Meet the Missionaries
Matt and Becca Stromberg are members of Faith Community Church in Santa Clarita, CA. They were both born in the San Fernando Valley in California but moved to Santa Clarita as toddlers. Matt and Becca attended church as children, and it was the children’s ministries of their churches that were instrumental in their professions of faith. Matt became a Christian at the age of 11 during an overnight camp after hearing the testimony of one of the leaders. Becca became a Christian at the age of 8 after a lesson in her AWANA program. They both attended Cal State University Northridge, where Matt earned a B.A. in English/Literature as well as earning his teaching credentials. Becca earned a B.A. in international business. They met in 2006 while training for a college group short-term mission trip to Tanzania. They got married in 2010 and have two children, Joseph age 3, and Benjamin age 1.
The Journey
Prior to arriving in Africa in 2012 as a couple, Matt and Becca had both spent some time serving on short-term missions teams in Africa. With that experience and exposure, God laid it on their hearts to commit to a longer term with the sending organization *Reach Global, to minister to an unreached people group living in Africa.
There are 58 million people in this specific group worldwide, representing one of the largest unreached people groups. The divide between the Hindus and the Muslims within this people group is so tense that missionary efforts to establish churches in other parts of the world among these people have proven extremely dangerous. In Africa, they are slightly more open to religious discourse. However, they still face the challenge of 385,000 of them being religiously split between Hinduism and Islam. This means significant tact is necessary to reach a subculture with two conflicting ideologies.
One of the unique opportunities the Strombergs have utilized is the direct study of the Bible. For a people hostile to the gospel, this is only possible for two reasons. First, while a minority in Africa, these people are of the higher class of society. They are businessmen and desire a good education for their children. This inevitably means a growing need to learn English. The opportunity is therefore too good to pass up as these programs are offered free of charge in the form of an AWANA-like after-school program. Second, instead of calling it the Bible, they refer to it as The Word of God. This creates an openness concerning the text and helps it feel less Christian and presumably Western. Using this platform, and through building relationships with people in their neighborhood, they hope to one day see an indigenous church.
As it would turn out, their first two years came and went rather quickly. During their time they taught English to students in private schools with the Word of God as the primary text. They read through the three books of Solomon (not a problem for Muslims as he is considered a prophet and son of a prophet, and not a problem for Hindus who consider every religious teacher a good teacher). They have a lot of work before them and a long road ahead, but even still there are hopeful signs the gospel will take root among this unreached people group.
*Reach Global sends church planting teams where there are none. In most places, they serve alongside church planting movement leaders to bring training, resources, and encouragement for the multiplication of transformational churches throughout entire cities and regions of the world. They acknowledge that the diverse societies around the world demand a multi-faceted mission. Through a spectrum of ministry and service, Reach Global empowers disciples who make disciples in their own native context.