Around The Corner (Our Home Missionaries)
Nidal & Wisam Arnouk
Nidal was born into an Orthodox family in the country of
Syria. His parents were not religiious people; but by the grace of God, he heard the gospel from a classmate and was saved at age eighteen. Later that year, Nidal felt the Lord's direction to become a Sunday School teacher; and over the next few years, he founded a new Sunday School program for a church which eventually grew to become the largest in Syria.
In 1982, he became a youth leader, and it was about
that time that God called him to preach. He studied in three different seminaries for a total of eight full-time years of Bible education.
Nidal started many churches in Syria but is currently
being used of God to minister to Iraqi refugees in Austin, Texas. It is his desire to plant churches in various cities of America where there are substantial populationsof Arabic-speaking people.
Nidal and Wisam have been blessed with two daughters:
Meray and Reem .
Ake & Daphney Bowonzong
Ake was saved in June of 1988 in New Guinea through the
work of a missionary. On the day of his salvation, Ake was burdened to preach.
Back in his hometown, he became a member of Faith Baptist
Church. From 1989 to 1997, Ake workedin the church from assistant youth director to interim pastor. In April of 2000, with help from a preacher in New York, Ake learned about Marietta Bible College.
Since then he has graduated from Marietta and Cornerstone
Baptist Temple began supporting Ake in March of 2004.
Ake and Daphney were married in December 2010 and they
have one child Eranu.
John & Henra Clark
John was born in Tremont, Mississippi, and reared in a
Christian home. Due to a serious ear infection at age three, he became deaf. Henra, who was also born in a Christian home, was born with hearing impairment. John and Henra were high school sweethearts at Mississippi School for the Deaf and were married in 1956.
In 1965, they moved to Chicago and attended First
Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, where John served as a deacon for eight years and taught a deaf Bible class. He then surrendered to the call of God to become an evangelist and has traveled extensively, preaching in revivals, camps, and various meetings.
John pastored two churches in Georgia and Nebraska
before 1995 when God burdened his heart to become a full-time missionary to the deaf world. They are currently ministering to the deaf in Dayton area and, as John's health allows, they travel and minster in various meetings with the deaf.
Kirk & Karen Kirkland
Kirk began riding the bus to Cornerstone Baptist Temple
Kirk went on to graduate from Crown College in 2004 and returned home to Cornerstone Baptist Temple in May 2005 as the assistant to Pastor Jerry Siler. at the age of three, and was saved in Junior Church on January 17, 1988.
Karen was raised in a Christian home and accepted Christ as her Savior at the young age of nine. A few years later at teen camp, she surrendered to do whatever the Lord wanted for her life. After graduation, Karen attended Word of Life Bible Institute to further her studies and "learn God's Word in a greater way." Later that year, she spent the summer ministering in New York City, where God instilled a love for inner city evangelism.
Kirk and Karen were married in May 2010. The Lord
called them out of Cornerstone Baptist Temple in May 2012, and they have planted Revive Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kirk and Karen have four children: Kerigan, Kolbie, Kingston and Klaire.
Scott & Amy Euton
Scott grew up in Huber Heights, Ohio, attending Cornerstone Baptist Church. He was saved at the age of seven and at thirteen began working in the bus ministry. Though the Lord moved him to Tipp City, Ohio, for several years where he served as a youth director and assistant pastor of Charity Baptist Church, in time, God moved him and his family back to Cornerstone where he continued to serve in various ministries.
Amy was blessed to grow up in a pastor’s home. Though she accepted Christ at the young age of five, she struggled for many years about assurance of salvation. At 16, she settled the matter once and for all. It was while staying busy in her dad’s church that she met Scott. Together, they have served faithfully and kept their hearts tender to the Lord’s leading.
In the fall of 2014, God began to work in the hearts of both Scott and Amy about stepping out to pastor a church. Their attention was immediately drawn to Miami County, where most Independent Baptist churches were without pastors. After much prayer and searching by the Eutons, the Lord led them to Piqua, Ohio, and God raised up some families looking for a pastor to help start a new church. On Easter Sunday 2015, Abundant Life Baptist Church began with forty-one people in attendance.
Scott and Amy have three children: Kyle, Seth and Cara.
Marilyn Pitzer
In April 1961, Marilyn surrendered her life to do anything
the Lord wanted; and then the year before she graduated from Bob Jones University, she surrendered to go to the mission field. A few years later, the Lord burdened Marilyn's heart for those who did not have the Word of God in their own language. She obtained information on various ministriesof that nature and found one that she felt suited her ministry desires. Because of her excellent response on her doctrinal questionnaire, she was able to begin the missionary process immediately and was not required to take a further year of Bible training. Marilyn gratefully credits Pastor Gerald Flemming's good, solid Bible teaching for this.
She left for the field of Venezuela in 1972 and has
remained there ever since, serving under missionary pastors in various ministries of the churches. She has been asked to teach a Sunday School teacher training class for women upon her return, as well as attempt to begin a children's choir and orchestra.
Marilyn has since retired from the field but continues to
serve God to the best of her abilities.
Stetson & Sandy Planck
Stetson was reared in a Christian home and attests that
some of his earliest memories were of his family attending church together as well as kneeling as a family to pray before bedtime. He received Christ as Savior at the tender age of eight.
Though Sandy was not born into a Christian home and
was subjected to the false doctrine of baptismal regeneration, she genuinely desired to know the truth. It was after college and through the providence of God that she visited Grace Baptist Church in Middletown, Ohio, and there she received Jesus Christ after hearing seven months of sound doctrinal preaching.
Stetson yielded to God's call for ministry in March of
1999, but it would be nine years before God would give him a specific direction of his call to preach the Gospel in Italy. The Plancks have been serving in Italy since December 2011.
Stetson and Sandy have two children- Isaiah and Pearl.
Dave & Carole Ross
Dave and Carole Ross are both from Dayton, Ohio,
natives and long-time members of Dayton/Cornerstone Baptist Temple. In a mission conference here in 1974, they surrendered to go to the mission field and after just two years of deputation, they, along with their two young sons, David and Steve, arrived in Indonesia. Dave and Carole have now faithfully served there for thirty-six years.
During the first five years of their Indonesian ministry,
they set up an ACE school for missionaries' children. They are now involved with work in a Bible Institute where Dave is the advisor and Dave and Carole are both teachers. They also work with three local churches.
The Ross' sons are now grown and married. David
works in commercial real estate; he and his wife, Sue, and their son, Alex, live in Columbus. Steve and his wife, Jody, are both physicians and reside in Pennsylvania with their four children-Cory, Ben, Maggie and Katie.
