Missions
East Tallassee Church of Christ has been active in evangelistic missions for many years. Our mission workers have served in Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. We've supported preachers in India and other nations as well. We focused on Jamaica for thirty years, helping churches all across the country by conducting campaigns, acquiring property for church buildings and supporting native gospel preachers.
Today our away-from-home missions are focused in two places. Our international emphasis is Cuba, while our domestic mission support in in Montana.
Cuba
Our mission work in Cuba began in the early 1990s, when Bill and Joyce Stough began making humanitarian aid trips to the island nation. Through contacts in the medical field, they were able to arrange large container shipments of donated medical equipment and supplies to help meet some desperate needs there. They even arranged for an ambulance to be delivered to one of Cuba's hospitals.
Perhaps the most publicized and effective humanitarian aid gesture was a shipment of 3 million pencils for school children all across Cuba.
Humanitarian aid made friends and opened the door for congregations to become legal and for the churches to grow through the spread of the gospel. Today there are about 150 legally recognized churches of Christ in Cuba and others that are not officially recognized but are tolerated.
East Tallassee Church of Christ provides full support for four Cuban preachers and their families as they serve the Lord in different cities and churches across the island. We also support two other Cuban men who work full-time in personal evangelism. Additionally, we support a daily breakfast for poor elderly people at two congregations in Havana.
These Cuban churches are growing as the preachers and other dedicated Christians share the gospel with and show the love of Jesus to their neighbors.
Montana
East Tallassee Church of Christ helps support Victor Parakhin and his family who came to Christ after the Soviet Union ended and mission workers were able to go into Ukraine in the early 1990s. He and his family came to America in 2011 and are now U.S. citizens. Victor preaches for the church of Christ in Hamilton, MT.
We're thankful for our mission partners. We're grateful to God for the opportunities he's given us to help his servants who are working in some very challenging locations. We give God the glory for all the good that comes from their work, and count it a privilege to be their helpers.