Many people contact NCF by website, email, or telephone to request a referral to a Christian counselor or organization in the USA or overseas for themselves or others. When we are given the location of the person or family needing assistance, we will provide suggestions of counselors and organizations to contact. You may want to consider these services, clinicians, and organizations:
Alongside – Richland, Michigan
Alongside is a professional counseling ministry dedicated to helping Christian pastors, missionaries, and their families grow in personal wholeness, healthy relationships, and ministry effectiveness. Visit www.alongsidecares.net.
Lois Bushong – Fishers, Indiana
Lois, M.S., L.M.F.T., is a missionary kid (MK) who grew up in Central America. As an adult she returned to Latin America and worked for ten years with an international agency. Lois is a Marriage and Family Therapist, a member of the adjunct faculty at Indiana Wesleyan University in the Graduate Counseling Department in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a published author. She speaks frequently throughout the United States on counseling and cross-cultural topics, is an expert in counseling adults who were raised outside of their passport country, and frequently works with couples who are in intercultural marriages. She is fluent in both English and Spanish. Visit https://www.loisbushong.com.
Dr. Karen Carr – Barnabas International
Dr. Karen Carr is a clinical psychologist serving with Barnabas International. She has served in full-time missionary care since 2000. Karen lived in West Africa for nearly 15 years, providing training and crisis response with the Mobile Member Care Team. MMCT concluded its work in 2017, but many missionaries who received training in crisis response continue to serve as peer responders in the region. The Mobile Member Care Team website is still available as a toolbox of resources for anyone involved in caring for missionaries. Dr. Carr currently lives in Virginia, but continues to work globally with fellow member care providers to provide consultation to mission leaders, develop and facilitate member care trainings, and write resource materials to foster missionary resilience.
Casa Aprisco
NCF, in partnership with Messengers of the Gospel Retreat Centers Inc., is developing Casa Aprisco, a retreat center in Málaga, Spain, for messengers of the gospel, particularly Latinos, who serve in North Africa and the Middle East. Our vision is to see these cross-cultural Kingdom servants experience restoration, endurance, and effectiveness by providing a retreat setting and hospitality services for transformational retreat programs. Our mission and the name Casa Aprisco, translated from Spanish as “home of the sheepfold,” are based on the Lord’s words concerning His sheep given to the prophet Ezekiel: “I will tend them in a good pasture…there they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down…I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak" (Ezekiel 34:14-16, NIV).
This project is in the early stages of development. Contact Tim Hibma, NCF President, at thibma@ncfliving.org for any questions or comments.
Dr. Charles Chege – Monrovia, California and Kenya
Dr. Chege is co-director of the Global Psychology program within the Department of Graduate Psychology at Azusa Pacific University. Each summer Dr. Chege accompanies students to Kenya to provide hands-on supervision and consultation in interventions and program development for orphans of HIV/AIDs, their families, and other vulnerable children. He has extensive experience in teaching, clinical supervision, and training within the local clinical scientist model. He also conducts numerous trainings in diversity competency in clinical work and supervision. For nearly 20 years Dr. Chege has provided clinical services and held administrative positions in the community mental health field, working with the severely and persistently mentally ill. Since 2000, he has also maintained an active private practice with adolescents, adults, couples, and families. He has a keen interest in integrating faith and clinical practice. Visit www.apu.edu/bas/faculty/cchege/.
Dr. Keith Edwards – La Mirada, California
Dr. Edwards is a retired faculty member of the Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University, who maintains a counseling practice at the Biola Counseling Center. He has conducted intensive summer ministries for missionaries in France, Ecuador, Estonia, and other locations. Keith specializes in marriage enrichment, couples' communication and counseling, anxiety, depression, and stress management. You can reach Keith at keith.edwards@biola.edu.
Dr. Tim Friesen
Dr. Friesen is a clinical psychologist and the founding director of Cornerstone Counseling Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Tim is currently serving as the founder and executive director of Twelve12:Hope, a non-profit organization that provides counseling, consultation, and training to missionaries and mission organizations. Twelve12: Hope's Jacaranda Communities of Hope professional team has developed a child-centered model to bring healing and hope to traumatized children through individual, small group, and community engagement. The program has been implemented in Kenya, Nigeria, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Mongolia, and the Kurdistan region of Iraq. You can reach Tim at dr.tim.friesen@gmail.com.
Márcia Tostes – Brazil
Márcia Tostes works in São Paulo, Brazil, with Antioch Mission, a Brazilian mission organization. With specialization in intercultural mentoring and personal debriefing, she assists with training, sending, and caring for missionaries. Márcia's work involves walking alongside those who are planning to serve in missions as well as counseling missionaries regarding marital issues, life situations, and issues specific to missionary life.
Márcia is also the director of Valley Refuge, a member care center and place of retreat and hospitality that receives missionaries and their families, pastors, and leaders. She is a member of the Brazilian Missionary Care program, which is linked to the Brazilian Mission Association and to international organizations such as COMIBAM and the Global Member Care Network.
Missionary Psychological Services
This fund represents NCF's global ministry and is established to receive gifts not designated for a specific project or individual. Donate here: Missionary Psychological Services.
Mission Training International (MTI)
Mission Training International’s mission is to serve mission boards, churches, and other sending organizations by developing and equipping their cross-cultural workers for advancing Christ’s Kingdom. MTI’s vision is to see cross-cultural messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ experience effectiveness, endurance, and personal vitality, and accomplishes this through two main programs: COMPASS Pre-Field Training and Debriefing and Renewal (DAR). MTI also hosts two conferences: Mental Health and Missions Conference and the International Congress on Language Learning.
Narramore Endowment Fund
The Narramore Endowment Fund for Pastors and Missionaries was established in 2007 by Dr. Clyde and Ruth Narramore in memory of their daughter, Melodie Narramore Yokum. The Narramore Endowment Fund provides funds for annual training seminars to missionaries and their families. The MK ReEntry Seminar and the Counseling and Member Care Seminar were near and dear to Clyde and Ruth's hearts. Donate here: Narramore Endowment Fund.
Trauma Healing Thailand - Cornerstone
Cornerstone Counseling Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Trauma Healing Thailand (THT) partner to provide training, resources, and support to help Thai churches or organizations respond to trauma in their own communities. Using the THT model, which integrates mental health education with a biblical foundation, increases the number of skilled people within Thailand and raises awareness within Thai communities to create a sustainable support system for any local community. For more information, contact Cornerstone Counseling Foundation at https://www.ccfthailand.org/contact/.
Valeo — Columbia, South Carolina (formerly Godspeed Resources Connection)
Valeo is a faith-based organization dedicated to enabling global workers to thrive. They exclusively serve those sent cross-culturally by providing preventative and restorative care to strengthen their well-being in life and work. They develop emotional, relational, and spiritual health in their clients through debriefing, spiritual direction, counseling, psychiatric care, check ups, and consulting. Their clients include individual global workers and families and their organizations. Delivery of services occur in person in their Columbia, SC, office and on-site throughout Indonesia, as well as online anywhere there is an internet connection overseas. Visit https://www.valeo.global.
The Well International — Chiang Mai, Thailand
The Well International serves cross-cultural workers in Asia and around the world through clinical counseling, pastoral care, training, and events. They are a Christian, donor-funded organization based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with professionally trained and licensed counselors as well as non-licensed pastoral care and member care providers.
The Well provides training for organizational leadership, member-care providers, and professional counselors. Their goal is to support and equip individuals at the “front lines” of their profession, while also creating awareness about the unique needs of cross-cultural workers. The Well also hosts events that are designed to meet the specific needs of cross-cultural workers such as managing transition and adjusting to a different culture, working through marriage problems or traumatic experiences, parenting in unfamiliar contexts, and many other life challenges. Workshops, seminars, and retreats are offered, all with the purpose of providing renewal, restoration, and education to cross-cultural workers. Visit www.thewellintl.org.
Ying Woothitha
Ying Woothitha serves at Cornerstone Counseling Foundation as a counselor and the Development Director of Thai Counseling. Her ministry includes providing counseling to Thai and expat kingdom workers, teaching workshops, developing Thai counseling services for the Thai community, and developing Christian counseling materials and curriculum in Thai. Ying is the president of the Christian Counseling Association Thailand (CCAT), which is registered with the Thai government and promotes mental health and wholistic healing in Thai society through education and Christian counseling. Visit Ying Woothitha.
