ABOUT US
We have been blessed so that we can bless others.
J & Susan Taliaferro
OUR STORY - OUR TESTIMONY
Susan and I were both raised in Christian homes. Our parents took us to church regularly and taught us about a loving God in the home. She was raised in Alamogordo, NM and I came up in the thriving metropolis of Springtown, TX.
Both of us understood from a young age that we were not able to live up to the standard God required of us on our own. We knew that we needed help and that help came in the person of Jesus. Meeting Jesus was a foundational experience that completely changed the course of our lives. He gave us forgiveness, and purpose. Immediately, He began transforming us in the most impossible ways.
Anger, violence, and legalism were surrendered, and God replaced them with love. As we followed Jesus, He opened our eyes to the needs of the nations. We were hundreds of miles apart, but we were both learning the same lessons. There are many hopeless and hurting people in the world who have never met Jesus. One day, He may call on us to take His message of hope to those who had never heard. We both agreed. We never knew that our love of Jesus would eventually bring us together.
In the late 90s after completing our undergraduate degrees, we made good on the commitment that we had made to God in our youth. Susan surrendered to serve the Lord in Israel, and I went to work in the Amazon. We met at our missionary orientation and became fast friends.
After serving two years in our respective missionary fields we returned to America. A lot had changed in us. God had grown us both and molded us more into the likeness of his Son. So when we sat down and shared with each other about our experiences, we both gushed about what God had done and how faithful he had been. I knew then that this was the help mate God had prepared for me and I knew that he had also been pruning and preparing me to serve her. So, we got married.
FROM THE AMAZON TO THE DESERT
About one year after getting married, Susan and I returned to the mission field and helped to start a new team in Peru. Our task was to research the least reached people groups of the region and then recruit, equip, and deploy teams of missionaries to engage these unreached populations. Our teams were an amazing mix of young men and women from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Colombia & the USA.
These were some of the best years of our lives! We served in this capacity for eight years. Our first two children were born during this time, and we saw a mighty movement of God. Over the eight years that we were there, we engaged numerous people groups and saw God plant and multiply house churches among the indigenous of the Amazon and Andes mountains.
Then God, in His sovereignty, moved us to a new task in 2012. We went from the lush jungle of the Amazon to the arid deserts of Africa. We served first among the Karamojong People, then in South Sudan, and finally with refugees. God blessed us with two more children during this season. For eleven years, God surrounded us with national brothers and sisters who inspired us, and we had the privilege to work alongside them, making disciples and planting churches.
The spiritual soil there was as dry as anything we have ever seen, but God did miraculous things. People were set free from bondage to sin, churches were established, and disciples were made and then multiplied. Our time in Africa will always be remembered as the hardest of days with the sweetest of blessings. But God wasn't finished.
NEW ADVENTURES
After 21 years on the foreign mission field, we have had tremendous support, but there were also difficult times. Times when we felt alone, abandoned, and betrayed. We have walked through trials and hardships, but God was always there.
Lottie Moon said, "I pray that no missionary will ever be as lonely as I have been." Unfortunately, we have seen our fellow missionaries fall to loneliness and despair too often. So we set out to make a difference by ensuring our "sent-out ones" never feel abandoned.
We know churches want to support their missionaries, but often times they don't know what to do. That's where we come in. We started Antioch Provisions to help churches show love and support to missionaries serving all around the world.
We use our decades of experience to make sure missional churches can put unexpected smiles on the faces of God's servants, wherever they are. In turn, relationships between church and missionary will be strengthened, and the Kingdom of God will benefit. I hope we can serve you and your missionary in this new adventure.
