Plenary Speakers

• Mack Stiles

  Mack Stiles is CEO of Gulf Digital Solutions and general secretary for the Fellowship of Christian UAE Students (FOCUS) in the United Arab Emirates. He has worked for many years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the United States. He is the author of Marks of the Messenger and Speaking of Jesus. Mack enjoys photography and snow skiing, but most of all loves thinking through how to apply the gospel of grace to issues confronting students in the university world. He is married to Leeann, and they are parents of three sons.

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• D.A. Carson

  Don Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Dr. Carson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Dr. Carson is co-founder (with Tim Keller) and president of The Gospel Coalition. He has written or edited over fifty books, including How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil and A Call to Spiritual Reformation. Dr. Carson and his wife, Joy, reside in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two children. In his spare time, Dr. Carson enjoys reading, hiking, and woodworking.

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• Matt Chandler

  Matt Chandler serves as lead pastor for teaching at The Village Church in Dallas, Texas. He assumed this role in August 2002 after several years of serving on a local church staff and as an itinerant preacher. Matt is involved in church planting around Dallas and across the world through The Village Church and other partnerships such as Acts 29, which he serves as president. He is the author of The Explicit Gospel and Creature of the Word. He and his wife, Lauren, live with their three children in Highland Village, Texas.

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• Thabiti Anyabwile

  Thabiti Anyabwile is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman. He is a native of Lexington, North Carolina. Thabiti holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in psychology from North Carolina State University. He is the author of The Gospel for Muslims: An Encouragement to Share Christ with Confidence. He is the happy husband of Kristie and the adoring father of three children. A former high school basketball coach and bookstore owner, he enjoys preaching, reading, sports, and watching sci-fi films.

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• Richard Chin

  Richard Chin serves as the National Director of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, and the South Pacific Regional Secretary for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Based at Wollongong University, he also serves as a University chaplain with a team that proclaims Christ to local and international students. He is a Malaysian born Chinese Aussie, who loves God, family, and Asian food.

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• Kevin DeYoung

  Kevin DeYoung has been the senior pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, since August 2004. Prior to serving at URC, Kevin was the associate pastor at First Reformed Church in Orange City, Iowa. Kevin holds a Master of Divintiy from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including The Hole in Our Holiness, The Good News We Almost Forgot, and Just Do Something. Kevin and his wife, Trisha, have five children.

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• John Piper

  John Piper is associate pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (BD), and the University of Munich (DTh). For six years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem. John is the author of more than 40 books, including Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions and Desiring God, and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available at DesiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.

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• Conrad Mbewe

  Conrad Mbewe worked as a Mining Engineer in Zambia before answering God’s call into the pastoral ministry. Widely regarded as the African Spurgeon, Conrad is faithfully and powerfully proclaiming the Word of God from Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, since 1987. As well as pastoring, he maintains a full itinerant preaching ministry in different countries around the world and edits the Reformation Zambia magazine. Conrad volunteers with the YMCA, providing vocational training to the many unemployed youths in his community. He is married to Felistas, and has been wonderfully blessed with three children plus two foster daughters.

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• Michael Oh

  Dr. Michael Oh is the Executive Director / CEO of the Lausanne Movement. He is also the founder and board chair of CBI Japan which includes a graduate level theological seminary (Christ Bible Seminary), church planting efforts (All Nations
  Fellowship), and various outreach ministries (including the Heart & Soul Café). Michael received his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania where he also did his undergraduate degree and a master’s degree. His theological training (Master of Divinity) was received at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he also completed a master’s degree in Japanese Studies at Harvard University. He and his wife Pearl have 5 children.

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• David Platt

  David Platt is the senior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (A.B.J.) from the University of Georgia, and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.), Master of Theology (Th.M.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is author of Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. David practices what he preaches through his travel nationally and internationally, teaching from God’s Word in churches, seminaries, the underground church or even under a shade tree in Africa or Latin America. He married his wife, Heather in 1999 and they are parents of three children.

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Breakout Speakers

• Kim

  Kim is a housewife who lives in the Middle East. She enjoys baking, traveling, snorkeling and taking walks with friends. Kim longs to see reproducing churches established to the glory of God. One of her greatest joys in life is sharing the Gospel with women who have not had an opportunity to hear the truths about Christ and to disciple them.

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• Kristie Anyabwile

  Kristie Anyabwile is a wife, mom and homemaker in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. She holds degrees in History and African American Studies from NC State University. Kristie was grew up in Chocowinity, NC. She has been joyfully married for 22 years to the love of her life, Thabiti. They have three children. She enjoys cooking, reading, quality time with family, discipling young ladies, and teaching small groups. Kristie’s heart is to learn from God’s Word and from the people He’s placed around her, to pray and work in making disciples, and to see the gospel spread throughout all nations for the glory of God’s great name.

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• Timothy Bryd

  Tim Byrd has been serving with Campus Outreach in Johannesburg, South Africa for the past eight and a half years. Tim holds degrees in both African-American and African Studies and English from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Due to his father being in the US Army, Tim grew up in both Europe and the States. Tim and his wife, Niai, have two daughters. He enjoys reading, playing and watching sports, working out, cooking and enjoys casual time with family and friends. Tim’s vision is that through the lives of passionate universities students within the local church, South Africa would become a gospel saturated launching pad into the nations of Africa and beyond for the glory of God.

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• Mark Collins

  Mark Collins works in East Asia. He holds a BS in Political Science from James Madison University and an MDiv from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He grew up in Fairfax, VA. Mark has been married to his wife, Megan for 10 years and they have 5 children with one on the way. He enjoys basketball and football. Mark desires to see healthy, missions-minded churches planted in urban centers throughout East Asia. He hopes these churches would be able to bless that area of the world and be a pipeline of blessing to some of the hardest to reach areas in the world.

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• Andy Davis

  Andy Davis has been serving as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Durham, NC since 1998. He was born in Boston, MA where he later earned his bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1984. Andy earned his Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1990 and his Ph.D. in Church History from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1998. In 1994, the Davis family followed the call of the Lord to Tokushima, Japan, where they were involved in church planting through the International Mission Board. He married his wife, Christine in 1988 and they have five children.

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• Mark Dever

  Mark Dever serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. A Duke graduate, Mark holds a M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University. He is the president of 9Marks Ministries and has taught at a number of seminaries. Mark has authored several books and articles, most recently, What is a Healthy Church? and The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. He and his wife Connie live and minister on Capitol Hill. They have two adult children.

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• Ligon Duncan

  Ligon Duncan is the Senior Minister of the historic First Presbyterian Church (1837), Jackson, Mississippi, Chairman of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and Adjunct Professor at Reformed Theological Seminary. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, and reared in a Christian home, he did his studies at Furman University, Greenville, SC (BA); Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis (MDiv & MA); and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (PhD). Ligon and his wife, Anne, have two children. Ligon has edited, written, and contributed to numerous books, most recently including: Preaching the Cross, Fear Not: Death and the Afterlife from a Christian Perspective, In My Place Condemned He Stood, Does Grace Grow Best in Winter?.

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• Carl Ellis

  Dr. Ellis is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and has been a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary and Redeemer Seminary. He is a pioneer thinker in the area of urban ministry and the development of African American men. Dr. Ellis has taught extensively on the need for the church to engage Islam. He holds a B.A. from Hampton University, a M.A. from Westminster, and a D.Phil from Oxford Graduate School. He is married to Karen, and they have a blog called “Prophets of Culture”.

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• John Folmar

  John Folmar serves as senior pastor of United Christian Church of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He holds a BA from Boston University, JD from Duke University and an MDiv from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He grew up in North Carolina. He has been married to Keri for 16 years and they have three children. He enjoys reading and jogging. John desires to see Jesus Christ truly known and worshipped on the Arabian Peninsula through building healthy churches throughout the region.

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• Keri Folmar

  Keri Folmar is the wife of John Folmar, pastor of the United Christian Church of Dubai, an evangelical church in the Middle East, and the mother of three children. Keri disciples and teaches women in addition to leading and writing Bible studies. Her Bible study, Joy! A Bible Study on Philippians for Women, is available from Cruciform Press. Before marrying John, Keri was a lawyer and served as the chief counsel for the House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Constitution where she was the staff writer of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.

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• David Furman

  David Furman is an elder and founding pastor at Redeemer Church of Dubai. He has previously served in various churches in the US and has also ministered with university students around the world in Mexico, Spain, Kenya and China. David gets his greatest joy is proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. He and his wife, Gloria, have three children and they have lived on the Arabian Peninsula for the past four years. He enjoys reading, playing with his kids and watching the airplanes that fly by his office window.

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• Gloria Furman

  Gloria Furman is the wife of a church planter, mom, author and doula in Dubai, UAE. She holds a degree in English Writing from the University of North Texas and Master of Arts in Christian Education from the Dallas Theological Seminary. David and Gloria have been married for ten years and have three children and the fourth arriving July 2013. Gloria is the author of Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home and blogs regularly for Domestic Kingdom. Over the last ten years, her family’s work overseas through short-term trips and church planting has served to reaffirm time and again that her joy is wrapped up in God’s plan to spread joy among the nations.

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• Greg Gilbert

  Greg Gilbert is senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and the author of What Is the Gospel? He holds degrees from Yale University (B.A.) and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.). Greg is married to, Moriah, and they have three children.

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• Jonathan

  Jonathan founded a business-as-missions organization that has served nearly 400 church planters in more than 20 countries. He is married and has two children, and is an elder at his local church. A native of Canada, he enjoys winter sports and dreams of one day going heli-skiing.

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• David Lawrence

  David Lawrence serves as an elder at Redeemer Church of Dubai. He moved to the UAE in 2003, living first in Sharjah and moving later to Dubai. He is a Vice President with a consulting company, having previously worked in finance with General Electric. He has ministered with university students in the US, Guatemala, Kenya, and the Middle East. David has been a deacon at United Christian Church of Dubai (UCCD) and has led the membership classes at UCCD and Redeemer. He is married to Kris and they have five children. He enjoys ethnic foods, surfing, desert outings, and hang out time with his kids and the Redeemer youth, but most of all, leading people in the discovery of the riches of God’s Word and the wonders of His grace in Christ.

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• C.J. Mahaney

  CJ Mahaney serves as Senior Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. He has authored several books including The Cross Centered Life and Humility:True Greatness. CJ and his wife Carolyn have three married daughters, one son and twelve grandchildren.

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• Joanna Mathew

  Joanna Mathew is a homemaker and volunteer staff with the Fellowship of Christian UAE Students in Dubai. She studied Marketing and Finance at the University of Wollongong in Dubai. Joanna was born in Bahrain and grew of in the UAE. She has been married to her husband, Nisin, a little over a year. She loves reading, puzzles, playing board games, watching movies and hanging out with students. God has given her a great love for the local church. Joanna ministers among people from many countries and backgrounds in which she longs to see them go back to their communities and share the Gospel there.

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• Nisin Mathew

  Nisin Mathew is a General Consultant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He grew up in UAE. Nisin holds degrees in finance and marketing from the University of Wollongong in Dubai. He has been married to Joanna for a little over a year. He enjoys reading, listening to classical music, and playing board games. Nisin desires to be a part of the great work of proclaiming the gospel to unreached people and the place he lives provides a lot of opportunities to do that.

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• Elias Medeiros

  Dr. Elias Medeiros is the Harriet Barbour Professor of Missions and the Missions Department Chairman at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS. He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil since January 1975. Prior to come to RTS in 1993, he worked with youth camping ministries in Northeast Brazil; “church planter missionary” in the Amazon jungle; as an urban church planter in Northeast Brazil; pastored churches in the State of Paraiba, Brazil; taught at the Presbyterian Seminary in Brazil; and worked as Academic Dean at the Evangelical Missions Center in South Brazil. He is also a member of the “Global Diaspora Network Advisory Board” of “Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization” and of the “Evangelical Brazilian Diaspora Movement.” He has been happily married to Fokjelina, a beautiful Dutch lady, for almost 38 years by God’s grace and strength. They have three children and six grand-daughters.

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• Albert Mohler

  R. Albert Mohler Jr. serves as the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Mohler is a theologian and an ordained minister, having served as pastor and staff minister of several Southern Baptist churches. He came to the presidency of Southern Seminary from service as editor of The Christian Index, the oldest of the state papers serving the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Mohler is a member of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is author of The Conviction to Lead, He is Not Silent, and Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timless Truth. He is married to Mary, and they have two children.

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• Nastaran

  Nastaran is a book translator, editor, wife and mother. She grew up in Tehran, Iran and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Tehran University. She has been married to Yuna for 8 years and they have one daughter. Nastaran enjoys reading books and spending time with the youth at her local church.

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• Aaron

  This speaker’s bio is kept hidden to protect their identity.

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• Kathleen Nielson

  Kathleen B. Nielson is director of women’s initiatives for The Gospel Coalition. She holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. She has taught in the English departments at Vanderbilt, Bethel College (MN), and Wheaton College. She authors the Living Word Bible studies, as well as various articles, poems, and a book—Bible Study: Following the Ways of the Word. Kathleen speaks extensively at women’s conferences, and has directed and taught women’s Bible studies at several churches. The Nielsons have three grown sons, two daughters-in-law, and two grandchildren.

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• Nairy Ohanian

  Dr. Nairy Ohanian is a cross-cultural Pastoral Counselor who works for Barnabas International based out of the Washington DC area. Nairy holds a BA from Western Maryland College, MATS from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and a DMin from Columbia International Ministry. She grew up in Silver Spring, MD. She enjoys fitness, table tennis, painting, art museums and languages. Nairy desires to encourage, guide and assist missionaries in their kingdom mandate. Because she has had the greatest and hardest experiences serving for 20 years in many nations, today she desires to encourage other servants in their challenging callings.

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• Brian Parks

  Brian Parks is Vice President of GDS Knowledge Consultants and helped to launch Redeemer Church of Dubai. He has workplace experience in Mechanical Engineering during the 80’s and University student ministry in the 90’s. Other than reading, studying and teaching the Bible, Brian enjoys a rousing family dinner conversation, Thai food, Ultimate Frisbee, and his dog, Winston. He is married to Joanne and they have four children.

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• Joanne Parks

  Joanne Parks is a wife, mom, spends part of her time in the Health Office at her kids’ school and teaches CPR and First Aid. Joanne grew up in Memphis, TN and received her undergraduate degree in Nursing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is married to Brian for 25 years and they have four daughters. She enjoys walking around her neighborhood park in Dubai, talking with friends about things that matter, showing hospitality and playing tennis. She has been blessed to live in the Middle East for the past decade and has loved seeing God at work in the lives of people there.

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• Catherine Pratt

  Catherine Pratt is a North Carolina native. She met her husband, Zane, at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS). She served with Zane in Central Asia for twenty years. A short-term trip to the Muslim world with a student team from GCTS confirmed her prior calling to unreached people groups. Their two children were born in a mission hospital at the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. Before leaving the States, Catherine worked in outreach family counseling.

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• Zane Pratt

  Zane Pratt is the dean of Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism and associate professor of Christian missions. Zane holds a B.A. from Duke University, an M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is a Ph.D. Candidate from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Zane served as a church planter and pastor in New England and as an Army Reserve chaplain before appointment for overseas service in 1991. He lived and worked in Central Asia until 2011, the last 10 years of which he had regional leadership responsibilities. He has written multiple articles in a volume on the theology of missions published by Broadman and Holman in the fall of 2011.

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• Juan Sanchez

  Juan Sanchez has served as the preaching pastor and elder of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, TX since 2005. He was converted to Christ in 1983 at the age of 17. Juan earned an undergraduate degree in Music from the University of Florida. He later earned a Masters of Divinity and a Masters in Theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He is currently completing his Doctorate of Philosophy degree from the same institution. Juan and his wife have five daughters.

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• David Sills

  David Sills serves as an Associate Dean of Christian Missions at the Billy Graham School of Missions at Southern Seminary after serving as a missionary in Ecuador. While with the International Mission Board, he served as church planter and general evangelist among the Highland Quichua people in the Andes and as a seminary professor at the Ecuadorian Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Sills has a B.A. from Belhaven College, a M.Div. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a D.Miss. and Ph.D. from Reformed Theological Seminary. Dr. Sills is the author of The Missionary Call, Reaching and Teaching, and two books on the Highland Quichua indigenous people published in Spanish. He and his wife, Mary, have been married for over thirty years and have two married children and three grandchildren.

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• Harshit Singh

  Harshit Singh serves as a pastor of Zion Church, pastoral trainer and church planter in Lucknow, India. He holds an MDiv from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is a graduate of PT Cornhill training in London. He is married to Malini and they have two children. God in his wisdom has placed Harshit in India which is his home and is one of the least reached nations in the world. Growing up in a Christian family and being surrounded by people who did not know the Lord gave him a huge desire to bring the gospel to his own people who were lost and without hope. Harshit’s hope is that as he pastors a local church, invests in the lives of others and trains young men that God would be kind and gracious to bless this work and that hundreds of workers would be prepared for the gospel in North India and beyond.

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• David Sitton

  David Sitton served as a church planting missionary in some of the remotest regions of Papua New Guinea during the 1970’s and 80’s. The Lord enabled him to make first contact with several previously unreached tribes and the establishing of 34 churches. In 1994, David founded To Every Tribe and, the following year, The Center for Pioneer Church Planting on the south Texas / Mexico border where he lives with his wife Tommi. David serves to train and launch church planting teams to those still without access to the gospel of Christ. David is the author of two books, To Every Tribe With Jesus and Reckless Abandon. David and Tommi have three grown children and two grandchildren.

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• Leeann Stiles

  Leeann Stiles is an educational consultant in Dubai, UAE. She holds a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Kentucky. She grew up in Louisville, KY. Leeann and her husband, Mack, have been married for 34 years and have three grown children and one daughter-in-law. She enjoys writing and leading Bible studies, and discipling women from many different countries. In the past she has directed a number of short term missions trips for students and saw how the Lord used these in incredible ways among nationals and students alike. Leeann has lived in Dubai for 12 years now and attends a church with over 50 nationalities.

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• Yuna

  Yuna is a church leader, worship leader and youth pastor at a church in Beverly Hills, CA. He hold a master degree in religious studies from Nations University and a degree in Electrical Engineering from Tehran University. He grew up in Tehran, Iran. He has been married to Nastaran for 8 years and they have one daughter. Yuna enjoys playing the guitar, writing songs, reading books and playing soccer.

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Musicians

• Matt Boswell

  Matt Boswell is the Pastor of Ministries and Worship at Providence Church in Frisco, TX. He has been leading worship and involved in church planting since 1995. His passion is to see his congregation engaged in gospel-centered ministry, and in that environment live out the great commission. He writes songs for congregational worship and is also a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Matt is a native Texan, who grew up the son of a pastor. He is head over heels for his bride, Jamie, and they have four small children.

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• Trip Lee

  Trip Lee is a recording artist with Reach Records, a Christian hip-hop record label whose passion is changing the way people see the world through proclaiming the person and work of Jesus. Trip was born and raised in Dallas, TX. Trip’s heart has always been to be a pastor, so in Spring 2013 he will join the staff of his local church in Washington DC as a pastoral assistant. He has appeared on numerous independent and national Christian hip-hop releases and has released several solo projects of his own, including: If They Only Knew (2007), 20/20 (2008), Between Two Worlds (2010) and The Good Life (2013). Recently, he authored The Good Life which is a book that dives deeper into the message behind his record of the same title. Trip resides in Washington DC with his wife, Jessica and their son.

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• Shai Linne

  Shai Linne is a recording artist with Lamp Mode Recordings, an independent Christian hip-hop record label whose mission is to highlight the character of God while presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ and a biblical worldview through hip-hop culture. Shai is a theologian, poet, and pastor-in-training, having recently completed a pastoral internship at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C., where he is a member. Shai has appeared on numerous independent and national Christian hip-hop releases and has released four solo projects of his own: The Solus Christus Project (2005), The Atonement (2008), Storiez (2008) and The Attributes of God (2011). He lives in Washington D.C. with his wife, Blair and their son.

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