Annie Armstrong offering helps Alabama native expand church plants in Phoenix

When Jesse Powell was a student at Troy University, he spent a summer as a missionary at the Grand Canyon, a summer he didn’t know would start him on a path.

“God used that season to plant seeds in my heart about being in the West,” Powell said.

But at first those seeds didn’t lead to ministry — they led to marrying a young woman he met in Arizona and moving there for work.

“My major was risk management and insurance; I had no interest in being in ministry,” Powell said.

But after he and his wife, Stefanie, moved back to Alabama because of the lower cost of living, they got involved in Journey Church, a church plant in Prattville. And God began to plant a different kind of passion in Powell’s heart — for church planting.

“We began to feel like God was calling us, and I just assumed it was to plant a church,” Powell explained.

A new role

But God had something slightly different in mind, he noted — a role in the West as a church planting catalyst. He and his family moved seven years ago to help churches in Phoenix identify, train and send out planters to start new churches.

When they did, they joined more than 2,200 North American Mission Board missionaries working to reach the estimated 275 million lost people in North America. That mission field is complex and made up of many cultures, languages and religions.

And all those missionaries are supported in some way by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, 100% of which goes directly to fund missionary work. The national offering goal this year is $70 million, with the Alabama goal set at $6 million.

The AAEO season of giving begins with the Week of Prayer for North American Missions March 6–13, highlighting stories of missionaries who, like the Powells, are supported by the offering in their work across North America.

A big task

In Phoenix alone, that’s a big task, Powell said.

“Phoenix is one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. There’s a net gain of more than 200 people a day moving to the metro area. We’re having trouble keeping up with the growth.”

That’s why a catalyst role like Powell’s is so important — he’s constantly working with churches to start new congregations to reach the sprawling city, and find new church planters to move to Phoenix to help with the task.

He asked for prayer for more partners to come alongside both in giving and going — like Elmore Baptist Association, who sent mission teams to work with churches in the city and help expand their reach.

Powell also requested prayer for pastors in Phoenix to be encouraged.

“For them, like for many people, the last couple of years have been very difficult,” he noted. “They need encouragement to keep pressing on.”

For more information or resources to promote the AAEO visit anniearmstrong.com.

Week of Prayer preview

• Michael and Traci Byrd never expected to return to inner-city St. Louis. But armed with the gospel and an unimaginably good macaroni and cheese recipe, they are reaching one of the most difficult neighborhoods in the U.S. for Christ.
• It’s been crisis after crisis — hurricanes, earthquakes, pandemics, economic struggles — for Puerto Rico, an island in need of hope. And Itamar Elizalde helps teams of volunteers bring that hope — both practical and spiritual — to Puerto Ricans in crisis.
• Military life comes with unique challenges, which those outside the culture could never fully understand. That’s why army veteran Jared Huntley, and his wife, Jen, feel uniquely qualified to reach servicemen and women in Washington, D.C. with the light of Christ.
• Hospitality is opening doors to the gospel in the Niagara region of Canada. For missionaries Steven and Cindy Martins, each cup of coffee is an opportunity to build relationships and reach new people with the good news of Christ.
• The numbers just don’t add up. Denver’s marijuana dispensaries and breweries drastically outnumber evangelical churches. People are looking for solutions in all the wrong places, but missionary Brianna McKinney is there to give them the real answer.
• Many Arabic-speaking countries are closed to missionaries. But when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a Cincinnati-based, Arabic-speaking church to meet online, it opened opportunities for people around the world to hear the gospel in their heart language from North American missionaries Amer and Vicky Safadi.