The International Conference On Missions Presents:
Together God’s Plan To Redeem The World.
Henry Burgea
I was born In Bukavu on April 27 1963. In Bukavu, Eastern DRC, I gave my life to Christ on August 2nd 1975. I studied Bible and spent some years in Theological Education then worked for 2 years training medical and nursing students in Katana, Eastern DR Congo. After more medical training, I went back to Bukavu and was requested to coordinate the medical program of my Church in the Country (DR Congo) where I served for 6 years.
My love for the Church and ministry was nurtured and developed by missionaries who devoted themselves to the cause of the Gospel amidst numerous challenges. In 1996, I started my Master’s in Communication with leaning on Intercultural Communication. After completion, I joined Christian Missionary Fellowship International and was assigned a short term mission to Ivory Coast.
In 2011, I was called to help start LivingStone International University, a new project of the New Testament Churches of Christ for the Eastern Region of Uganda. I am serving now as the Vice President for Academic Affairs and a Volunteer Church servant with Mbale Church of Christ.
I am currently enrolled in a PhD program that will give me a specialty in Leadership, Policy, and Change. I am expected to graduate, God willing, early 2018. Africa and the world need “TRUE SERVANT LEADERS”. We are called by God so that through us He molds a new breed of leaders: TRUE SERVANT LEADERS.
I am happily married to Yvette Bisimwa Chibalonza. We have 5 children, and 2 grandchildren. My family and the family of my daughter are very stable and strong in faith.
Mike Nichols
Mike was born in 1958 and raised in central Illinois as a “preacher’s kid.” His father, Ed Nichols, has been involved in the preaching ministry and cross-cultural missions for over forty years. Mike graduated with a B.A. degree from Lincoln Christian College (now Lincoln Christian University) in 1980 and a M.A. degree from Lincoln Christian Seminary in 1983. Mike was youth minister at the Greenview Christian Church in Greenview, Illinois for about five years before becoming a missionary.
He and his family served as missionaries with ACM International in The Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 1983 to 1993. From 1994 to present, Mike has been teaching at Lincoln Christian University in Lincoln, Illinois. He is currently Professor and Director for the Intercultural Studies Program in the undergraduate school. Mike has made numerous short-term ministry trips to over twenty countries. He is a 2014 graduate of Trinity International University (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, TEDS) where he earned a PhD degree in Intercultural Studies with a minor in Education. Mike has published articles on missions topics in two different professional journals and has recently completed the manuscript of his first book, “Short Life: Living for What Matters During our Few Days on Earth.”
The Nichols’ family resides near Mt. Pulaski, Illinois. Mike and his wife Julie have been married for thirty-four years and have three adult children; Sarah (husband Jake), Jason (wife Chelsea), and Samantha (fiancé Josh). Mike and Julie have two grandchildren; Mike has also been a spiritual father to several “spiritually adopted” children.
Jerry Harris
Jerry Harris is Lead Pastor of The Crossing, a multi-site mega-church, based in Quincy, Illinois and planted in several communities ranging in population from 125 to 40,000. Under Jerry’s leadership, The Crossing has grown from 230 people to over 8000 at 11 locations in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Kentucky. Outreach Magazine has consistently named The Crossing among the top 100 fastest growing and largest churches in America. Jerry is the author of Micropolitan Church (Crossbooks/Lifeway 2011), 50 Days (Crossing publications 2011), and Shifted: The Crossing Story (an Exponential E-book). He is an original board member of The Solomon Foundation and also Chairman of the Board of Care India, a mission located in southeastern India. He and his wife Allison have 4 grown children, all in ministry.
Enoch Nyador
Enoch Nyador is a native of Ghana,West Africa. He has been married to Lydia, a family doctor and ophthalmologist for 32 years, and they are blessed with a daughter, Yayra Odame-Akrofi, an optometrist, and two sons, Makafui and Jacob who are both college graduates. Eyram, the grandson has the most attention in the family. For the past 29 years, Enoch has served as the founder and executive director of Ghana Christian Mission, leading a team of 26 evangelists and 59 midwives, nurses and para- medicals in planting churches and treating the sick in the name of Christ among 11 unreached people groups in Ghana. He taught at Ghana Christian College from 1986-1992 and continues to serve on the University Council for over 15 years. He served as a student minister (1978-1982) and later as the first minister of the Abeka Christian Church in Accra, Ghana where he was ordained into the ministry in 1982. He loves to read detective novels and play ping pong for recreation. He and his family make their home in Gbetsile, Tema, where they are active members of the Pistis Christian Church, Gbetsile, near Michel Camp on the Tema-Akosombo road.
Dwain Illman
At LaMoine Christian Service Camp in Western Illinois I became a “life recruit” and went to Lincoln Christian College to get my undergraduate degree in Bible. While a student, I served as youth minister of Webber Street Church of Christ in Urbana and preaching minister at Ripley Christian Church, Ripley, Illinois. During that time, I was challenged by a speaker to enter medicine. I spent 4 years at the University of Illinois Abraham Lincoln College of Medicine in Chicago and graduated with my MD. Degree. I married my wonderful wife Marilyn while in medical school. We had daughters Christine and Julia while I was a resident in Dallas and our son Drew came later. After residency, we moved to serve at Mashoko Christian Hospital in Zimbabwe. For some of this time I was medical director as well as principal of the secondary school. Because of the civil war, we left Rhodesia after 3 years. Once back in the States, I joined a newly formed group of emergency medicine physicians in Bloomington, IN. For nearly 30 years I worked in the Bloomington Hospital emergency department as well as helping develop emergency and urgent care throughout Indiana. After retirement 13 years ago I took the challenge of short-term medical missions. I have now served on 45 teams, mostly as team leader and ministered in a dozen countries.
