Assistant Director, Regional Ministries/Communications

The Carlsons serve with OMS International at the world headquarters in Indiana. Greg is the assistant director of Regional Ministries, coordinating the vision of eleven geographic regions where OMS relates with US churches to promote missions and develop donors.  Shirley writes for the Communications Department. They have served with OMS in Colombia, Mexico, Russia and Uruguay.

Greg, from Jackson, Mississippi, received a bachelor of arts degree in social work from Baylor University and served two years with OMS in Bogotá, Colombia, in youth ministry. In the middle of his master’s degree studies, he worked for one year in Russia with OMS and the CoMission project. In Russia, he trained educators to teach a Christian curriculum of ethics and morality and conducted neighborhood Bible studies. Greg was ordained by OMS in 2005.

Shirley is a registered nurse and midwife and an ordained elder in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Born in New Zealand and reared in Australia, she holds a bachelor of arts degree in theology from Kingsley College (Melbourne) and also served two years as an assistant pastor at Everton Hills Wesleyan Church.

Greg and Shirley met while studying at Asbury Theological Seminary and were married July 7, 1996. Both completed master of divinity degrees in May 1996. After language studies in Costa Rica and a delay while recovering from leukemia (1997-1998), the Carlsons served with OMS in Mexico City for eighteen months, then Bogotá, Colombia, for two years and Montevideo, Uruguay, for sixteen months.

The Carlsons have four children:
Micah, born in Brisbane, Australia, on April 23, 1997
Madison, born in Houston, Texas, USA, on April 3, 2000
Nicholas, also born in Houston, Texas, USA, on August 7, 2001
Tiffany, born in Bogotá, Colombia, on April 29, 2003.

Missionary ID #801740