ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
We invite you to come to Trinity Baptist Church, on November 5th and join like-minded Christians!
Explore Jesus’ heart for Muslims. Consider your own intentionality. Rediscover ways you can reconnect your personal story with His eternal plan.
Your location, culture and life’s experiences are so familiar. Those simple parts of life may not seem very impactful or far-reaching. But with the gospel, they are!
This year, we focus on the power of your proximities — living purposefully — building bridges and sincere connections with people who may have never seen the love, gospel or hope of Jesus Christ.
And for 2022 — a 2-hour, post-conference coaching session is available to learn what it means to have conversation without compromise, share stories and nurture relationship despite disagreement.
Would you join the vision to love Muslims and eliminate the fear of Islam through the power of the gospel!
Please pray for the conference and Jesus’ faithful witness among Muslims in your community.
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Jose Martinez – Breath of Life International, Founder
Jose Martinez is the founder of Breath of Life International which is dedicated to impacting whole communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ and discipling believers who become disciple-makers. One of its primary ministries is providing discipleship, mentorship and access to higher education for young people. After their studies—these young professionals are able to embark on careers and carry the gospel with them wherever they work throughout the unreached world. Breath of Life International works in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Jose Martinez is a Civil Engineer by profession and he has furthered his education at the Emmanuel School of Religion, Regent University, and The Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary.
Farah Saada Marvil – Hope for Ishmael, COO
Farah Saada Marvil is the Chief Operating Officer of Hope for Ishmael, an international ministry that seeks to reconcile the sons of Ishmael to the Father through the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the age of 15, Farah converted from Islam to Christianity. At 22, she began volunteering with the ministry in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. She joined her parents, Tass and Karen Saada, the Founders of Hope for Ishmael — reaching out to Palestinians through education and humanitarian aid.
Hope for Ishmael disciples believers of Muslim background, trains the western church how to effectively reach their Muslim neighbor, supports persecuted Christians in Jordan and the Holy Land and the ministry creates opportunities in the Holy Land to bring reconciliation between the sons of Isaac and Ishmael. With her years of research and experience with Muslim outreach ministry, she developed Lead with Love—a training course to equip the American church for focused outreach and discipleship to Muslims in the USA and Europe. Farah and her husband have three young children.
Jami Staples – The Truth Collective, Founder & CEO
Jami L Staples is the Founder and CEO of the Truth Collective, a ministry that calls “Christian women to own the Truths of the Bible and invite our Muslim friends to courageously examine the words of Jesus.” That vision began in 2010 while Jami and Brian, her husband, served in ministry in East Africa. There, God opened their hearts and minds to the Muslim world.
After returning, a respected mentor, Fouad Masri of Crescent Project, encouraged Jami to see the growing opportunity in the United States to educate and inspire the Church to reach out to the Muslim world in America. She joined the staff of Crescent Project in January of 2015 as the Director of Women’s Training and, with her amazing team, built a training platform for thousands of Christian women who were eager to share the Gospel with Muslims. Jami discovered a large segment of the Western Church resisted the idea of sharing Christ with Muslims.
With renewed vision and blessing from her team, Jami founded The Truth Collective as a means to call more Believers into a Biblical response toward the Muslim world. With gratitude to parents who loved God and loved the nations, Jami grew up in South Dakota with a heart of global concern. She is a graduate of Bethel University in St. Paul, MN with a degree in Communications and a minor in Biblical and Theological Studies. Together the Staples raise two young boys and have traveled to more than 23 countries.
FEATURED SPEAKERS & PRESENTERS
Some details or bios are intentionally omitted.
Heart for Muslims seeks to present relevant, timely speakers who are active in the field. Some speakers have security concerns because of ministry abroad and will not be listed here.
Valerie A. – International Students Inc (ISI), Northern Mid-Atlantic Director
Valerie A serves as the Northern Mid-Atlantic Area Director for International Students Inc (ISI). Additionally, she serves as adjunct faculty for Alliance Theological Seminary (ATS) in the areas of Missions and Evangelism and does Emotional Intelligence coaching for the Center for Emotional Development. She served as a chaplain at New York University for 14 years where she founded the English Connections program for international students. She has earned both a BS and MS in Biblical Studies, and a Doctorate of Ministry in Leadership in the Global Context. Her current role involves oversight and development of staff, as well as providing training for ministry partners/volunteers. She desires to connect missional believers with opportunities to serve and reach international students. Valerie’s free time is spent with family (4 nephews, 2 nieces), and involvement in her hobbies which are vocal performance, travelling, reading, and British mystery shows.
Samuel Ebenezer B. – Worship Leader
Samuel Ebenezer B. serves the Lord as a missionary and Bible teacher, with prayer and worship gifts. He was born and raised in a Christian family. His father served the Lord as a pastor. Samuel responded to God’s call to serve Him in a bi-vocational capacity and he completed a foundational Bible course. He pastored churches in rural areas and urban settings; and he was involved in church leadership teams.
In 2015, he moved to the United States and completed his biblical studies from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He started new prayer groups in several places around the United States and is now actively working with churches in the New York metropolitan area to reach the lost. He is making disciples and raising leaders by preaching and leading in prayer. He oversees churches in India and leads bible studies. He has a burden for inter-denominational intercessory prayer ministry, evangelism, and youth ministry.
He works in the IT industry for his living and his wife Kalyani, is a physician and a believer from Hindu background. They are blessed with three children.
Rebeca Castillo – Missionary
Rebecca is a missionary who serves locally and abroad; she regularly ministers through hospitality.
Rev. Dr. Alfonse Javed – First Baptist Church of Metuchen, Sr. Pastor
Dr. Alfonse Javed, the Senior Pastor of 1st Baptist Church of Metuchen, has planted a church abroad, has been a missions pastor and has served as a missionary in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. He has also planted a church in Greece.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan — the son of a pastor — Pastor Javed began serving in church at a young age. In the 1990s, a providential relationship formed when Calvary Baptist Church started supporting his ministry efforts; he would later serve as the missions pastor of that congregation. Eventually, in 2009, he moved to New York with a new vision — mobilizing churches to engage Muslims in the NYC metro area.
Dr. Javed’s advanced theological training is from the Greek Bible College, Davis College and Liberty University. He maintains a blog, www.alfonsejaved.com, and is the author of The Muslim Next Door: A Practical Guide for Evangelism and Discipleship. Dr. Javed and his wife, Sarah, have four children
Florence Moore – Urban Nations, West Africa Center, Missionary
Florence serves as a missionary in the Bronx, New York teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). She teaches international high school students in an after-school program. And, she has organized and teaches ESL to an international community of adults at Fordham Community Church.
Florence believes the mission, purpose and commands of Jesus Christ provide a framework for developing outreach to Muslims in one’s community. Because reaching a person may take weeks, months, and possibly years of inviting, praying, loving, and hearing the Word of God before the soil is ready to yield a harvest, one must be intentional with relationship building within the Muslim community.
Florence host dinners and weekly Bible studies which have resulted in Muslim background believers returning to their home countries to form groups to share the gospel among other Muslims. Florence holds a degree in Marketing from Virginia Commonwealth University and is continuing her studies at Liberty University.
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
Mursheda Parveen – Center to the Unreached, Evangelist
Mursheda Parveen was born in Bangladesh in 1969 and brought up as a strict Muslim woman. When she was 17, she was given in marriage to a man she hardly knew. After a prophecy given to her by an astrologist, she and her husband moved to New York City.
On an evening in NYC, a Christian knocked on her door to share the Gospel. They became friends. And after five years of friendship, her Christian friend helped her to break the astrologist’s curse and Mursheda accepted Jesus as her personal savior in 2011.
In the following years, Mursheda was able to lead over 60 people to the Lord who came from Unreached People Group (UPG) backgrounds. In 2019, she started working for Center to the Unreached. She serves as one of their international workers, sharing the gospel locally in her community, in Bangledesh and other Muslim-majority countries. Mursheda is a gifted evangelist whose ministry is fueled by prayer. She has been able to establish small group Bible studies among UPGs all around the world down to the third generation of believers.
Ramny Perez – Fordham Community Church, Lead Pastor
Ramny Perez was born in the Dominican Republic but grew up in NYC. He came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior as he read the gospel of Matthew while in high school. God has given him a passion to help as many as possible see the beauty of the Lord Jesus. He is married to his best friend and dear wife Dayami Perez. They have a son, Navi Perez and a daughter Scarlin Perez. He previously served as a pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church and Led the Youth Ministry of Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana in Washington Heights. He has a BA in Literature from The City College of New York and Masters of Divinity from SBTS. He loves to read, play and watch sports and spend time with his family.
Martha R. – COMHINA, Mobilizer
As a mobilizer who has worked in the NYC metro area since 1997, Martha has trained numerous churches in how to start missions and outreach programs. Her organization COMHINA, serves as a bridge for Spanish speaking and bilingual congregations to get involved in reaching the unreached.
Raised in NYC, Martha is bilingual and conducts training in both Spanish and English. She has a passion to mobilize young people and encourage them to answer God’s call to missions. Each year, she and her team participate in Por Causa del LLamado (For the Sake of the Call), COMHINA’s annual summer training camp for young people interested in learning how to be involve in God’s mission.
Sarah E. Racine – The Truth Collective, Director of Creative
Sarah Racine is a Trauma-Informed Art-Making Facilitator/Artist from Pennsylvania who is captivated by her Creator and the creative process. She has used Trauma-Informed Art-Making in restoration homes and resettlement agencies in the States, the prisons and safe houses of Southeast Asia, orphanages in Africa, refugee camps in Greece, and the Middle East.
Having the opportunity to experience life in many different nations over the years has shaped her vision for using the arts as a means of reconnecting women to their true design as image-bearers. Sarah’s creative expression varies depending on the medium, but the end goal is always the same- to bring light into the dark places and facilitate the opportunity for women to experience truth and the healing heart of God through visual art.
Dr. Mimsie Robinson – Bethel Gospel Assembly, Associate Pastor
As an associate pastor of Bethel Gospel Assembly in New York City, Pastor Robinson has been involved in disciple-making efforts in India, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Venezuela, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and several islands in the West Indies. Through involvement with Evangelism Explosion International as a teacher/trainer, he has been able to help many believers become effective witnesses at home and abroad. His involvement with Perspectives on the World Christian Movement includes serving as a class coordinator and an instructor of classes throughout the USA. In December 2019, he completed his Doctor of Missiology (Applied Intercultural Studies) with the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.
In 2009, Dr. Robinson helped plant Living Water Christian Center, a bilingual French and English congregation, affiliated with Bethel Gospel Assembly which serves the spiritual needs of the growing number of French-speaking West African immigrants in New York City.
Rev. David Westmeier – Center to the Unreached, Founder
Pastor David Westmeier was born to missionary parents in Colombia, South America. He is bilingual and often teaches in Spanish. He studied at Nyack College where he graduated in 1991. In 1994 he was married to Yeins, a Venezuelan girl he had met at New Life Fellowship church in Queens, New York. They have two children, Matthew and Benjamin Westmeier.
Since 2002, David served as pastor under the Christian and Missionary Alliance with the vision of evangelizing Unreached People Groups in Queens. That same year he started a new church plant named New Life Christian Center (NLCC). In 2013, under his guidance, NLCC began a monthly “Church in the Park,” where MBBs could invite their friends and families to hear about Jesus without the stigma of “going to a Church”. In 2014 NLCC sponsored the first Spanish Perspectives class in the QCAC building with 40 people enrolled, including pastors and leaders from five Spanish Churches. In that same year NLCC began working with QCAC to merge their two church congregations into one so that the task of reaching the unreached with the Gospel would be more effectively accomplished. At that time David was serving as the Pastor of Evangelism in QCAC. In 2019 he founded Center to the Unreached, an organization whose mission is to bring the Gospel of Jesus to various UPGs in NYC and around the world. As of 2012 David has also been serving on the Board of Directors for the Jesus for Muslims Network. His vision is to spark church planting movements among UPGs in the greater Metropolitan Area of New York City and around the world, and to awaken the established Church of New York City to rise to the challenge of bringing Jesus to the UPGs in their neighborhoods.
