We at Covenant long to see Christ’s Kingdom advancing in our community, nation, and world.
We engage in ministries that touch the world around us in the name of Christ through Word and deed. We participate in a variety of local service projects and in an annual mission trip to Port Gibson, Mississippi.
We also provide prayer and financial support to ministries and missionaries near and far.
Covenant focuses on these endeavors in our Spring Local Ministries Conference and our Fall Missions Conference.
LOCAL
Area Relief Ministries (ARM) is a faith-based non-profit organization that seeks to strengthen our community by alleviating suffering, promoting dignity, and fostering hope with those in need as an ongoing expression of the ministry of Jesus Christ. ARM has been helping low-to-moderate income individuals and families in Jackson for more than 30 years.
Birthchoice is a pregnancy resource center with locations in Jackson and Gibson County. Their mission is “to extend Christ-like love in a compassionate and responsive manner that values the family and empowers women and their partners to choose life.
Regional Inter-Faith Association (RIFA) is a Christian nonprofit organization that feeds, clothes, and trains people in need by combining life-changing resources from area churches, businesses, and individuals to show Christ’s love in action every day of the year. Their vision is to meet needs in our community and empower individuals to prepare for the future.
Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. Since 1993 more than 100 million boys and girls in over 130 countries have received shoe boxes filled with simple gifts such as school supplies, toiletries, toys, and clothing. But the best gift is that the boxes provide an opening for team members to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Children are offered booklets in their own language and an opportunity to participate in a 12-Bible-lesson follow-up program, “The Greatest Journey.” Covenant hosts a box packing party each year to reach children around the world through Operation Christmas Child.
Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is a Bible-centered organization composed of born-again believers whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living. CEF has been active in Jackson for more than 17 years. Good News Clubs, 5-Day Clubs, Christian Youth In Action, and Birthday Parties for Jesus have been the predominant vehicles used to evangelize children in our area.
NATIONAL
Sean and Nikki Sawyers
Sean and Nikki serve with Mission to North America and Christ the King church (Boston) as they plant CTK North – a gospel-centered congregation for Boston’s northern suburbs. Sean is a PCA pastor who has served in congregations in Missouri and South Carolina during the past 10 years before accepting the call to be a church planter. Sean and Nikki long to see a church in the northern suburbs of Boston where God’s people engage others through hospitality, neighborhood involvement, and individual relationships so that the community may experience the grace of Jesus Christ in and through His people.
Michael and Lindie Wadhams
Michael and Lindie Wadhams, along with their daughters Sabrina, Eden, Emma, Kimberly, and Michaela, serve with MTW and Christ Church Bellingham to continue the work that MTW short-term teams began on the Lummi Indian Reservation in 1996. Michael and Lindie are originally from Cape Town, South Africa, and were impressed by the Holy Spirit to come and minister to Native Americans. After serving on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, the Wadhams now work with the people of the Lummi Nation. Covenant members Mark and Susan Bolyard have been instrumental in organizing annual short-term mission trips to assist the Wadhams on the Lummi Reservation.
INTERNATIONAL
Carl and Becky Chaplin
Carl and Becky have served as Mission to the World (MTW) missionaries since 1990, first in the Czech Republic and later in Latvia and Lithuania. Currently the Chaplins are part of the Global Projects Team with MTW. They are developing new ways to send missionaries and assist MTW teams. This involves developing vocational missionary service overseas and developing international fellows ministries for recent college graduates. The Chaplins also minister to internationals in the Chattanooga area by teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and other ministries.
Craig and Stacy Pohl
Craig and Stacy previously served with MTW in Ecuador for nine years and now serve with MTW in Chile. They are located in the greater Viña del Mar/Valparaíso Bay area, the largest metropolitan area on Chile’s central coast (90 miles north of the country’s capital, Santiago). They are focused on church planting, leadership training and discipleship, and literature development.
Jeff and Katie Saunders
Jeff was graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2015, and he and Katie were then called to serve with MTW in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese desperately need to hear they are loved, have dignity, and are given ultimate affirmation through the incarnation. The message of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection has immense power to move people to experience true humanity the way God intended. Jeff and Katie serve in church-planting and university ministry and long to see many Japanese experience the power of the gospel as they taste and see the risen Christ.
Jeremy and Gina Sink
As Jeremy served for 10 years as a church planter in North Carolina, the Lord opened the Sinks’ eyes to the need for experienced pastors to help plant new churches among the Japanese (where less than one percent of the population is Christian). Since 2012, the Sinks have been serving on the Mission to the World (MTW) team in Nagoya, Japan, that oversees Christ Bible Institute (CBI). CBI’s mission is “to engage Japanese society with the gospel, expand the kingdom of God through church planting, and equip Japanese Christian leaders for ministry.” The Sinks, with their children Joshua, Josiah, and Garrett, assist in church planting, provide pastoral leadership and guidance, and thus advance the gospel in this pivotal Japanese city.
Robert & Jeanne Smith
Robert and Jeanne serve with Mission to the World (MTW) in Latvia and Lithuania, two of the Baltic states formerly part of the Soviet Union. They serve with Reformed churches in Riga, Latvia and in Kaunas, Lithuania, and with the Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary (click on British flag for English). Their ministries include outreach, discipleship, and mentoring seminary students.
Rod Staton
Rod is a member of Covenant who has made many short-term mission trips with Equipping Leaders International (ELI). ELI is organized to further the spiritual development of national pastors who will, in turn, inspire Biblical reformation in the lives of their own congregations. Rod has taught in several East African countries as well as in India before becoming ELI’s Director for Zambia. Rod plans to retire in the next few years in order to serve full-time with ELI.
Dan and Susan Steere
Dan serves with Equipping Leaders International (ELI) as the Director for West Africa and teaches in Ghana and Nigeria. He has taught in other African countries and recently in Bolivia, South America. Recognizing the tremendous need for training pastors in the developing world, Dan joined ELI fulltime in 2008.