Speakers

Oscar Muriu is the Senior Pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya. He is a graduate of the University of Delhi, India, in B.Sc.(Zoology) and the African International University (M.Div. Biblical Studies). He presently pastors a congregation in Nairobi and leads a church planting movement of 90 churches, the bulk of which are in Kenya; but others around Africa include Rwanda, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Liberia, and Ethiopia. The mission of these churches is to “Grow D.E.E.P. to reach W.I.D.E.” Oscar has a 3-fold passion. First is to raise up a legacy of leaders for the next generation. A personal conviction drawn from Matthew 9:37 which he feels is his primary calling in life, especially African leaders, for the work of Christ worldwide. A second passion is to aggressively plant churches that plant churches. The church’s present target is to plant 300 churches by 2020; in Kenya, Africa and in the gateway cities of the world. A third passion is to stand alongside those in need in the battle against endemic poverty in Africa that is driven by poor governance, corruption and the abuse of human rights. The Nairobi Chapel is involved in many poverty intervention programs. Oscar has been married to his wife Beatrice for 30 years. She serves alongside him at the church in the Children’s ministry. Together they have 6 daughters, three of whom are natural born, and 3 adopted.

Johnny B is a disciple making and church planting movement strategist. Together with global facilitation team, he is focused on catalyzing and maintaining self-sustainable movements by using the Bible and high performance activities in the 10 | 40 window. Growing up in a highly restricted country, as a young athlete, he was spiritually hungry despite his high involvement in sports. Miraculously, his family came into the Kingdom of God. He and his brother in law, responded to the Great Commission by intentional discipleship multiplication in one of the most restricted countries in the region. After planting 11 churches and constantly growing number of disciples, they were forced to leave their home country. However, to this day the movement is thriving in the country. This unexpected and dramatic change in life opened a new door and opportunity for Johnny and his partners on the way to the vision. Right now, his role of building national disciple making teams, strategizing for long-term community engagement, catalyzing and sustaining indigenous movements, impacts 148 countries. In the last 5 years, they have seen over 16,000 new discipleship groups and churches with over 8 reproducible discipleship generations across Eurasia, Africa, and Asia. They have also initiated the strategy “National Teams Competition to reach out to international communities now in 22 cities in the US and Canada. Johnny B is the author of 8 books and Bible study curriculums on disciple making and leadership development.

God has permitted Dr. Ramesh Richard to be a global spokesman for the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Richard travels the world clarifying the Bible’s message to audiences ranging from non-Christian university intellectuals to undertrained rural pastors, from gatherings of a few to crowds of thousands. He has exposed many of society’s opinion leaders to the good news of Jesus Christ and trained thousands of church leaders in more than 100 countries to preach, live and think biblically. In 2016, he convened the first Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers. At Dallas Seminary, Dr. Richard serves as Professor of Global Theological Engagement and Pastoral Ministries.Dr. Richard holds a ThD in Systematic Theology from Dallas Seminary and PhD in Philosophy from the University of Delhi. He and his wife, Bonnie, live in Dallas, Texas, and have three children and three grandchildren.

John Jefferson is a 20-year employee at AT&T, as well as a member of the lay chaplaincy team at Soledad prison in Salinas Valley California. Prior to joining AT&T, John worked in roles ranging from manager of a hostel in Tel Aviv, Israel, to teaching history and social science in Los Angeles. His extensive international travel has spanned South and Central America, Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Australia and several countries throughout Africa and the Middle East. Since traveling to the Blue Nile region of Sudan in 2004 on a medical mission, John has regularly participated in humanitarian aid and short-term missions work in East Africa. In 2012, John formed the first of two coalitions of Christian organizations he created to work with and on behalf of the Nuba people of Sudan. Since that time, John has been coordinating the efforts of several churches and faith-based organizations focused on meeting their spiritual and physical needs. The Greater Nuba Action Coalition (GNAC) is part of the V 5:9 network, has raised thousands of dollars of small donations and delivered the Gospel message, food and medicine to this isolated, oft forgotten, war-torn region. John holds his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Arizona, M.A. in Sociology from Columbia University, and an MBA from the University of Southern California. John lives in Northern California with his wife Dawn.

Anne Zaki has been a member of the faculty with the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo since 2013, teaching courses on Preaching, Spiritual Formation, Psychology, Worship, and Communication. Her areas of interest include travel and learning about the different cultural influences on the church worldwide, creating new ministries, mentoring youth, and administration. Anne received her Bachelors degree from Calvin College in Psychology and Sociology in 1999, her Masters degree from The American University in Cairo in the field of Social Psychology in 2002, and her Master’s of Divinity from Calvin Theological Seminary in 2009. Her husband is Naji Umran. They are the parents of four sons, Jonathan, Sebastian, Emmanuel, and Alexander.

Before coming to Missio Nexus, Ted was the Executive Vice President of Pioneers USA, the Director of Pioneers Canada, a field missionary in Bosnia Hercegovina and a computer consultant. Ted holds a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and is married to Annette.