Diaspora Missions

 

Tell “every nation, tribe, & language” about Jesus Christ

VICTORY STORIES

COACHING

Reach the Nations.

The Need

Myrtle Beach is the fastest growing metro area in the country according to the U.S. Census, and 13.5% of its population are foreign-born. It is a diverse group of people coming from nations like Bulgaria, Albania, Turkey, Russia, Romania, Moldova, Poland, Lebanon, Vietnam, China, and many others. This international diaspora presents a mission field that is ripe, but under-reached.

The Goal

Pathfinders reaches out to internationals using the natural context of a friendship and the universal bridge of sports to attract people of all nations to a saving relationship with Jesus and a local family of believers. We serve among the 3000+ international (J-1) students visiting Myrtle Beach, SC in the summer as well as international students from 64 countries studying at our local Coastal Carolina University.

God’s Chosen Way to Call, Equip, and Redeem.

Today, God is sending spiritual travelers from all corners of the world among us, so that “every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord,” removing government, cultural, or family pressures in their native context so that they can be reached.

It is world missions at our front door.

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About the Mission

Pathfinders is a ministry with a heart for and focus on the nations. It was born in 2006 as the first local outreach among the thousands of international students coming to the Myrtle Beach area to work and travel for the summer (aka J-1 students). Its mission was simple- to tell young people of “every nation, tribe, people and language” about the love and lordship of Jesus Christ, while helping them in practical ways.

The organization upholds the biblical significance of displacement as God’s chosen way to call, equip, and redeem people of all nations. God called Abraham out of his homeland and people to make him a blessing for all the nations. God sent Joseph as a migrant in Egypt to save many lives, and then began the nation of Israel in diaspora there. Moses became a “foreigner in a foreign land” who lived in exile and then migrated again with Israel to the promised land. God placed Esther in diaspora in Persia “for such a time as this” and made Ruth the foreign great-grandmother of King David. Jesus and his parents sought asylum in Egypt to escape Herod, and later, God dispersed the early Christians out of Jerusalem through persecution, causing them to cross geographic and cultural barriers and start the Gentile church. The Bible is a story of migration, and when God is at work, he moves people for his purposes.

"I believe in God now and I never thought I would before. Hearing more about God from Ellie made me open up to ideas I was very closed to in the past. I want to learn more and I know that this is the place to be if I want to go to church and hang out with Christians. So I am definitely planning to return next summer!"

-Victoria from Bulgaria, J-1 student

"One of the reasons I came to America this summer was to find out who God is."

-Nuria from Spain, J-1 student

Contact

Ellie Markova

Email

elliemarkova@yahoo.com

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