Sent Missionaries

 FAMILY PROFILE: Mark

Raised the son of Baptist missionaries in Southern Africa, I graduated from Samford University and worked several jobs before being given a strong desire to do missions. I grew up believing that I was saved until one night in my twenties when I was confronted with the difference between what I professed to believe and the way I was living. God graciously saved me that night.  I continued in different jobs including catering, social work, real estate, and the newspaper business. I was dissatisfied with my life but wasnít sure what the Lord had for us. In July, 2006, I went on a short-term mission trip with my church and To Every Tribe Ministries. TETMís passion and vision were amazing and God immediately gave me a desire to work with them.

When I returned, I told Belinda what God was doing in my life, prepared to give her plenty of time to adjust, but God had worked in her heart and she was ready almost immediately to begin pursuing the dream. We moved to Los Fresnos, TX in January, 2007 to attend the CPCP. My first mission trip was to PNG and I immediately fell in love with the people and the country.  From that time there has been little doubt in my mind that we would eventually serve in PNG.

FAMILY PROFILE: Belinda

I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and at age 7 moved with my family to Hong Kong in 1979 when my parents became missionaries. At age 18, I came back for college. Although I was baptized at the age of 9, I realized in 1996 that I was not saved. I became a true believer that night. After 12 years of waiting, Mark and I found out we were expecting our first child. Bradley was born in February, 2004. Fifteen months later, we were expecting again. Erin was born in December, 2005. The girls have brought great joy to our lives and our desire is to raise them in the Word, hoping they will someday become a part of His Kingdom. Mark shared how quickly the Lord worked in my heart about full-time missions, but I had some real-time adjusting to do when two months later I had left the green hills of Birmingham, my job of 9 years, my parents and siblings, my dogs, my house, and my church for the flat greenish-brown scenery of south Texas. But God is faithful and it is home for now.

Bradley and Erin adjusted beautifully, always believing that "home" is wherever Mommy and Daddy are- even when our family spent 7 weeks in a tent in southern Mexico! We encountered snakes, scorpions, spiders, iguanas, and mice, but the girls were unperturbed, calling the tent ìhomeî and giving us an immediate kinship with the parents of the village kids. Last year I took a dental training course. I learned to clean out dental decay and fill cavities using non-powered hand instruments that do not require anesthesia. The process is virtually painless for the patient. I used my training on a trip to Mexico and will be taking my dental equipment with me to PNG, hoping to serve the people there. As we look ahead to our move to PNG, I am excited and scared at the same time. I know there will be hardship, but thatís all right. I know that home-schooling our girls will be difficult at times, but Iím prepared to do my best. I know that we will have to totally depend on God, but weíre supposed to do that anyway, right?

Mission Plans

To Every Tribe believes strongly in using teams.

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

We are committed to having a minimum of three units on our team, which may be a mix of families and single missionaries. Each unit will have completed the training at the CPCP. We now have two trained and committed families, and weíre excited to tell you that a family, from the current CPCP class has joined our team. They are Scott & Kate Ronyak from Columbus, OH, and their two kids, Grace (2) and Micah (3 months). We are forming our team stateside so that we can get to know each other intimately prior to heading for overseas service. One of the biggest difficulties missionaries face is getting along with their co-laborers, and we want to minimize this by working through many issues before deployment.  One of the great joys has been working on Team plans with Alex and Kelley Sisson.  Having fellowshipped with them in a small group setting, we had an excellent foundation to move forward in planning to serve long term as a team.  

We are committed to an initial stay in PNG of three years with the goal of this being a long term realization.  Our main goal in going to PNG will be to glorify God by planting churches among those who have never heard, and where there is no evangelical witness for the gospel.  We realize that church planting like this is not something that we can immediately begin.  We must first learn the language, and begin to learn the culture before we are able to effectively minister to those who have never heard.  We will begin these efforts just outside the city of Goroka (which is in the Eastern Highlands Province of PNG).  There is a group of mature believers that we will initially be working with to help us with this learning process.  We estimate that this will almost entirely consume our first year in PNG.  As we continue to grow in language and culture we will be developing relationships and beginning research to identify the unreached groups.  Once those groups have been identified we can start planning how to reach them most effectively.  We know this is not something that we as humans can just plan and do, but it is something that the Holy Spirit must do through us.  We feel very privileged and blessed that God is allowing us to be a part of His amazing work!

Contact & Information:

Mark & Belinda Faulkner
602 W 6th St.  APT 7, Los Fresnos, TX 78566
mark@toeverytribe.com  &  belinda@toeverytribe.com

For information about To Every Tribe Ministries click here.

For information about Papua New Guinea click here.

To financially support Mark and Belinda with a one time gift or ongoing monthly support click here.