Celebrating 30 Years of New Wineskins Global Mission Conferences
Thirty years ago today, on April 27, 1994, New Wineskins Missionary Network (formerly ECMC, Episcopal Church Missionary Community) held its first Global Mission Conference. The 1974 conference was designed not only to celebrate twenty years of faithful Anglican mission mobilizing, but also to be a global mission training event, the first of its kind among North American Episcopalians of that day. The conference also honored the legacy of the mission organization’s founders, Walter and Louise Hannum, and became the first of many triennial New Wineskins conferences.
The New Wineskins Global Mission Conference movement has been a resounding success! It has sparked new engagement in cross-cultural partnerships and a renewed commitment to fulfilling the Great Commission. Since then, a total of ten New Wineskins Conferences have been held in what many have described as a missional “family reunion,” mobilizing generations of Anglicans from all around the world and inspiring them to engage in local and global mission work. The last New Wineskins Conference in 2022 saw 1,600 Anglicans of all ages from over 60 nations gather to worship, pray, network, learn, experience divine appointments, and answer God’s missional call on their lives.
The next New Wineskins Global Mission Conference: Hope for the Nations will be held from September 17-20, 2025, at Ridgecrest Conference Center. Registration will open on October 1, 2024. Visit newwineskinsconference.org for more details about the upcoming conference.
Countless people have been inspired, impacted, and anointed for mission at New Wineskins Conferences. Read on further to discover some of their stories and experiences at New Wineskins Conferences!
What might God have in store for you at the upcoming New Wineskins Conference? Join us for the next New Wineskins in September 2025 and find out for yourself!
Stories and Testimonies from New Wineskins Conferences
“Lord, if you want me to leave this home, I will:” Clark and Carol Smith, founders and missionaries with E412 Ministries
Clark and Carol Smith were called to the mission field at the 2007 New Wineskins Global Mission Conference. In the time leading up to the conference, the two individually sensed God preparing them to step deeper into service and missions. This call was strikingly confirmed when, in the first two plenaries of the conference, Missionary Bishop Derek Eaton of New Zealand and Bishop Rennis Ponniah of Singapore both spoke on the call of Abraham from Genesis 12:1 – “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
One divine appointment after another before, during, and after the conference paved the way for Clark and Carol to answer God’s call. They sold their current business, received missional training, and entered into full-time mission work. In 2008, the two started E412 Ministries, a ministry founded on Ephesians 4:12 “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” Since the founding of their ministry, Clark and Carol have served on over 80 missions in 22 countries and have led training conferences on evangelism, discipleship, missions, and healing. They have also continued to attend the triennial New Wineskins Conferences from 2007 onwards, with Clark now serving as the New Wineskins Board Chairman. Read more about Clark and Carol’s story on our blog here and here.
“As the New Wineskins Conference continued, we had one divine appointment after another. We met missionaries, missionary bishops and canons, mission agency leaders, students preparing to be missionaries, and church leaders from around the globe. We were inspired, challenged, reassured, and challenged again, all in the space of four days.”
“You are here. I have found you:” The Rev. John Chol Daau, founder of Good Shepherd Academy in South Sudan
As a child, civil war forced the Rev. John Chol Daau to flee as a refugee from his home in South Sudan to East Africa. These experiences filled John with the desire to reach out to his people with the love and knowledge of Jesus. The Holy Spirit powerfully spoke to John during the 2007 New Wineskins Conference, giving him the vision to found Good Shepherd Academy for children in South Sudan. John returned to the 2019 New Wineskins Conference as a MAP (Mission Awareness Presentation) Talk co-presenter along with Mrs. Lilly Ubbens, sharing his story and inspiring further generations. You can read more about the Rev. John’s life and ministry on our blog here and listen to his 2019 MAP talk on the New Wineskins YouTube channel here.
“It was a delight to see so many Anglicans engaging with God’s mission around the world…”
“Healing and peace:” David Richardson, president and founder of Memorable Meetings LLC
During the 2013 New Wineskins Conference, David Richardson experienced an unexpected opportunity to receive healing prayer. The Lord directed him to a prayer minister, who guided him in prayer and reflection on deep wounds in his life and relationship with his late father. During the prayer ministry, David was able to process and forgive his father, and he experienced an outpouring of healing and peace from the Holy Spirit that reflected outward into his life. You can read David’s full inner-healing testimony on our blog here.
“The closest experience to heaven on earth! New Wineskins was a micro display of ‘a great multitude from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages…Crying out, Salvation belongs to our God…and to the Lamb.’ (Revelation 7: 9) GLORIOUS!”
“I have been blessed to bless others:” Constance de Bordenave, artist
How can artists serve God? Seeking to bless others and to answer that very question, Constance de Bordenave was inspired by reflections at the 2016 New Wineskins Conference to create a series of paintings on the journeys, tribulations, and needs of refugees. Her desire was to “touch the hearts of viewers and motivate them to action on behalf of refugees” and other vulnerable populations. Constance’s art on refugees, human trafficking, and the homeless was displayed at the 2019 and 2022 New Wineskins Conferences. You can read more about Constance’s artistic calling on our blog here and view her paintings on refugees on her website.
“…the winds of the Holy Spirit blew over all and into the minds and hearts of all present at the New Wineskins Missions Conference.…We felt the Spirit in our conversations and our worship, in our prayers and on our walks.”
“A heart for the nations:” John and Michelle Chase, urban missionaries in Baltimore, MD
John and Michelle Chase are missionaries in Baltimore City, Maryland. Their ministry, Be Transformed, serves in the heart of the community as a safe place for children and their families to play, learn, study the Bible, and experience the love of Jesus. The Chases attended the New Wineskins Conferences in 2016, 2019, and 2022. Each time God directed them to next steps, first to Jamaica, and now to Baltimore, MD, where they currently serve their community.
God has used the New Wineskins Conferences as an opportunity for John and Michelle to build connections in their ministry and renew their calling to reach the nations in their local community. Read more about the Chases’ testimony on our blog here and here, and read the latest update on their ministry here.
“When we attended New Wineskins in 2022, God confirmed to us over and over that we were right where we needed to be: That we are missionaries in a city that desperately needs the love of Jesus. ”
“Transforming Lives:” Kathy Funk Gomer, founder of nonprofit Wings for Change Inc.
At the 2019 New Wineskins Conference, Holy-Spirit-filled worship and inspiring conversations with fellow mission-minded Anglicans motivated Kathy Gomer to pursue her long-held dream of founding the nonprofit Wings for Change Inc., a ministry focused on health education, poverty alleviation, and human trafficking prevention in Africa. Connections and relations planted at the conference have continued to bear fruit in her ministry and outreach.
Kathy now is also a co-leader of New Wineskins’ Anglican Rescued Kingdom Network (ARK), a group of concerned individuals and organizations dedicated to the cause of eliminating human trafficking worldwide through collaboration, resource sharing, training, and prayer. You can read Kathy’s full story on our blog here and join the ARK Facebook Group here.
“Don’t think that the New Wineskins conference will be just a mountain getaway. Your lives will change! God will use you to change the lives of others! . . . Because of New Wineskins, where you will meet and share with others, God will cultivate those seeds that He has planted. And when He is ready to harvest what He has sown, it somehow all comes together.”
“God will find a way:” The Rev. Bernard Bisoke Balikenga and Holy Trinity Windermere Anglican Church, Charleston, SC
Holy Trinity Windermere Anglican Church in Charleston, SC hosted The Rev. Bernard Bisoke Balikenga from the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the 2019 New Wineskins Conference. Bisoke, the Anglican Church of Congo’s provincial youth coordinator, hails from Bunia, a region beset by tribal conflicts, corruption, devastation, civil unrest, and poverty. He and his wife Furaha have dedicated their lives and their ministry to caring for refugees and the vulnerable in Bunia through the Bunia Children’s Hope Center, which provides education, food, clothing, and foster care for orphans, and The Peace Center, which provides ecumenical church services, counseling, training, education, food, and housing to the displaced and vulnerable.
Since the 2019 conference, Bisoke has become part of Holy Trinity Windermere Anglican Church’s family. The church has faithfully partnered with Bisoke, regularly corresponding with him, praying for him and his ministry, and raising funds to support his vital work. In 2024, Julia Marshall along with other faithful supporters helped Bisoke launch Hearts for the Congo, a brand-new nonprofit organization based out of Texas! Read more about Bisoke’s amazing ministry on our blog here.
“…the New Wineskins Anglican Global Missions Conference was like attending a family reunion with brothers and sisters from all over the world!”
“A tug on our hearts:” Allan and Theresa Weikel, missionaries in West Africa with Trans World Radio
For Allan and Theresa Weikel, the 2019 New Wineskins Conference was an open door into full-time mission work. Conversations and prayers shared with missionaries and international attendees during the conference confirmed their call to the mission field and guided them to especially pray for Nigeria and other countries in West Africa. “We were moved by the worship as we sang to our Lord with every nation, kindred, tongue, and tribe that was represented at New Wineskins. This powerful service gave us an insight into what it might be like in heaven when we worship God with the multitudes from every nation.”
Divine appointments continued after the conference, and the two accepted God’s call to serve in West Africa with Trans World Radio (TWR), using mass media to reach the world with the hope of Christ. Allan and Theresa share their story on our blog here.
“If you would like to see the worldwide Anglican Church at work, come to New Wineskins.”
“Giving hope to the whole community:” The Brick Kiln Freedom Mission Project
Thousands of persecuted Christian families toil in modern-day slavery in the brick kilns of Pakistan. Pakistani Christian leaders such as Sharoon Sarfraz work tirelessly among these enslaved and vulnerable families, providing them with food, medical supplies, and other vital necessities; teaching them; paying their debts to free them from slavery; and giving them entrepreneurial opportunities to support themselves in the long term.
At the 2019 Global Mission Conference, Sharoon shared stories of the plight of these enslaved brick kiln families, including a widowed mother named Martha. God touched the hearts of many at the conference, including Jenny Noyes and Kelly Ferrari Mills, who were able to partner in financial support to free Martha and her family from brick kiln slavery and set the freed family up with a local grocery shop so that they could support themselves into the future.
Since then, Kelly, Jenny, and many others have continued to pray for and give towards Sharoon’s ministry in caring for and rescuing enslaved brick kiln families in Pakistan. God truly continues to bring forth much fruit out of these partnerships from the 2019 conference!
You can read Martha’s inspiring story on our blog here, and support the Brick Kiln Freedom Project here.
“[The 2022 conference] was a wonderful, Spirit-filled, worshiping reunion of Anglicans on fire for local and global mission.”
“Partners in this mission together:” “Luke” and “Abby”, cross-cultural workers with Anglican Frontier Missions (AFM)
The New Wineskins Conference is a site where many cross-cultural partnerships form and new missionaries find their calling. One such missional connection came into fruition at the 2019 conference. “Luke” and “Abby” had long been discerning a call to missions and praying about where and what people group they might serve. When they attended the 2019 conference, they were introduced to the Anglican mission sending agency Anglican Frontier Missions (AFM). Prayer and further conversations both during and after the conference confirmed that this was the organization with which they would serve, starting their family on their journey as AFM cross-cultural workers. Read more about Luke and Abby’s story on our blog here.
“There was a steady stream of individuals interested in serving cross-culturally flowing to me, so much that I had to miss one plenary. I feel like a switch has been turned on...it was as if New Wineskins 2019 was a shot-in-the-arm among Anglicans for mission to unreached peoples.”
“God is calling me to seek the Afghan starting in Ft Worth:” The Rev. Brent Christian, Rector, St Andrew’s Anglican, Ft. Worth, TX
At the 2022 New Wineskins Conference, God gave the Rev. Brent Christian a clear vision of people from every tribe and nation gathered in worship and community. On the last night of the conference, attendees were invited to stay after the closing plenary to pray for nations with the aid of banners on the Persecuted Church and flags from the nations that lined the auditorium. In the midst of praying, Brent suddenly realized that there was no Afghan flag on display. Stricken with grief at the plight of the Afghan people and diaspora, Brent began to pray earnestly for the Afghan people that night and the following morning. Through Scripture and prayer, God revealed to him that he was being called to minister to the Afghan people, starting with the refugees in his local community of Fort Worth, Texas. Read more about the Rev. Brent’s story on our blog here and subscribe to his newsletter here.
“Since the conference, the Lord has opened up a door for my wife and I to visit each week with a number of families from Afghanistan. We practice English, and a little Dari, and learn about one another. We are praying that God will show our new friends his love and that they will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.”
“Be the one, See the one, and Share the One True God”: The Power of the Little Red Sticker
The theme of the 2022 New Wineskins Conference: One Mission was an encouragement for people to live into God’s calling on their lives and to Be the one who shares their faith, to See the one who has never heard of Jesus, and to Share the One true God with the unreached. As an easily visible and shareable reminder of this call, little red 111 stickers were dispersed to all conference attendees. But the impact of these little red stickers and the 111 missional vision did not end with the conference.
When New Wineskins’ Executive Director Jenny Noyes traveled to Rwanda and Kenya in April 2023 to attend Gafcon IV and speak at an evangelism conference in Mombasa, she felt led to take 3,000 of the red 111 stickers with her. Unexpectedly, Jenny was able to share the 111 vision on stage at Gafcon, with the women in Kenya, and even on her travels back to the U.S., ultimately passing out all 3,000 of the stickers she had brought with her. What surprising and delightful providence from God!
The 111 vision and the little red stickers continue to serve as simple, but effective missional tools for fulfilling the Great Commission, and New Wineskins has continued to receive both local and international requests for more 111 stickers. You can read more about the 111 stickers and the 111 vision on our blog here, or contact us to request 111 stickers for your own congregation, family, or ministry!
You can read more about the history of New Wineskins Conferences here, or search the tag “New Wineskins Conference” on our blog to find more stories from past New Wineskins Global Mission Conferences! Photos, videos, and other materials from past conferences are also available on our website (access 2016 conference materials here, 2019 conference materials here, and 2022 conference materials here).
