National Inspirational Role Models Month comes around every November and gives us an opportunity to celebrate the people who set a positive example for us. As Christians, our ultimate role model is Jesus, and we might also have other biblical role models, such as Elijah and Mary. For National Inspirational Role Models Month, ANM staff and missionaries considered who outside of the Bible most inspires them.
Some of the ANM staff and missionaries chose family members and other people they know personally. Others chose authors, figures from history, and even a fictional character.
As you reflect this month on the inspirational role models in your own life, we welcome you to get to know our staff and missionaries and learn about the people we admire. The responses below are in alphabetical order according to the respondent’s last name and, in the cases of married couples, first name.
Staff Members A–G
George Ainsworth, Regional Director for Europe and Russia. My role model is St. Patrick of Ireland. Captured and taken to Ireland as a slave, he escaped with God’s help and returned to his native Britain. But when he had a vision calling him to return to the land of his enslavement, he obeyed by faith. As a result, the Irish nation was converted to Christ in his lifetime, and he established such a strong missionary culture that for hundreds of years Irish missionaries took the Gospel to the pagan parts of Europe.
Oliver Asher, President and CEO. My greatest role model (and mentor) in life has been Reverend Benjamin “Bo” Barredo. Bo invited me to join ANM in 1996, and he and his wife Marlou magnanimously sacrificed all of his personal support for me to start. Bo patiently taught me how to navigate the nonprofit field, and I literally sat (stood, walked, and ran) beside Bo to learn how to be a missionary. In the early days he took me with him everywhere he traveled, including domestic and international trips, as well as home and church visits. He would buy groceries for my wife and five young children to sustain them while we traveled.
Marlou Barredo, Regional Director for Southeast Asia. Nanay, my mother, was my role model. A remarkable woman of sterling character, she faced life and its challenges and demands with strength, determination, and courage. Kind-hearted, generous, and compassionate, Nanay went out of her way to help those in need. She placed a premium on relationships and nurtured them, opening our home to loved ones and friends. Her outstanding work ethic drove her to consistently do and give her best in any undertaking.
Chris Bortz, Director of Information Management and Solutions. My role model is J. Gresham Machen. He was a pastor, theologian, and professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. He was a brave advocate of orthodoxy in the early 1900s, which cost him his pastorate. He was a great teacher, a founding member of Westminster Seminary, and had a very well-received radio program. He would go to speak with groups of people, large and small, and died of pneumonia, which he caught while traveling in a snowstorm to minister to a very small group of people.
Krista Darcus, Vice President of International Operations. Joanna, my daughter, is my role model. She loves God and serves people through her work as a consumer advocate and her various church and community volunteer efforts. I appreciate her honesty, professionalism, and graciousness about challenging situations and her determination to do her part and trust God for the rest.
Katie Gentry, Donor Communication Coordinator. One of my role models is the fictional character Sydney Carton, from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Not much of a hero, Sydney feels his life is meaningless — but at the end of the book, he gives his life the deepest meaning by laying down his life for someone else.
Staff Members H–Mi
Jerry Harding, Operation Barnabas. My role model is missionary Jim Stanley, a pig farmer in Ontario, who left Canada with his wife Louise and 6 boys to travel by ship to Senegal, Africa, around the late 1950s to begin a ministry to the unreached Bassari tribe. He had no training or Bible school education; however, he was instrumental in establishing the work of God. Today, through the continued ministry of one of his sons, there is a church in every village of the tribe. He taught me by practical example what the Christian faith looked like.
Thomas John, Regional Director for South Asia. One of the people from history whom I consider a balanced personality is Dietrich Bonhoffer. I consider him to be a good role model because he did not follow trends, but held onto his convictions. He was bold since his convictions were deeply rooted in Scripture. He knew what he stood for.
Dennis Layman, Regional Director for East Asia and International Admin for Israel, Africa, and South Asia. My role model was my dad. I remember thinking that as a teenager, my dad wasn’t all that bright, but after I turned my life over to the Lord, I realized just how wise of a man he was. Kept out of school to work on the family farm, he never got past the 7th grade. But he worked hard all his life, loved God and loved people. He never met anyone he couldn’t talk to. He loved my mother and showed me how to be a faithful man.
Renee Lilly, Regional Director for Latin America. One of the role models who helps keep me centered is someone I have never met, my great-grandmother Laura Mae. My great-grandfather was one of the founding pastors of the Church of God, which meant he spent most of his time on the road itinerating and preaching the Gospel. My great-grandmother was left home to raise eight children and run a household, which included her in-laws during the Great Depression era. Not only did she successfully run a business from her home, she also raised all her children to love and serve the Lord, and successfully ran a small farm to help feed everyone. She also held meetings in her home where many people came to know Christ and experienced physical healings and other miracles. I often think how weary she must have been, but that gives me hope to press on in the middle of sometimes difficult days!
Anju Misra, Regional Director for Southeast Asia. My role model is my mother-in-law, Romola. She was an extraordinary lady, an excellent believer, a prayer warrior, and a woman of faith. She was an excellent mother who tried to keep everyone together and she had God-given beauty inside and out.
P.R. Misra, Executive Vice President of Development and Strategic Partnership. Rev. Patrick Joshua, the founder of Friends Missionary Prayer Band in India, inspires me. I had the opportunity of fellowshipping with him for several years during my earlier and formative years in mission work. The very simple and prayerful lifestyle that Rev. Joshua lived and his sacrifice for the Lord’s Kingdom is unparalleled. Today, even though he is no more, FMPB remains as the only indigenous ministry completely funded by local support.
Staff Members Mo–S
Monoj Mohanty, Regional Director for South Asia. As a child, I grew up in Chittaranjan, and the city of Calcutta was not very far off. Mother Teresa was very much in the headlines those days because of her selfless work among the lepers, orphans, and destitute. When I was in middle school I got the opportunity to meet Mother Teresa in person and got her autograph as well. Her serving heart and humility for mankind touched my heart.
Sue Morris, Donor Relations Assistant and Writer. My role model is my Aunt Aldena. Aunt Dena was a Christian for over 90 years, and she faced many trials in life, including a husband who refused to let her read her Bible in her home. She faced her trials with grace and trust in God to direct her. Her being a missionary in Jamaica influenced me to be involved in missions.
Victor Morris, Chaplain. The person who has had the most influence in my spiritual walk is C. S. Lewis. Outside of Scripture, his writings and the example of his life — both full of biblical wisdom, intellectual vigor, and down-to-earth practicality — have helped shape who I am. Lewis proves you can have brains and heart, and live for Christ with both fully functional.
Andrew Needham, Director of Communications. Growing up, my role models were my parents, who taught me a lot about love, service, and integrity.
Rebecca Olsen, Content Manager. My role model is Corrie ten Boom, a Holocaust survivor whose autobiography, The Hiding Place, I read as an adolescent. Her courage in hiding Jewish people from Nazi occupiers, her commitment to Christ through unimaginable suffering, and her forgiveness of the people who killed her family members, remind me that ordinary people can be heroic through the power of faith.
Gunar Sahari, Native Missionary in Indonesia. My role model is Miss Thelma, a missionary who served in my hometown for about 35 years. She is the one who brought me to Christ and sent me to seminary. She served in rural places, brought many souls to church, and oversaw the building of many churches. Although she faced many difficulties and even opposition, she always faithfully served the Lord till the end. I pray and hope that God will help me to follow her steps, especially to reach unreached people for Christ.
Elham Saleh, Director of Arabic Women’s Ministry. Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors and author of God’s Smuggler, is my hero. He inspired me to take the Bible to dangerous places where carrying a Bible is a death sentence.
Karim Saleh, Regional Director for the Middle East. Loren Cunningham, author of Is That Really You God? Hearing the Voice of God, is my inspiration. His book gave me the vision to hear God and become a missionary.
Staff Members T–W
Chandra Tobing, Native Missionary in Indonesia. My role model is John Knox. He prayed often to God and asked, “Give me Scotland or I die.” His prayers brought transformation to Scotland.
Eric Vess, Writer. The late John R. W. Stott, English pastor and author, remains my chief role model for excellence in biblical teaching. His clarity, succinctness, and faithfulness to the text have been major factors in my own development as a teacher. I first heard Stott teach at the 1976 Urbana Missionary Conference, where I marveled at his economy of speech. He never wasted or misused a word in his lectures.
Pete Wong, Relationship Development Officer. Jim Elliot was one of five missionary men martyred while seeking to bring the Gospel to the unreached, unengaged Huaorani tribe of Ecuador. His widow Elizabeth, now in glory as well, eventually had a breakthrough and won the entire tribe to Christ. His famous quote is what I now live by: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Meseret Workelul, Regional Director for Africa. My role model is my husband, Tilahun. We married when I was 18, and since I didn’t grow up in a Christian family, Tilahun became my mentor during my early Christian years. His love for Jesus, his patience, and his compassion, even in the most difficult times of persecution and hardship, have inspired me deeply. He has an incredible ability to see opportunities for growth and strength where others might only see adversity. I am who I am today because of his mentorship and the example he has set for me.
We’re grateful for the influence of our inspirational role models on our lives and even more grateful for your prayers as we work. If you want to learn how to pray for missionaries like the ones who responded above, download our free 7 Days of Prayer for Missionaries guide.
