"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Mathew 6:33
Testimonies
Finding inspiration in every turn
Therefore, we should be proud, and not afraid of our trials and tribulations we face. So stand up and share your testimony and be grateful that the LORD has given us a blessing to help someone else!
"They have been conquered by the blood of the Lamb"
Graduate Staff
All of our staff are graduates of the discipleship training program. They do not receive any salary, but work as missionaries, giving back their life to serve the LORD by reaching out to others. The Assistant Directors at each center work according to Jim Bracken's vision in order to train the staff, oversee the general condition of the buildings, and raise the necessary support, as well as teach, counsel, etc. Each center also has an Overseer who is in charge of all daily operations. Anyone seeking admission into a center needs to call the Overseer at the center.
George Brakeman
AAED
I was born May 27 1960. In a little town north of
Alabama, called Decatur. During the tale end of the depression were there was no money, no money at all. During the Vietnam conflict my dad was fighting this war. My mom had to work to take care of us. No Government help like there is now. But believe it or not it was a real good life. Fast-forwarding all the way to high school was where I got my start into smoking marijuana and drinking. This habit took me through my broken marriage. Only to escalate from that point on, to where I was getting arrested and in an out of jail. I didn't think that I was ever going to live a life without being incarcerated. I had accepted this. The last time I was arrested facing a long-term sentence was where I met JESUS. He introduced me to Mission Teens. Where I still am at today.
And GOD is still at work!
Tony Layton
Assistant Resident Director
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I started out partying on weekends. Then ended up being strung out on heroin for 23 years, always had a good paying job, but towards the end of my run with that lifestyle, I became a very dangerous person to be around. Because I always loved a CHALLENGE. Since coming into the mission in 1995 the challenges are much different. I enjoy what I do in the ministry, and this is all that I know any more that Christ was crucified for me, and he sees me and guides me through each day. PRAISE GOD!
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One thing I desire of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.
Psalms 27:3
Jeremy Hoover
Assistant overseer
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The Lord has taught me to be a man who is quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Through all the trials and tribulations that I have encountered, this is what has helped me get through daily. To become a better Christian I have learned to wait for what the Lord has for my life. Being still and listening, has opened my eyes to see the opportunities I have available. For the Lord lies right in front of me. His choices for me, now become my choices only through him.
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Thomas Elliott
Graduate staff/ Kitchen overseer
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I have always been a spiritual man. I started praying while I was in AA, but I never knew who JESUS was. I tried secular rehabs and had a period of six years sober. I prayed a lot but always relapsed. When I came to the Mission in May of 2020, I started to read the bible and learned about Jesus and what he came to earth for. I found out what he did for all mankind. HIs blood was shed to cleanse us of our sins. This is when I learned about the love of the creator and that's when I became a new creation. When Jesus left to be with the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit that he promised us he would. I opened my heart to receive it and have been blessed ever since, with many things over the las few years.
Chip Janssen
Assistant Resident Director
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I am 59 years old. I was born in 1962. I was raised Catholic but never read the bible. I found out later that if a new believer is ready for the WORD, they should open the bible to the book of John. The spirit told me were to read first, and GOD has changed my life to know JESUS personally. The joy filled my being beyond understanding. I started working with Tom Newton from worship, and Praise Ministries in 2002. Tom introduced me to Mission Bible Training Center (MBTC) and I fell in love with this ministry. Tom once asked me what my passion was when we were traveling to 4 different Mission Teens centers. I said I want to work with MBTC in Gaastra, Mi., but I would never have guessed my journey would have been as it was. I was slain in the Spirit in 2002, and the LORD told me the things I needed to do and that I would teach and preach at my old age. I continued teaching at the Mission in Gaastra, and being blessed by blessing them with the Word, and with nachos and popcorn. I love MBTC. I chose life and the Mission. God has restored my faith, even double that what I had when I started my journey for Jesus. I want to be more Holy, and Jesus is teaching me to do that. I am ready and willing for my good race for CHRIST.
Neil Federman
Overseer
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I was born in a small town in southern Wisconsin. to a dirt-poor family, my father was an alcoholic and my mother had mental health issues. I learned at a very young age if I wanted something I had to take it, so that's what I did. At age twelve I had become a thief. I started getting bullied throughout school, when I became old enough to drink I became a mean alcoholic. I fought a lot and had not become a very nice person. I got into drugs at age eighteen. Then spent the next 40 years in and out of jail, all together it equaled out to seven years in county. Over a period of four decades my life revolved around alcohol and drugs. The only good thing that came out of it, was my daughters, and grandchildren. I eventually lost my career and lived under a bridge, but I know for a fact that the Lord had his hands on me, he had a bigger plan for my life because if he didn't, I would have been dead several times already. One early morning while I was sitting by the Wisconsin river, with a bottle of vodka in my hand, I heard the Lord talk to me. He said that I needed to start listening to him. Four hours later I was at the mission in Gaastra MI. At the mission I slowly, over time, have come to have the lord into my life. He is now my number one priority since I have been here at the mission for 2 1/12 years. I donate my time every day to the mission, by serving the people here in need, and bringing them to the lord. I can now say that I am honestly a child of God. I can never see myself going back into the dark world that I came from.
I owe what I have left of my life to the Lord and this mission because without them I would be dead.
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" I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
~Philippians 4:13
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Krista Taylor
Womans Overseeer
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When I came to the Mission in Gaastra MI, I was lost and broken, I was beat up from the world, I had burnt every bridge with my family. They didn't want anything to do with me anymore. My grandmother, who had been teaching in Gaastra for thirty plus years finally said for me to come here. I was on twenty different medications and addicted to meth. I had been numb for about thirty-two years, going from bad relationship to another. When I got here, I was done with it all, I knew that God had a plan for my life, and it was not what I was doing. The longer I stay here and seek the Lord I find that this is the purpose for my life. That God called me out of the pits of hell, he saved my soul, and i am forever grateful and will continue to serve the Lord all the days of my life.
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"But now, thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you: I have called you by name; you are mine!"
~Isaih 43:1
Todd Lehman
Assistant resident Director
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I was born back in 1966. I'm from northern Wisconsin. I had a wonderful childhood with a loving mother and father, and four older sisters. Shortly after high school, I realized I had a fondness for alcohol. Over the next thirty years that turned into one huge train wreck. I came to the Mission this last time in Gaastra, MI. May 4, 2015. I have been here since, making the decision to take up my cross and follow whatever he has planned for me.
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" Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take ahold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Forgetting to do what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus
~Philippians 4:
Andrew Alexander
Music Mixer
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Crystal Earls
Assistant Senior Counselor
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"Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
~Ephesians 1:2
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I was born and raised in NE. Arkansas, which is in the center of the southern region known as the Bible belt. Before coming to the Mission Bible Training Center in Gaastra, MI. I spent several months at a couple different Missions in Arkansas. Were God revealed his calling on my life. When I separated from these Missions, I began to realize that I was fighting against Gods plan. Because my life was rapidly unraveling. I could see and understand that Satan was coming at me from every angle, through family friends and people around me. It wasn't long before I started reaching out to other Missions searching for anyone to accept me in their program. My family and I must have called fifty other Missions and being turned down at every call I felt hopeless and rejected. Rejected by the church and rejected by God's people. I almost gave up on life. I had no were left to turn. When I received the Mission number to MBTC, when brother Tom answered my call, his only question was "when can you get here?" and for the first time in that moment I felt a sense of hope. Instantly my life began to get easier, and things were going smoothly, making me arrive to MBTC, a true blessing. Now that I was in line with the will of God, I had a sense of purpose.
"For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, who I serve."
~Psalms 27:23
The Mission Bible Training Center has provided a safe and secure dwelling place for me to devote my life to Christ, and to fulfill God's call on my life.
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"Who hath saved us, and called us with a Holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in the Christ Jesus before the world began."
~ 2 Timothy 1:9
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Jake Long
Active Dean
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I am 35 years old. I went through the Mission fifteen years ago, I graduated at age twenty. But fifteen years ago, I still desired so many things that I thought that I wanted. There had been a change in me, yet I still missed the mark. When I left the Mission, I was able to hold it together for a while, but eventually I allowed my desires to overtake me again. During that decade I started a long wrestling with the Holy Spirit. Having periods of time where I was sober, having good jobs, but all in all was still searching for God. Trying to fit him into my life, instead of having him be the center of it. This time after being broken for so long, I am truly trying to make Jesus the center of my life, and surrender. I've been in control long enough, I give it now to you Lord.
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"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise"
~Psalms 51:17
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Buddy Jacob
Firewood Overseer
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I'm Forty years old, I came from a great family. My parents raised me to succeed. The choices I made directed me differently. It took me ending up in jail, for six months to realize I needed change. I heard about the mission from someone in jail. This gave me hope of a future. I had failed so many times that before hearing of the Mission, I had no hope. I have now been at the Mission for two years and seven months. Thank you Jesus for saving me!
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" Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own"
~Philippians 3:12
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Success Stories
" And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, DO IT all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to GOD the father through him.
Colossians 3:17
Ej Young 2024
Matthew 5:14-16 NIV
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
Jacob Lutey 2024
Add a short bio for each team member. Make it brief and informative to keep visitors engaged.