Planned Giving Department

 Diana Arndt joined OMS International in December of 1993. She serves as the administrator in the Planned Giving Department and as the manager for wills, estate planning, trusts, annuities and the pooled income fund program. Diana works closely with Steve Hoffman, gift and estate design officer, who is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

She was a stay-at-home mom while raising her four children (one child is now with Jesus), and she rejoined the workforce after her children were all in school. Diana’s previous employment was with the Senior Companion Program through Northeast Michigan Community Services Agency.

After giving her life to Christ in 1991, Diana felt led by God, and trusting Him, she and her daughter moved to Indiana from northeast Michigan in 1992. This was a huge step for her and her daughter, but her faith and trust in God grew as He provided an apartment and jobs for her and her daughter within a month. Diana worked at L.S. Ayres for a year and then came to OMS.

Associate Regional Directors, Northwest Region, USA

The Prestons serve with OMS International as directors of operations for the Northwest Region of OMS USA. Fred and Jennifer work as a team, supporting the Northwest regional director, primarily focusing on church and constituent relationships, student mission opportunities and short-term mission team logistics.

Fred has a bachelor’s degree in management and a degree in ministry. He is an ordained minister and has served with both The Salvation Army and the Evangelical Church of North America. Fred has served in a variety of capacities, including youth pastor, associate pastor and senior pastor. He has also participated in and led many short-term mission teams to locations that include Brazil, Argentina, Caribbean, Alaska, inner-city Atlanta, Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya.

Vice-President of Development/ECC

Ron and Patty Collins joined OMS International full time in May 2003 to use God’s giftedness to them for His kingdom building and His glory.

Patty taught for 16 years before responding to a call into missions she received in her teen years. She served as a missionary teacher with OMS in Spain from 1987 to 1988 where she received a missionary field education that enabled her to minister with Ron throughout the CoMission years in Russia from 1992 through 1998. God made a perfect match. Patty’s field experience and teaching credentials paired with Ron’s business experience in management, contract negotiations and development allowed them the experience of living on the “cutting edge” as OMS was recognized as THE sending organization among 85 participating partner organizations.

Mid-South Regional Representative/Extended Missionary Service

OMS MISSION STATEMENT

“By God’s grace, OMS International exists to establish responsible, Christ- centered churches among the nations.”

Bill and Judy Wilder serve as regional directors for the Mid-South region of OMS International. They promote the worldwide work of OMS, serving as missionary recruiters, raising prayer and financial support and partnering to place missionary speakers in churches, Sunday school classes, homes and Bible schools. They also capably share from their own experiences in Russia and other countries.

After being in business for 30 years, God called Bill and Judy to go to Russia in 1994, where they trained Russian schoolteachers in a Christian morals and ethics curriculum and initiated neighborhood Bible studies. In addition, Bill served as team leader for the city of Ivanovo. After returning from Russia, Bill and Judy felt that God was leading them into full-time mission work. They became full-time missionaries in 1995.

Southeast Regional Directors

As the SE Regional Director for Men For Missions International, Lowell has the opportunity to meet with laymen to inform, encourage, and challenge them in their involvement in God’s call to missions.

Lowell and Diane have been active in local MFMI councils, previously in New York State, Florida, and now in Georgia, and have been on mission trips to Spain and Ecuador.

They have retired from the business world, both having had careers with IBM; and Lowell also having served for 23 years as Town Justice for the Town of Binghamton in upstate New York.

Although “retired” they have been obedient to God’s call on their lives to full time missions.

Lowell and Diane have three children and nine grandchildren and enjoy periodic visits to the northeast to visit them and other family and friends.

MFMI exists to challenge people with the unfinished task of reaching the lost for Christ. The challenge of MFMI is:

• Do whatever God asks you to do
• Go wherever God asks you to go
• Give whatever God asks you to give

Iowa/Kansas/Missouri/Nebraska Regional Representatives

Vaughn and Cindy Telfer began their career ministry with OMS International in 1997 in the new field of Mozambique, ministering in evangelism, discipling and church planting.

During the tragic floods of 2000, Cindy cared for the health needs of hundreds of adults and children in relief camps, and Vaughn worked weekly with political leaders to establish a new community where more than 1,500 families, all victims of the flooding, were relocated. They organized flood relief camps, distributed more than 100 tons of food, oversaw the building of 34 flood relief homes and drilled two deep-water wells. Hundreds trusted in Jesus as Savior and were discipled, and scores were baptized, establishing a new church, preschool and ministry center in Khongolote. The Telfers assisted in opening the Maputo Bible Seminary in February of 2001. Vaughn directed the seminary for three years and has regularly taught as many as forty students.

Associate Director, Northeast Region

Austin Sullivan has served as an associate staff for OMS in the northeast regional office in Allentown, Pennsylvania, since 1988 when Bruce and Donna Hess were appointed to serve as the regional directors.

Yet, for the past decade, he has served primarily in Russia. In 1995, after two extended visits to Russia, he served as a member of the CoMission team in Tver, Russia, from July 1996 to June 1997. In 1999, he returned to Russia and worked with the ECC team in the city of Vladimir in the area of church planting.

Austin then moved to Moscow to serve as field administrator for one year after the work in Vladimir was stopped. During that year, he also taught two courses at the Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary. He later served as assistant to the Russia ECC coordinator. His responsibility was to visit the churches of the Blagovest Evangelical Christian Church Association, encouraging and assisting them when possible. Austin returned from Russia in August 2005 to serve as associate director of OMS’ northeast regional office.

Associate Regional Director, ECC Shepherds, and CMT Trainer

Folmer and Marilyn Strunk have been Northwest regional directors for OMS International since 2002. They are also Every Community for Christ (ECC) shepherds in Asia.

Currently, they are serving as associate regional directors for the Pacific Northwest and ECC shepherds for the South Pacific, Singapore and Malaysia. Folmer is also a Church Multiplication Team (CMT) trainer for ECC. Our CMT members are learning to start churches with the vision and ability to reproduce themselves. They make disciples and maximize the gifts of the believers for spreading the Gospel among their own people. Folmer and Marilyn are key to training, equipping and empowering leaders for these Church Multiplication Teams.

Missionary ID #802254

Global Youth Ministries

Sara Sparks works in the Global Youth Ministries Department. Her passion is to see teenagers grow in their faith through discipleship. Sara disciples young girls in the local area and helps lead teams of teenagers on cross-cultural mission trips. “Our job in the Global Youth Ministries Department is to equip a generation of teenagers to carry out the role of the church around the world”.

Mission trips, serving in the local community, and God’s providential leading have guided and prepared her for this new direction in her life. She has been on several trips including Mexico, Bulgaria and Greece as a teenager and a young adult. She also served with Wheeler Mission Ministries for six years with inner city girls and boys. Her positions consisted of camp counselor, Bible study leader, tutor, and worship leader for the children.

East Central Regional Director

Gene began working as associate staff with Men for Missions International in1995 while living in the South. He started serving part-time as the East Central regional director in September of 2001 after returning to Indiana and then full-time in January of 2002.

Gene and Shelba Pollic are members of the East Street Congregational Christian Church in Winchester, Indiana, where they reside. They are originally from Indiana and moved to North Carolina in 1986 when God called them back home to Indiana in 1999. Gene worked in the truck-manufacturing business in Indiana and in North Carolina, he worked as a chief engineer and plant manager prior to serving the Lord full time with MFMI. They both enjoy traveling and interacting with God’s people.

Bringing a team effort to MFMI, both Gene and Shelba have a heart for the lay people of the church and serve to further the cause of Jesus Christ and to spread His Gospel to all creatures.

California Region Representatives

James and Nell Oldham have been missionaries with OMS International since 1979, serving at the international headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana, and in Hong Kong, South Korea, the northwest region and in the southwest region. During their ministry at the OMS headquarters, James was chief accountant and Nell worked as a receptionist, part time in the accounting department and as director of English ministries in the Greenwood area.

Northwest Regional Director/ECC Shepherd 

There is one scripture that comes to mind as Gary shares his story. Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a [good] man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way.” If you break it down, it reads, “The goings of a good man are secure and enduring, God delights and takes pleasure in his [my] journey.”

The continuity of Gary’s life has been ministry and mission. He grew up in a pastor’s home and comes from a long line of faithful servants. The seeds of full-time mission work were planted in Gary when he was in his late 20s, when he participated with Mexico Outreach through Azusa Pacific University. Gary helped lead two youth teams. In 1997, he began a five-year experience as a staff mission pastor in Oregon. This step began the foundation building of what Gary sees as his life’s work or calling—helping build Christ’s Church across the expanse of His commission at home, regionally and to the nations.

Church Relations/Extended Missionary Services

Ken Milone serves as OMS International’s liaison for the church relations department in Greenwood, Indiana, and due to a lack of office space at the OMS world headquarters, Ken now has his office in their home. He assists in funding projects, works to gain more prayer support and funds for personnel and also assists Men for Missions International (MFMI) with gathering stories for Action magazine.

Before joining OMS, Ken was involved in factory management of AMF Wheel Goods Division, an Illinois bicycle and children’s toy manufacturer. Besides supervising 35 foremen and a 1,200-man force, he taught courses in management at Olney Central College. Later, he worked as AMF safety coordinator.

Bluegrass/Northern Plains Regional Directors

Chuck and Luci Long spent four years in Colombia with OMS International, 15 years with Men for Missions International (MFMI), the laymen’s voice of OMS, and 7 years ministering to college and seminary students at the Asbury campuses in Wilmore, Kentucky. Now, they serve the Bluegrass and Northern Plains regions, helping churches and disciplining individuals to implement their dreams and visions of reaching the world for Christ.

Associate Director, Central Region

Mike Kinner has served in missions with the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) for more than 23 years in several capacities. He and his wife, Debbie, first went to Kobe, Japan, as special assignment missionaries where they taught English as a second language and ministered in a local congregation. After returning to the States for additional education, Mike served as the warehouse and shipping clerk for that mission agency for a year and a half. In the summer of 1981, the Kinners were commissioned to go to Hong Kong as church-planting missionaries where they served until 1991. At that time, Mike was asked to take the assignment as regional coordinator for the Asia/Pacific region, which he continued through 2000. God led Mike in another direction in 2001 when he began a four-year assignment with World Gospel Mission, serving as program coordinator for Men With Vision.

Northeast Region Special Assistants and Campus Representatives

Bruce and Donna Hess serve as assistants to the regional directors for OMS International in the Northeast U. S. From their office in Houghton, New York, they promote the worldwide work of OMS. They also serve as Missionaries in Residence at Houghton College, while facilitating the development of the Northeast Region Campus Ministry Center.

Bruce, a third-generation missionary, became involved with OMS in 1959 when he spent a summer in Colombia. In 1963, following a year of language school in Costa Rica, he and Donna went to Colombia as career missionaries.

Besides teaching in the OMS Biblical Seminary of Colombia, Bruce pioneered and pastored several churches. His interest in literature led him to establish the Inter-American Bookstore. Ordained by the OMS-affiliated Colombian church, he served as a district leader and later as treasurer and president. In 1969, he initiated an Every Community for Christ program of door-to-door evangelism and church planting. He was named field superintendent in 1973 and field director in 1978.

Missionary Services

Rhonda came to OMS headquarters in 1994 as the recruitment secretary where she served for six years by assisting both short-term and career candidates from their initial inquiry until beginning their chosen ministry. She also helped to coordinate short-term teams and assisted them in their bookkeeping tasks.

Her current assignment is as director of missionary services where she assists missionaries on furlough and new candidates in preparing for their ministry. She prepares prayer cards, missionary profiles and response tools for all OMS missionaries. She also keeps track of meeting reports and church profiles for regional directors and missionaries. Another aspect of Rhonda’s ministries involves participation in prayer teams when possible. She has been blessed to serve on prayer teams to Brazil and Mexico where God is being glorified.

Missionary Services

An OMS missionary since 1984, Carolyn Eddans began her service in the country where OMS founders were first called to evangelize—Japan. Her main ministry was at Christian Academy in Japan, a school dedicated to education of missionary children. She served as secretary to the headmaster, dorm parent, and typing teacher. Carolyn also taught English, Bible, and cooking as part of her outreach ministry through the OMS churches in Japan.

Due to an illness in her family, in 1995 Carolyn was re-assigned to the world headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana. As administrative assistant to the vice-president of Human Resources, Carolyn helped provide OMS with the personnel necessary to carry out its vision worldwide. In addition, she continued to have ministry in the Japanese community in Greenwood. Then Carolyn served for 19 months in New Zealand. Having gained much knowledge in the Human Resources office, she helped in the same area in OMS New Zealand office. She also served in leadership positions with Girls Brigade and a youth group through her church in New Zealand.

World Intercessors

Having completed 19 years as missionaries to Taiwan, Phil and Lorna Chandler are currently serving the Lord in the World Intercessors department of OMS International. The son of missionary parents, Phil grew up in East Asia. Lorna is from Michigan.

Following college Phil went to Haiti to serve at the OMS International radio station, 4VEH.

After six years of teaching the blind, Lorna went to Haiti in 1971 to teach missionary children. Lorna and Phil met there, married, and served in Haiti until 1975.

In 1980 they went to Taiwan where Phil served in maintenance and had an extensive film ministry. In more recent years they have worked full time at Morrison Academy, the school for missionary children in Taichung, Taiwan. Lorna also worked a short time at a school for the blind in Taiwan.

Phil graduated from Le Tourneau College with a degree in electronics. One of the many things that kept Phil busy in Taiwan was a mobile Christian film ministry that expanded to include Christian videos available for home use on a rental basis.