Financial Support for Other Individuals

While our primary pattern has been, and will continue to be, developing and sustaining full-time missionaries under the Parkside umbrella, we see an opportunity to support some in our church who are serving in full-time ministry with other organizations. In 2014, in an effort to expand our missions outreach, the leadership at Parkside Church began providing pastoral care, as well as $5,000 per year, to five Parkside family members who were already engaged in ministry or missions work:

 

Emily (& Blake) Ackerson

I am serving with Bridges International with my husband, Blake. After four years of praying, preparing, and waiting, God sent us to Sydney, Australia! The nations are increasingly on the move to global cities. We want to be on the move with them. With Sydney's nearly 100,000 international students, Australia is the 2nd most desired location for international education after the U.S.

We have the great privilege of connecting with international students from around the world. We want to come alongside students and introduce them to Christ, build them up in their faith, and send them back to their home countries equipped to influence others for Christ. Our week consists of meeting with students for investigative Bible studies, discipling believers, and building relationships with students off campus through activities, trips, dinners, and living life together. We also help connect interested international students to local families and churches.

Learn more about Bridges International.

Read Emily and Blake's most recent newsletter.

 

Matt (& Laura) Pheneger 

I serve as the Operations Director for Ambassadors Football, an international organization whose mission is to communicate the good news of Jesus to all people through football (soccer). My responsibility is to oversee the day-to-day running of the mission as we come alongside our staff and volunteers globally to provide them with what they need to minister. We seek to reach kids, teens, women, men, and entire families who are passionately involved in football.

Training national staff, local churches, and others to form soccer teams, clubs, camps, and community outreach programs, in order to coach players with excellence and direct them to Christ, are just some of the ways Ambassadors Football is reaching the next generation with the good news of Jesus.

Learn more about Ambassadors Football: ambassadorsfootball.org

Read Matt and Laura's most recent newsletter.
 

Ruth Munkubanda-Powell (& Artis H. Powell Jr.)

KASEMPA, ZAMBIA
Ruth Powell was born and raised in Zambia. She is a teacher, trainer, and the founder and president of Village Hope International Ministries Incorporated.

Ruth joined Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) in 1984 and became the first CEF National Director of Zambia in 1994. In 2013, Ruth left CEF to pursue the God-given dream of reaching orphans and vulnerable children in her home area of Kasempa, Zambia. God led Ruth and her family to start Village Hope. 

• Since 2010, we have built a Trades School where members of the community in Kasempa come and learn a trade.
• We opened a school for children where children are learning about Christ as part of the curriculum.
• We drilled two wells for the community to have clean water.
• In February, 2025, we hired a local doctor to help people in the village with medical needs. His practice in the village is serving many lives as people in the village die from lack of medical care and simple sicknesses that can easily be treated.

Learn more about  Village Hope International Ministries, Inc.: villagehopeintl.com

GREATER CLEVELAND, OHIO
Ruth later formed Celebration of Ministries Incorporated, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that promotes and administrates “Gospel Outreach Bible Clubs”. She started working in Cleveland, Ohio. 

We thank God for five after school Bible clubs we have in public schools in Cleveland, Euclid, and Painesville, OH. We have 116 boys and girls (K through 5th grade) enrolled.

Learn more about Bible Clubs in Grater Cleveland: Email Ruth

Read Ruth and Artis's most recent newsletter.

Goran (& Beth) Tomic

I currently serve as Regional Director for Europe with Ambassadors Football, seeking to mentor and encourage Ambassadors leaders in Europe, oversee present and developing ministries, and help conduct training for churches and coaches around the world.

Our family spent six years in Brazil and almost four in Eastern Europe working to get soccer ministry established in those areas, and we now reside locally (in Ohio) and travel to areas where we serve. Beth recently completed a Masters degree in Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and hopes to use that training locally and in our travels.

Learn more about Ambassadors Football: ambassadorsfootball.org

Read Goran and Beth's most recent newsletter.

 

We also support a fifth individual who has requested to remain anonymous due to security concerns in the countries to which he is ministering.