Gene Brush
Executive Vice-President of PIEI
When I was a missionary in Seville, Spain back in 1977 and struggled to learn the Spanish language, the thought came to my mind that I would never learn Spanish so I might as well find Spaniards to do the work for me and go back home.
I reasoned that it would be more economical to give our support to nationals because my salary could pay for two of them. Since they knew Spanish (without accent I might add), knew their own culture, and if called by God and properly trained, they could do a much better job than I could. Besides that, they were permanent so that when a government tells a foreign missionary to go home, nationals are still in their own country serving the Lord. Our family didn’t go home and, by God’s grace, we were able to learn Spanish and serve Christ in a church planting effort, yet the thought of supporting national missionaries was on my heart and mind after returning to the states in1980.
During the early 80’s the desire of starting a mission to support indigenous Christian leaders from around the world became stronger and stronger in my heart so that, after sharing my vision with others, a group of us formed Partners in Evangelism in 1985.
Although my heart was, and has always been in Spain, which also was the first country we supported, the word “International” was added as a statement of faith in what God would do in the future. Now we are in 16 countries and have expanded to five continents.
God’s grace has been so evident since we have no employees and everyone in Partners in Evangelism International serves as a volunteer so that our national missionaries can fully dedicate their lives to church planting, evangelism, and compassion ministries. Besides the wonderful, faithful nationals that are a part of our mission, it has been so rewarding to see men and women in the U.S. get highly involved and serve as chairpersons, treasurers, and committee members so that our indigenous leaders can do their work for Christ in their own countries.
Our goal is to glorify Christ in all we do and serve Him with all our strength so that the lost will hear the transforming message of the gospel of grace around the world from our PIE missionaries. As an all-volunteer mission, our goal is to strive for excellence in everything we do, even though we do not have the paid staff other missions may have. The truth is, to run a mission on volunteers is not a very easy thing to do.
God has sent more than 100 volunteers that stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific to enable PIE to function as it does. There is nothing better in life than to serve Christ with others, in a united team with each one unselfishly sharing their lives and gifts to fulfill God’s eternal purposes. Although it is difficult not to mention each one by name, there are four persons I work with in the day to day operations of PIE that need to receive special mention.
After many years of faithful service by Ray Talmage as General Director, we asked Wayne Taylor of Mattawan, Michigan to serve in his place. Wayne has a varied background in Christian ministry and business which serves PIE well in the vital role he plays. His wisdom, partnership, and unselfish service is greatly appreciated. Also in the year 2006, our mission called Cornel Stef, a national from Romania, to be our President. It has been my goal from the beginning to have a national as the leader of PIE.
Cornel and his wife Gabriela (Pie secretary) are tireless servants of Christ who have a great burden to see this glorious gospel taken to the nations. This new addition of our website you are reading now as well as many other projects during the last year has taken many hours of hard work by Cornel and Gabriela for which we thank them. Like the Stefs, Daniela Poenar does an incredible job as PIE treasurer and because of her faithful and untiring efforts in our home office, we became a member of ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) in 2007. Our desire is to honor Christ in everything we do so that the mystery of the gospel can be clearly proclaimed by our national missionaries around the world.
We pray that, by God’s grace, we will be ready for the challenges He sets before us and that we will be faithful with that which God has entrusted us.
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