Mabel, who is from Ireland, first joined the staff of OMS International in 1964 to work in the medical clinic in Saraguro. Bruce visited Ecuador in 1967 and married Mabel in 1970. A graduate of Emmanuel Bible College in England and the Missionary School of Medicine, Mabel received her Master’s degree in social sciences in 1989 from Azusa Pacific University.
Bruce is a 1973 graduate of Fort Wayne Bible College with a B.A. degree in missions. He continued his studies at London Bible College and earned a diploma in theology in 1972 and a B.D. degree in 1982 from the University of London. He studied for one year in the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Bruce and Mabel both taught in the Sinai Bible Institute in Carboncillo in the Southern Andes Mountains training young Ecuadoreans for church leadership in the remote southern mountain region of Ecuador. They were on the original team of missionaries that founded the Christian Bible Church in Guayaquil in 1986-1995.

In 1995, after serving for many years in Ecuador, Bruce and Mabel accepted the challenge to lead the OMS missionary team which entered Mozambique in 1996. Both served in the founding of the Christian Academy in Mozambique, a school for missionary children, and the Biblical Theological Seminary of Maputo for the training of pastors and church leaders. The team’s labors in evangelism and church planting brought about the registration of the Living Word Evangelical Church, the first organized OMS church in Africa. When Bruce and Mabel finished their assignment in Mozambique in August 2006, there were 13 churches throughout the country and the building for the Bible Seminary was nearing completion.

The Callenders have four grown children who have assisted in the family’s missionary endeavors. Bruce and Mabel are currently under homeland assignment encouraging God’s people to pray for Mozambique and raising funds for the training of leaders for the Living Word Evangelical Church.

Missionary ID #801156