Meet John Crews

When Diane and I moved to Singapore with our family in l984 we did not know that God had much bigger plans than just working for an oil service company; He opened up His world of missions to us in the process.  While there we met missionaries from all over Southeast Asia, nationals who based or worked out of Singapore all over the region.  From our limited exposure to missions, our world view was greatly expanded as we learned how God was working throughout Asia.  It ignited a passion in us that we carried back to the US, though we didn’t know exactly what we were to do with it.  We took every opportunity to share about missions, support missionaries, and host them when possible; what more could ordinary people like us do.  

As years passed, we felt the nudge to do more. A missionary friend from Singapore who relocated to the US mentioned often the need for administrative help, and after many years of praying and considering what God would want us to do, I made the decision to leave my job of 25 years in the oil service field, step away from the corporate world and help the then small ministry with what skills I had.  Apart from helping administratively, we began leading short-term mission trips to the Dominican Republic where we continued to spend more of our time rather than in the office.  It ignited a new desire to connect people here in the West with people in other countries so they could personally experience God’s work and have their worldview expanded just as He had done with ours.  This led to working with another international organization which took us all over the world to partner with a wide variety of ministries and partners – an amazing education, connecting us with wonderful ministry leaders from all sorts of backgrounds, and cultures, all working toward the goal of their people knowing Christ.  

Through the years more of our time seemed to be spent in Africa; it grabbed our hearts, as it does for many.  Through the ministry in Kenya we met Peace Nihorimbere, the founder and now ministry partner with Hope4Burundi.  Peace shared the vision God had given her to return to her genocide-stricken country and help restore it.  As we began working there, our hearts were deeply connected with Peace and everyone involved there.  In time it became apparent that God was calling us to narrow our focus and funnel our energies into Burundi.  To do that we needed to create a mission organization devoted to that, so Hope4Burundi was born.

It has been our deepest privilege to be involved in God’s work in so many regions of the world, but particularly in Burundi.  As we join hands with believers in other countries to accomplish the Great Commission, we are truly the Body at work.  Joining together in God’s work brings powerful results, and through these connections, we learn ever so much about the Lord and one another and form a bond that only God can create – a taste of heaven when every tribe and nation will be joined together around His throne.  God uses ordinary people – all we need to do is make ourselves available.  It can be a bit scary to take that step of faith to leave what is comfortable and “known,” but had we not done so, we would have missed out on the most wonderful season of our lives and more spiritual growth than we could have ever imagined.  We encourage everyone to be open to the possibilities God puts before you – no matter how many years it takes, you won’t regret taking that step.