Around the World
A 55-Year Love Story: Ron and Linda Wilson
By Linda Wilson
I met Ron Wilson 55 years ago, and the following day he told me we were getting married because that is what God told him to do. Three months later we were married, and so began our adventure.
Two years after that we had our first son, and in each succeeding year we added another child until we had four – three sons and a daughter. We shared a love for each other, for our family, and for God. Those three things were the backbone of our relationship. We did everything with our whole heart and soul.
Ron began his career in the insurance business and I raised our children; however, we knew God had placed a call on our lives. It was never a vision or a voice from on high; we just knew we had something to do.
We have always been active in our church and community, assisting with self-sustaining projects and working with the Hmong people after the Vietnam War. We started with one Hmong family, and like a magnet, we inherited 300. We started a farm project, school classes, and a congregation that Ron pastored while still working. After the Bosnian War we worked with the resettlement of Bosnian refugees and still have many dear friends because of this work. Later we worked with the Des Moines Dream Center to minister to people living in the inner city of Des Moines, Iowa.
In 1992 Ron, who was a board member of Sports World Ministries, and I were assigned to accompany Mike Cobb, a professional athlete, to a speaking engagement at First Church of the Open Bible in Des Moines, Iowa, a church we had not before visited. The service was one of the most wonderful I have ever attended. Ken Groen, the church’s pastor at the time, gave Mike ten minutes to share. He told him, “If God leads, speak as long as you are led.”
At the end of that service, Mike led an altar call that resulted in 12 people coming forward to accept Christ, a testimony to the power of God. As Ron and I left First Church that day, we looked at one another and said, “We belong here.” We had no idea of the journey we had just begun.
In 1997 Ron’s boss gave him the book From Success to Significance by Lloyd Reeb. Ron, who was 53 at the time, enjoyed success as vice president of a billion dollar insurance company. Our four children had graduated from college and begun their independent lives. Ron made the decision that it was time to do more for God, so he retired with a small pension to do whatever God wanted him to do.
Ron’s last official duty for his company was to go to Washington, D.C., to the National Prayer Breakfast. While there a friend introduced him to Dois Rosser, a builder and Christian entrepreneur who was building churches in third world countries. Dois invited Ron to travel to India and Africa with him two weeks later.
That same year Paul Canfield, the Executive Director of Open Bible Global Missions at that time, had traveled to India for a Pentecostal conference and connected Ron with John Paul, the pastor of Open Bible Church of God in India. Paul Canfield had made an exciting discovery a few months prior: there were more than 60 Open Bible churches in India that Open Bible Churches in the States had known nothing about. He learned that Open Bible Church of God in India had been established in the 1930s by Open Bible missionaries Willis and Grace Clay. The Clays had formed just one small village church and a Bible school before they had to leave because of the war. John Paul’s father, P.K. Paul, had continued to lead the fledgling church. Unbelievably, by 1997 that one small church had grown into a flourishing work that included more than 60 village churches. After Paul Canfield shared this amazing story at First Church one Sunday, Ron offered to introduce Paul to Dois Rosser.
Six months after their trip to India, Ron received a call from Dois, who said, “Ron, God did not intersect our lives without a reason. I can tell you are a man of integrity and that you love the Lord. I will give money to Open Bible to build churches if you will oversee the work.”
Thus we began our work. I got a job to help bring in additional income, and Ron went to work raising funds and serving the Lord in India, Africa, Cuba, and other countries throughout the years. Ron took groups of people two or three times a year on vision trips to give them the vision of what we can do for others as our fulfillment of the Great Commission. I was able to travel with him to the churches, and I accompanied him to India once a year. Ron and I both knew this was the answer to the calling we had hungered for all those years. This was what God had prepared us for. After a time Dois moved on, but Open Bible people had opened their doors and hearts to our work, and we continued to share the vision God had given us.
I could share the many miracles and healings we have seen through the years, but what I really want to share is the experience that brought us to the fulfillment of the call we felt on our lives. Many feel this type of call but are not sure how to respond.
One of our grandsons lamented the fact that his grandpa, who passed away January 1, 2020, isn’t still here to tell him what he is supposed to do with his life. I believe Ron would have told our grandson and anyone else who feels they have a call on their life to pray, read the Bible, and let God lead. If you treat people with kindness and love, you will know in your heart if you are in God’s will. Live in such a way that when the doors of opportunity are open you are prepared and ready to walk through them. Never second guess what purpose the task may have for you. God knows and you will understand in time.
This has certainly been our experience. Human nature drives us to want to know what we should do right now. Unfortunately, we don’t know what God has planned for our lives. I can see how God prepared us in His own way for His own purpose. As I continue our work in India, I imagine that Ron is still watching over me, our children, and our work. I pray that I will go forward and fulfill our calling in a manner pleasing to the Lord.
About the Author
Linda Wilson serves as an Open Bible missionary ambassador, traveling frequently to India. She and her late husband, Ron, helped to build 122 Open Bible churches throughout several countries, dig 98 wells, and raise support for 21 orphanages.
On October 31 – November 5, 2025, Japan Open Bible Churches celebrated their seventieth anniversary. Global Missions Director Vince and Lois McCarty, Open Bible President Michael and Julie Nortune and I were honored to join them for this celebratory occasion.
My own connection with Japan goes back to my twenty-third birthday when I boarded a plane to Kobe with two suitcases, only five words in my Japanese vocabulary, and a heart full of missionary zeal. During my six years there, the Japanese church shaped me deeply as both a missionary and a person. When I left Japan thirty-six years ago, I left a piece of my heart. Joining them again to celebrate seventy years brought me real joy!
When I left Japan thirty-six years ago, I left a piece of my heart.
Japan Open Bible has become a true partner in ministry with Open Bible Churches globally, a partnership especially visible across Asia. The anniversary celebration honored the legacy of Japan Open Bible missionaries and the heritage of churches they planted while also affirming the importance of today’s smaller, community-based congregations. We visited, preached in, and celebrated with churches and pastors in both eastern and western Japan.
Japan’s geographical isolation and a 250-year ban on Christian missions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gave Japan a reputation as “the missionaries’ graveyard.” Yet, after World War II some US veterans, having seen the spiritual vacuum in Japan, returned as carriers of the hope of the Gospel. The Jake Collins, Eddie Carnes, and Phil Rounds families were among the first in the 1950s era to be sent by Open Bible Churches.
From a handful of missionaries and new believers in the early years to a network of Open Bible Churches across Japan today, God’s presence has been a steady flame of hope in the darkness.
From a handful of missionaries and new believers in the early years to a network of Open Bible Churches across Japan today, God’s presence has been a steady flame of hope in the darkness. Even though fewer than one percent of Japanese identify as Christian, today across Japan we see our churches, large and small, alive with joy and power of the Holy Spirit.
One of the early converts, now ninety-year-old Yaeko Yoshinaga, is likely the oldest surviving member of those first Japan Open Bible congregations. As an eighteen-year-old, she lived with the Rounds family helping in the home. She loved their children and learned to love potatoes (more than rice) as they did, but even more, came to faith in Jesus Christ.
Yaeko says, “I would not have believed in Jesus if I had not met Mr. Rounds, the missionary.“ She and her husband later pastored for 45 years, and today her son and wife pastor the flourishing church. Decades later, the flame of God’s love still burns brightly in Yaeko sensei. Her love, joy, humility, and faith impact every generation in the church. She remains a powerful reminder of how one relationship can change the direction of an entire life.
Pastor Yoshio Ishikawa told me the story of how he came to Jesus as a young boy. In the late 1960s, ten-year-old Yoshio’s family lived near an Open Bible Church in the Sumida neighborhood of Tokyo. He recalls, “When I was ten, I saw a TV drama about an incurable disease. It scared me, and without really knowing why, I walked into the church in my neighborhood that I had passed by many times. That church was Sumida Open Bible – the church I now pastor.”
Today, Pastor Ishikawa uses his talent as a skilled musician to reach people in new, non-traditional ways. He teaches a group ukulele class as a bridge to the gospel. Students learn to play the ukulele, then hear a teaching from the Bible and join in prayer. Other approaches, like book clubs, English lessons, and choirs, give churches relational ways to connect and open doors for evangelism.
In fact, many “unconventional” forms of evangelism are used to touch lives in churches in Japan. Often, churches and Christians invest years building trust and relationships before someone decides to follow Jesus. In my own experience, I saw that converts under my ministry were often a result of groundwork laid by others before me.
Looking ahead, Japan Open Bible embraces a bold vision: to plant ten new churches throughout the country in the next decade. I, for one, believe it can happen! God has not abandoned Japan. The hope of the Gospel that the missionaries brought with them back in the 1950s continues to burn brightly in our brothers and sisters of Japan Open Bible. May God fan that flame as they carry His hope across the country in ways we have not yet imagined!
As I leave Japan once again, I reflect and am grateful to have shared in the celebrations of what God has done, excitedly anticipating what He will do next!
Listen to Yaeko Yoshinaga’s testimony:
About the Author
Tammy Swailes is passionate about cross-cultural Christian education, so working with INSTE Bible College to disciple and equip leaders throughout Europe and beyond is a great fit! Tammy has lived in Europe since 1999 – first in Hungary and now Ukraine. Before that, she was in Japan, as well as Spokane, Washington. She now serves as INSTE regional director in Europe, assisting INSTE programs in five languages. Tammy has her undergraduate degrees in both Missions and Christian Education and a MA in Intercultural Studies. Photography, good coffee, multi-cultural experiences, and the family’s Yorkie are some of Tammy’s favorite things.
Around the World
Hope Rising in Venezuela: How Open Bible Churches are Transforming a Nation Through Faith and Compassion
Despite Venezuela’s fifteen-year ongoing humanitarian crisis, with nearly seventy percent of the population enduring multi-tiered poverty and almost half facing severe humanitarian needs, a movement of hope has unfolded in Open Bible Churches. Across the country, Open Bible is not only responding to urgent physical needs but is also nurturing a generation of believers in faith and service to stabilize Venezuela’s future.
Open Bible is not only responding to urgent physical needs but is also nurturing a generation of believers in faith and service to stabilize Venezuela’s future.
Church soup kitchens have long ministered beyond their walls to ensure that vulnerable children receive a hot meal. They also see that families receive food supplies, clothing, and shoes, bringing tangible relief to their neighborhoods. The Church has also stepped in where public services falter through medical outreaches – with eye exams, vaccinations, and even free haircuts. Through these initiatives, a vibrant children and youth ministry has emerged. The youth are not just recipients of aid but have become leaders, actively involved in church life – in worship, evangelism, and home groups.
Often, children and youth have no Christian family support and are the only believers in their homes. Many were left with relatives when their parents went to nearby countries in search of a better life. So, the church teaches and empowers youth to grow spiritually and practically. These “little-big giants” are proving to be a wave of hope as they grow “in wisdom and stature, and favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
Venezuela’s church is resilient, reinventing itself to meet the social, spiritual, and familial challenges with creativity
Over the years, events like the “Good News Festival” have sparked revival, resulting in Open Bible church plants. This festival, focused on children, reflects God’s heart for the youngest and most vulnerable, and brings new life and whole communities into faith. It is not unusual for entire families to be brought to Christ through their children.
Despite the widespread emigration of many adults, Venezuela’s church is resilient, reinventing itself to meet the social, spiritual, and familial challenges with creativity and, above all, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Open Bible brothers and sisters in Venezuela demonstrate how the Church can thrive despite adversity by living out Jesus’ command to love our neighbors, serve the least, and disciple this generation. Through continued partnership and prayer, we look forward to seeing Venezuela transformed by the hope, faith, and love found in Jesus. If you’d like to support our Open Bible family in Venezuela as they share Christ’s love and serve those in greatest need, please send a check to:
| Open Bible Churches 2020 Bell Ave. Des Moines, IA 50315 | Make checks payable to Global Missions of Open Bible Churches and write “Venezuela humanitarian aid” in the memo line. |
Thank you for partnering with us to extend Christ’s love and mercy in Venezuela.
About the Author
Tammy Swailes is passionate about cross-cultural Christian education, so working with INSTE Bible College to disciple and equip leaders throughout Europe and beyond is a great fit! Tammy has lived in Europe since 1999 – first in Hungary and now Ukraine. Before that, she was in Japan, as well as Spokane, Washington. She now serves as INSTE regional director in Europe, assisting INSTE programs in five languages. Tammy has her undergraduate degrees in both Missions and Christian Education and a MA in Intercultural Studies. Photography, good coffee, multi-cultural experiences, and the family’s Yorkie are some of Tammy’s favorite things.
One of wonderful things I get to do as Executive Director of Global Missions is discover new missionary candidates. God is still calling young people to be missionaries, the “sent out” ones. We are always looking for those who are called to help us reach the unreached people of the world with the gospel of Christ.
In today’s culture with high-tech technology, advanced communication, and even AI, we have a special need for young men and women who are able to respond to the Great Commission and spread the gospel in today’s context.
For this reason, we are excited to announce the appointment of our two newest missionaries, both of whom were presented at our recent national convention in Kissimmee, Florida.
McKendre Veenstra has been appointed to serve as a missionary in Japan. The leaders of Open Bible Churches in Japan have long desired to have a missionary come to teach English, not only as a means of learning the language but also as a tool for evangelism. In addition to teaching English, McKendre will also be using his God-given talents to assist our churches in Japan with worship and youth ministries. This collaboration between Global Missions of Open Bible Churches and Japan Open Bible Churches is a great effort to work together to reach the Japanese people with the gospel of Christ.
McKendre is currently itinerating in the Central Region to raise his support and hopes to go to Japan in fall of 2025. Thank you for your prayers and support! Donate to McKendre here.
Zac Anderson will be serving alongside the directors and staff of Puente de Amistad in Tijuana, Mexico. He will be leading teams and supporting existing ministries and churches in their work to reach the youth of Tijuana. Since 2010, Zac has impacted the lives of thousands of children throughout the Ohio region and around the world. His life verse is Matthew 5:16: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (NIV).
Zac shares, “I know what it’s like to be ignored and feel unloved. My goal is to be the person someone feels comfortable talking to who will point them toward the Savior who changed my life.”
Zac will be itinerating in the Open Bible East Region in fall of 2025 and plans to move to Tijuana, Mexico, in January 2026. Thank you for your prayers and support!
Donate to Zac here.
God is still calling young people to be missionaries, the “sent out” ones.
Please pray for the Lord to anoint and bless McKendre and Zac as they begin their ministry overseas. We are expecting God to do great things through their lives and ministry as they obey God’s calling.
Vince McCarty serves as the Executive Director of Global Missions, giving oversight to Open Bible’s work in 55 countries of the world. He is thankful for the great missionary staff and all the national leaders he has the opportunity to serve with. He would like us to remember that the Great Commission is too big for anyone to accomplish alone and too important not to try to do together.
