Missionaries We Support

Suntree Grace Brethren Church actively supports missionary families: Greg & Sandrine Burgess & Family, and Mark, Joy, & Gabriel Sims. Please pray for them as they are doing God's Work. These are but a few of the the many missionaries that the Grace Brethren International Missions supports.

Greg & Sandrine Burgess

Greg grew up in the Grace Brethren Church of Worthington, Ohio where he attended with his parents. He was first confronted with his sinfulness and need of a Savior in a Sunday School class, and through this teaching he accepted Christ as his Savior.

From fourth to twelfth grades he attended Grace Brethren Christian School in Worthington, then went to Grace College where he received a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Business Administration.

Following his Junior Year of college, he attended LAMI (Latin-American Missions Institute) spending two months in Brazil where his vision of world missions was expanded as he became personally involved in the missionary experience.

After graduating from college in 1987, Greg went to Lyon, France for a year. During this time he not only satisfied the need for an additional semester of language for his B.A., but this gave him the opportunity to learn first-hand about the work of Grace Brethren Missions in France. While he was in college, Greg had been impressed with the European missionaries he met and wanted to learn more about them and their work. While he was in Lyon Greg also became involved as a volunteer in Editions Cle (the Grace Brethren French literature program) doing basic operations such as mailings and filling book orders.

That Spring (1988) Greg attended Euro-Missions Institute, and through the encouragement of Larry DeArmey he began to think seriously of returning to Lyon as a missionary, especially to serve as manager of Editions Cle.

This desire became a reality as Greg returned to France in 1990 under the SOWER's program. He is now serving his second two year term in Lyon, managing Editions Cle and working with the church-planting team in Lyon.

Mark, Joy & Gabriel Sims

Mark, Joy & Gabriel Sims have been serving in France since 1988 as church-planting missionaries with Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM). Mark & Joy met in 1976 while students at Word of Life Bible Institute in Schroon Lake, NY. They continued their biblical education, graduating from Columbia International University (Columbia, SC) in 1981. They then attended a 6 week Euro-Missions Institute (a program with GBIM) in France in 1982, at which time the French GBIM missionary team encouraged them to return to France as missionaries with GBIM. Believing this to be God's direction for their lives, Mark began studies at Grace Theological Seminary in order to prepare for a career in Europe as a church-planter. He graduated in 1986, they welcomed Gabriel into their family in 1987 and then left for France in 1988.

Mark & Joy attended language school in Paris for 8 months, then spent two years working as interns in a church in Le Creusot, before going to Mâcon for 8 years. They have been living in the Lyon area since 1999 and are currently living in the center of a charming medieval village, St. Andéol Le Château, located 20 minutes southwest of Lyon. They are seeking to begin a new church, which will be a daughter church of the French Grace Brethren Church of Greater Lyon and as such, are involved in meeting people through diverse activities and sharing the Gospel with those they meet. They also serve in various capacities in the Lyon church. After 10 years of teaching quilting in several French associations, in September 2005 Joy began a quilting store, L'Atelier Des Cœurs, with a French associate for the same purpose of contact-making and evangelism.