A Summer Of Global Partnership
The team from Cornerstone Church (Knoxville, TN) visited Sydney, Australia in July to serve SGC Wahroonga.
An update from Leo Parris, US Global Missions Coordinator for Sovereign Grace Churches, and Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania…
It was a busy summer in our global partnership in Sovereign Grace Churches. By God’s grace, more and more of our churches in the West are building relationally with others around the globe to make disciples of all nations for the glory of Christ.
Below is a snapshot of some of the ways our churches fostered global partnership.
Pastors visited Local Churches
For the past several years, Marty Machowski has travelled to Lord’s Grace Church in South Korea to strengthen pastor Songhwan Kang, and to preach at the church and a conference. Marty is carrying forward the many years of faithful ministry that Larry Malament invested in this church before the Lord took him home.
Marty Machowski, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA) has travelled to Lord’s Grace Church in South Korea over the years to strengthen pastor Songhwan Kang and his church.
Josh Montague is a Pastoral Resident at Cross of Grace Church in Chaska, Minnesota. Josh has worked with Training Leaders International (TLI) for many years and has recently begun pouring into our SG pastors and pastoral candidates in the Philippines, walking them through the TLI curriculum on faithful exegesis and exposition. Josh, along with Chris Oswalt and Robert Sidlow, travelled there this past February and September, and Josh will return in December along with Ryan Chase.
Josh Montague, Pastoral Resident at Cross of Grace Church in Chaska, Minnesota together with Chris Oswalt and Robert Sidlow have poured into our SG leaders in the Philippines.
This is just a taste of how God is using our pastors to equip and care for our global partners as we continue to expand globally, but there are more examples! David Quilla in Pakistan. Chris Deloglos in Bolivia. Jared Mellinger in Germany. Jeff Purswell in Australia. Dave Taylor in the Philippines & Mexico. Bart Lipscomb and Doug Hayes to many locations in Africa… Many pastors travelling to Ethiopia. Oh yeah, and Bert Turner spent 5 weeks in Brazil! Wow! Thank God for the gifted and faithful pastors that Christ has gifted to Sovereign Grace Church. Isn’t it amazing how he is using them globally? To include a list of all the activity of our pastors would require a series of posts!
International Teams
Many of our churches also sent teams of members to strengthen our global partnership this year. Different teams focused on construction, VBS, Youth Camps, direct evangelism, and fellowship.
Rancho 3M
Sovereign Grace has a long and rich partnership with this orphanage and school located in the dessert valley of Guadalupe, Mexico. Lakeview Christian Center (New Orleans, LA), Risen Hope Church (Summerville, SC), Cornerstone Church (Knoxville, TN), and Center Church (Phoenix, AZ) have all sent or plan to send teams this year to partner with this wonderful ministry. This orphanage continues to work in close relationship with our churches in Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. In the future, the leadership of Rancho 3M hopes to plant a Sovereign Grace Church on the ranch site.
Lakeview Team
Risen Hope Team
Playa Azul, Costa Rica
This year, Covenant Fellowship Church led 2 different teams to visit Iglesias Biblica de Playa Azul to continue growing our partnership there. The first team engaged in construction projects while the second one held a YouthCamp. The first team was made up of 4 different Sovereign Grace Churches, all partnering to invest in our global partnership. Both teams also had the joy of worshiping with the new church plant in Jaco, Iglesias Gracia Soberana. Trinity College also sent a team to work with this church earlier this Spring.
Construction team from four different SG churches.
Team of youth, youth leaders and parents holding a Youth Camp.
Running A VBS Sydney, Australia
In July, Cornerstone Church (Knoxville, TN) sent a team to lead a Pirate themed Holiday Kids Club at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga in Sydney, Australia. The hope of this trip was to reach young families and school-aged kids around the local area with the gospel, which they did with great zeal. A WAC (We Are Conquerors) evangelistic bi-weekly Kids Club was able to be launched off the back of this trip.
Church Strengthening Trips from Toronto
In February, Sovereign Grace Church of Toronto sent a small team of folks to pour into the new church plant in Sovereign Grace Church in Nairobi, Kenya. Then, they also sent a different team to strengthen Trinity Fellowship Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. These were relational trips aimed at having mature folks from their church come along side to encourage folks at these other churches.
A team from SGC Toronto, Canada serving Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Another team from SGC Toronto, Canada serving a new church plant in Nairobi, Kenya.
And these are only some of the trips that have happened. In addition to visiting Rancho 3M a couple of times, Mercy Hill Church (Fredericksburg, VA) and Kingsway Church (Midlothian, VA) joined forces to send a couple teams to Bolivia in La Paz and Santa Cruz. Greentree Church (Egg Harbor Township, NJ) will send a team in early October to partner with Pat Tedeschi and Oasis Church in London there.
All of this is visible grace in our family of churches. God is not only growing our churches globally in size and impact, he is expanding our hearts as well. May 2026 continue to be full of activity as we work together across many nations to proclaim the gospel and together support the maturation of the Body of Christ.
If you would like to learn more about how to connect your church to our global partnership, contact Leo Parris, US Coordinator of Global Missions, at lparris@covfel.org.
Team members from Cornerstone Church of Knoxville, TN travelled to Sydney Australia in July to serve SG Wahroonga and their Holiday Kids Club.