Meet Ron and Star Nelson | Chief Servants & Mission Mobilizers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ron and Star Nelson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ron and Star, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think risk is tied to one’s faith or lack their of. In our case, it was our spiritual growth that led the way. Meaning, God revealed Himself and so directed our path the more we grew closer to Him. We began, and more specifically, I (Ron) became more intimate, and wanted more of Christ in my life. I would tell those who would ask that I met Christ at age 16, but did not come to know Him until age 30. After many trails and tribulations, God was teach me (us) o depend on and to trust Him. When we did, our journey really took off. I (Ron) started growing into the man, husband, father, and child of God I was created to be (Still a work in progress). So when the risk appeared, we were ready. We stepped out on faith and left very lucrative careers to pursue our passion for missions. After nearly 18 years in law enforcement and closing out a career as a US Postal Inspector, I (Ron) took a tremendous risk, I walked away from the job. After several missions trips to Haiti, then South Africa, and later Kenya, we made the decision to launch our ministry Sowing Seeds of Joy. In doing so, I (Ron) went from a six figure income to zero dollars. Moving for Arkansas to Texas in further pursuit of this new found passion, I, with no ministerial training, went to work at OCBF, Dallas, TX., under the leadership of Dr. Tony Evans, Star, at the height of her career as a Postmaster in AR, eventual took an early retirement from the US Postal Service. Our lives had been turned upside down. Sacrifices became ever so apparent, less income, departure from family in Arkansas, yet this peace knowing we had done the right thing and that God was sovereign, and thus in control. Looking back, the rick was worth it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Our Mission: As a bridge to the nations, Sowing Seeds of Joy engages Black, African American, and People of Color communities through cross-cultural missions training, discipleship, and spiritual formation for the work of advancing God’s Kingdom.

Our Vision: To see Black, People of Color communities, and African American Kingdom Builders serve the diverse Kingdom of God with a spirit of excellence, empowering the Church to plant and water the hope of Jesus Christ on every continent.

Our Mantra: “Connecting the Hearts of People to the Heart of God”

See Our Story Below

For more information visit us at www.sowingseedsofjoy.org contact us at info@sowingseedsofjoy.org
Check out: Sowing Seeds of Joy founders featured in Christianity Today https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/coming-african-american-missionarymovement.html

Various Services We Offer:

• Missionary Certification Program (MCP)
The MCP provides instruction, coaching, and resources that highlight the importance of missionary service, mobilization, collaboration, and networking within the total, all-inclusive mission community. Participants enrolled in the course are introduced to a curriculum emboldened to ignite their passion for cross-cultural missions, their hunger to grow more spiritually, and flame their zeal for travel aboard. A three-year program, the MCP prepares trainees to address challenging missional issues in their communities, churches, ministries, and professions in competent, biblical, and strategic ways. Graduates of the program earn the designation of being certified in one of seven areas: Mission Mobilizer, Short-term Team Leader, Human Trafficking, Trauma Healing, Cross-Cultural Missions: STM 101, Creative Arts in Missions, and Missionary Care.

• Boot Camp Missions Training for Churches (BCMT)
BCMT is an intensive four-hour missions training course designed to meet participants (specifically, churches and church members) where they are; while intense, the training is flexible, relational, intentional, strategic, and evangelistic. Participants are given individual and/or church assessments; they are resourced to the Perspectives course curriculum, led through a BIBLE STUDY OF GOD’S MOTIVATIONS FOR MISSIONS, and presented resources to ignite their missional aptitude. Upon examination of the need, training in the following areas is incorporated: e.g., Bloom Where You Are Planted, Trauma Healing, Church Reconciliation, A Taste of Perspectives. This training is conducted at a host/church site or at the offices of Sowing Seeds of Joy if requested.

• Short-Term Missions Training & Trips
Sowing Seeds of Joy offer short-term mission (STM) trips to mobilize Christian missionaries for a short period of time ranging from days to years. A Sowing Seeds of Joy missions trip is a great option for professionals, leaders, retirees, families, youth, young adults, and couples to experience a different culture, people, and ultimately, God on another level and perspective. Our journeys encourage an encounter with the heart of God through exploration and sacrificial service to distinctive communities locally and abroad. Sowing Seeds of Joy is committed to sending well trained labors on to the missions fields of the world for the work of advancing God’s kingdom agenda. Utilizing the medium of short-term trips, we train, pre-trip through post-trip, deploying teams of individuals to experience God and to embrace the journey. Go into all the world…. Deuteronomy 2:24, “Rise ye up, take your journey…”

• Biblical Studies & Guidance Training In partnership with The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI), a ministry of World Impact, Sowing Seeds of Joy equips leadership for the urban and rural church, especially among the poor, in order to advance the Kingdom of God. We focus our investment on those called to evangelize, disciple, plant, and pastor churches in unreached urban and rural communities. Our single passion and desire are to identify, empower, and release laborers who can both display and declare God’s kingdom reign among their neighbors, where they are. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.” (Matt.9:37-38). Our blueprint for training and sending is to: prepare the soil in prayer, plant the seed of the Gospel by faith, and harvest souls for God’s kingdom. Participants of this training earn certificates in one of four modules/workshops: The Capstone (TUMI) Curriculum, Prison to People-Group Pipeline Training, Evangelism, Mentoring & Life Skills Coaching Training. • Diversity & Sensitivity Training

Sowing Seeds of Joy is invested in seeing and being a part of a health missions community. That said, we are heavily engaged in training, giving talks, providing information, and advocating for diversity and inclusion within and among the ranks of mission agencies, their leadership, and missionaries. As a bridge to the nations, and ambassadors for the Great Commission, we believe it to be our organizational responsibility to plant the seed of unity among those who carry the gospel to the nations and do so with the intentionality of involving all people of color (POC). A dismal statistic is that ½ of 1% of the current missionary force in the world is African American; we take little pleasure in noting that fact and that African American and other POC are “MIA” missing in action on the cross-cultural mission fields of the world.

• A Taste of Perspectives An intense three-hour workshop designed to have participants (specifically, churches and church members) experience and be exposed to facets of the Perspectives Course. Perspectives is a discipleship course taught over 15 weeks by 15 different instructors that presents the biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic aspects of God’s global purpose for the nations. Perspectives has transformed the ministries of well-known pastors, authors, and recording artists such as Dr. Tony Evans, Pastor John Piper, and Scott Wesley Brown. Students all over the world have said Perspectives may be the single most life-changing course available anywhere!! Our aim is to give participants a “Taste” or Preview of the course with the hope of having them pursue registration in the full course either on-line or in person.

• Trauma Healing Trauma is everywhere. People are gaining more awareness of how trauma impacts a life not at just the incident and recovery level – but if unaddressed or repressed, it can have a huge negative impact on a life. Trauma Healing equips church leaders with basic mental health and biblical principles to better respond to their own inner pain and that of others. Once trained and certified, trauma healing facilitators provide basic trauma care. Sowing Seeds of Joy joins American Bible Society’s Trauma Healing Institute in offering this program. Sowing Seeds of Joy, its staff, and volunteers, upon request, provides training and facilitates a group size of 8 – 10 individuals per session.

• Mentoring & Life Skill Coaching
Coaching and Mentoring focuses on how to better coach missionaries to higher implementation and purpose. Coaching is a process of relationship building and setting goals. How well you coach is related directly to how well you are able to foster a great working relationship with co-laborers in ministry through understanding them and strategic goal setting. Sowing Seeds of Joy places great interest and value in cultivating and building authentic relationships, therefore, training in the area of mentoring and life skills coaching is paramount and utilized as a platform of how we grow relationships.

Our Story
In 1998, we started going on short-term mission trips to Haiti, South Africa, and Kenya by 2004. Those trips were impactful and eye-openers. We learned a lot about God, others, and ourselves. During our travels, we observed many church teams comprised of many youth and adult leaders. It was encouraging to witness their commitment to travel and doing kingdom work. However, what disturbed us and later challenged us, was the observance of very few Africa American team members. If we saw teams of 15 – 20 youth with maybe 5 -8 adult leaders, there may have been one person of color (Black) in a company of these all-Caucasian short-term mission teams. A fact still noted today and one that moved us to action and to launch Sowing Seeds of Joy was this: African Americans make up less than half of 1% of the current global missionary force. Arguably, this statistics regarding the involvement of African Americans in missions is a dismal one and is slowly changing. Our objective is to mobilize Blacks, African Americans, and communities of color for the advancement of God’s kingdom and the Great Commission.
After extraordinarily successful and rewarding careers, Ron, a former US Postal Inspector, and Star, a retired postmaster, founded Sowing Seeds of Joy Ministries. Their passion to engage more African Americans and people of color in global missions led to the creative birth this active ministry. This endeavor of faith catapulted them into total commitment and participation as mission mobilizers. Working as a dynamic husband and wife team, they bring tremendous zeal to this work. Over the past 23 years, they have educated, equipped, engaged, exposed, and empowered some 1400 individuals, laypersons, pastors, and their wives, church leaders, youth, and young adults, to experience short-term mission and to do humanitarian outreach. As members of churches in Arkansas, Florida, and now Texas, Ron, and Star have been instrumental in igniting the fire for missions where there has been no fire. They have assisted churches in starting mission ministries. They are both encouragers and tremendous leaders.
For 5 years, Ron gave oversight to six ministries as director of evangelism and missions at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas, Texas, where the senior pastor is Dr. Tony Evans. He has presented at Dallas Theological Seminary’s WEC Conference, Missio Nexus’ conferences, Mission Waco’s No Needs Among Us Conference, the South-Central Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS) Conference, and countless venues around the world. He and Star have collaborated with Columbia International University in South Carolina and formulated partnerships with organizations like TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission), SOE (Standards of Excellence in Missions), Perspectives, NAAMC (The National African American Council), among countless others. Ron and Star are requested speakers; they have presented at chapel services on the S.I.L. Wycliffe campus in Dallas and in the pulpits of innumerable churches in the US and abroad. Ron currently serves as board chair for Missio Nexus. They are the creators of a Missionary Certification Program designed to develop and mobilize leaders; and, as ambassadors for missions, Perspective coordinators, instructors, Trauma Healing facilitators, they have welcomed opportunities to further the God’s kingdom agenda through these various avenues. Their travels have taken them to Haiti, Brazil, Belize, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, Philippines, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and numerous cities throughout the US. Taking their call to disciple and mobilize others to the nations very seriously, Ron and Star seek to be a bridge to the nations, filling the gap between the whole body of Christ and the world’s hurting communities. Their maxim is, whatever you do, make it count – experience God! Married for 40 years, they are the proud parents of two, and the grandparents of four.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Without hesitation, we would extend an invitation to visit our office located on the campus of Dallas International University – 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road. There we would share our passion and expose them to the hundredths of translated Bibles on display in the many languages of people groups around the world. Our hospitality would extend to meals at our favorite restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro-plex: Jamaican Gates, Lockhart Smokehouse, Sweet Georgia Brown Bar B-Que, and Andalous Mediterranean Grill. We would want them to join us in prayer on Prayer Mountain in Grand Prairie, visit The Cowboys – AT&T Stadium, and the African American Museum Dallas. An extended stay would involve a short cross-cultural trip to one of our favorite travel locations, two -three hour flight from Dallas – Belize. There we would experience a different culture and maybe do some Snorkeling in the second largest coral reef in the world. The aforementioned itinerary is very similar to one in which we conducted when we had a group of dance students visit with us from Delaware University. They served, got a taste of Dallas, journeyed to Belize, served there, and went zip lining and cave tubing as an added adventure.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There have been several individuals, churches, etc. that we give credit to and “shout outs,” if you will, for the the journey we find ourselves on. Shout out to a late departed classmate by the name of Annette Wells who introduced me (Ron) to Christ at the age of 16. Shout out to the lady who came into the projects of Liberty City in Miami and shared the Gospel with Star and her family. A shout out to Rev. R. B. Holmes and the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church family, Tallahassee, FL., who nurtured us; it was there, in Florida, God began to call me (Ron) into the ministry. It was there, in Florida that I (Ron) heard God ask the question of me – who will go for me? I said, with tears in my eyes, here I am Lord, send me. Leaving Florida for Arkansas to continue my law enforcement career, I juggled the activities of working as a US Postal Inspector with those of building the ministry of missions at Saint Mark Baptist Church then under the leadership of Bishop Steven Arnold. Shout out to Bishop Arnold who ignited the flame and passion within me and Star for missions. It was Bishop Arnold who said to me that not every minister is meant to stand in a pulpit on Sunday mornings. Shout out to the Perspectives discipleship, leadership course we took that turned our world upside down. Shout out to Dr. Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas, TX., who gave me the opportunity to be on church staff and allow me to cultivate the passion for missions. It was there that I was allowed to lead six different ministries, but eventually finding more so of my way in cross-cultural missions.

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