two-month internship with TCM in Southeast Asia, she applied to be a TCM missionary and hit the ground running in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in September 2015.
Julia plunged directly into language study and was actively involved in the ministries of the Phnom Penh City Central Church. Her heart desire is to see Cambodians of all ages and walks of life enter into the Grace church to hear God’s Word and receive Christ. She longs to see the current believers develop a heart for evangelism despite their cultural shyness.
Sokney “Chetra” Hong is a Cambodian from a very strong Buddhist family. Chetra himself was a committed Buddhist and served as a monk for 5 years from 2006 to 2011. Although he loved everything about Buddhism and thought he was a noble man with few, if any sins, he sometimes wondered, “What is the purpose of my existence?”
In 2012, Chetra started a job teaching in a language school where he was required to join a weekly Bible study. He started learning about the God of the Bible and his students tried to share the good news of Jesus Christ with him; however, he resisted because Buddhism still meant everything to him, and he couldn’t imagine losing the most precious thing in his life. Deep down in his heart though, there was an emptiness seeking to be filled.
Julia enrolled in the language school where Chetra was working in 2017. She shared many Bible verses with him and persistently invited him to church. When he finally agreed to attend a service, Pastor James Bermejo’s preaching answered the questions in his heart about the Bible. By October 2018 Chetra realized he was a sinner who needed to be saved, and he personally accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
Since then, Chetra has completed the Cambodia Grace Gospel Church’s Pastoral Ministry Mentoring Course. He and Julia were married in the UK in April 2022. They moved to the Philippines in June to attend TCM’s 2-month intensive Grace Theological Center for Mission, followed by a year of Bible school training for Chetra and teaching for Julia at International Grace Bible Institute—Tagum.
TCM accepted them as a missionary couple in January 2023 and assigned them to serve in Cambodia.
Gomer & Nene Indino
Gomer and Nene are graduates of TCM’s International Grace Bible Institute. Following their graduation in 1987, they served in a variety of ministries in the Philippines. They were actively involved in church planting and pastored a series of four churches, as well as engaging in campus and prison outreach and ministries to youth and children. Gomer also spent two years teaching in TCM’s Bible schools.
The Indinos’ interest in outreach led them to take a missions course. They began to pray about entering into mission work themselves, and discovered that TCM’ Brazil field needed missionaries with church planting and theological training skills. Gomer and Nene believed the Lord was calling them to take up the challenge and go to Brazil as missionaries.
In 1994, Gomer and Nene arrived in Brazil and immediately began language study. Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in South America. In addition to learning a new language, Gomer and Nene were plunged into cultural adjustments. After six months of formal Portuguese language instruction Gomer and Nene were able to enter into full-time ministry.
In 2023 Gomer & Nene felt the Lord calling them to serve alongside TCM’s Team in East Timor. They arrived in East Timor in September 2023 to learn a new Portuguese-based language (Tetun), a new culture and a new ministry!
Bill & Sue Vinton
Joseph and Emmanuela Asong
Joseph is the son of long-time Prison Mission Association (PMA) Africa Director and founder of the Grace Churches in Cameroon, the late Dr. Lawrence Asong. While in the University in 2002, the call of God upon Joseph’s life became so overwhelming that he decided to leave University and work with the pastors of the Grace Churches in Cameroon to keep the vision alive after his father went home to glory.
Emmanuela was born in the city of Bamenda in the northwest region of Cameroon. Her family is a strong Christian family and her father, a customs officer, also served as a church planter and elder in their family’s church. After obtaining her advanced level certificate in 2002, she proceeded to the Higher Teachers Training College (ENS) in Bambili and graduated with a Higher Diploma in teaching (Economics) after three years. With a firm determination to continue upwards on the educational ladder, she enrolled at the University of Dschang in 2006 where after two years she obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Economics.
Joseph effectively began ministry with the Grace Churches in Cameroon in 2002. He served as the Secretary of the National Council there and worked in many other areas, such as teaching in Cameroon Grace Bible Institute where he was the Registrar. Joseph also co-pastored a small church and organized evangelistic events, seminars, and conferences. In 2003, he was one of the key players involved in establishing a working relationship between the Grace Churches in Cameroon and Grace Ministries International. With a burning desire to serve God cross culturally, Joseph expressed his need for training, and Grace Ministries International (GMI) supported him as he studied at the Theological College of Central Africa -TCCA (now Evangelical University) in Ndola, Zambia, for four years (2005 – 2008).
At TCCA, Joseph served the community in many ways. During holidays Joseph travelled and ministered widely in several Grace Churches in Zambia. He graduated from TCCA with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology, majoring in Missions and minoring in Pastoral Studies (Joseph has since obtained a Masters in Theological Education in 2020 from Middlesex University, UK, in collaboration with London School of Theology). Returning home to Cameroon after graduation, Joseph served as a GMI intern from 2009-2010. During this time, he helped revive some Grace Churches in Cameroon and worked with the leadership there to restructure and focus the vision of the ministry. It was during this time that Joseph met his precious wife, Emmanuela, and they got married in December 2011. God has blessed them with two wonderful children: Princess (November 2012) and Sammy Parker (August 2015).
Joseph and Emmanuela arrived in Malawi in June 2012 and worked with Malawian leaders of the Grace Church in Malawi to establish the formal Leadership Training and Theological Education program for the Grace Church in Malawi. Nine years after in 2021, the Grace Church in Malawi has seven active Bible School Campuses around Malawi. Training is offered in English and Chichewa in the Lilongwe Campus and in Chichewa in all the other Campuses. With a total of about seventy active students, Malawi Grace Bible School has had five graduations for students at different levels of training. Theological education and leadership training have been the primary focus for the ASONG family but they are involved in other ministries such as Community Development. In 2017 they started a training ministry for women which is now a full-fledged school known as Grace School of Home Economics. Emmanuela spearheads this ministry as she works with Malawian leaders to train and empower women in several areas including cooking, entrepreneurship, financial management, spirituality etc. Grace School of Home Economics has since graduated eighty-one women, many of whom are currently engaged in gainful business activities.
