Our Staff & Leadership

Executive Director: United States

John & Candy Adams

John put his faith in Jesus early in life, encouraged by his parents who modeled following Christ wholeheartedly. As a high school senior he sensed God’s direction to be a pastor or missionary, though it was two years later while pursuing a Biology degree at Oregon State University that John finally agreed to do God’s will. It was during his time at Oregon State that John met Candy (Wiggers), who was training to be an elementary teacher. Candy too put her faith in Christ as a child, learning of Jesus from her Village Missionary parents, Mel & Jeannie Wiggers. After four years of friendship John and Candy married in 1990. After earning a degree in Biology, John attended Western Seminary and completed a Master of Divinity degree in 1993. John and Candy then travelled to China for a year as English professors with English Language Institute. This was a year filled with steps of faith for both of them. After returning from China, John and Candy applied to serve with Village Missions and arrived at their first field, Butte Falls, Oregon just two weeks after their first child, Callie, was born. They served there from October 1995 through 2003, and then moved to the Coos Bay, Oregon area to serve as Village Missionaries at Hauser Community Church. During their years at Hauser, John completed his Doctor of Ministry degree through Western Seminary, graduating in 2011. Candy is a gifted quilter and loves creating beautiful artwork from fabric. John enjoys woodworking and outdoor activities. They have two grown children, Callie and David.

Director of Stewardship

Tim & Gwen Griffiths

Tim Griffiths grew up attending a country church in the heart of America. At eight years old, he became saved at Camp Rock, a small summer camp located just a few miles from his home. He attended and served at Camp Rock every summer for over twenty years and he eventually met his wife, Gwen, there.

Tim and Gwen were married in 1997, and by 2001 Tim had been accepted as Assistant Director at Camp Rock. Over the course of the next few years, their three children were born, and the Griffiths family began to really discover their heart for rural ministry. Tim served as camp cook and maintenance director. They also began to lead retreats and other “off-season” activities.

In 2008, the Griffiths family moved to Laramie, Wyoming, to work for Table in the Wilderness Ministries, an outdoor adventure ministry. While there, Tim and Gwen learned much about service — how to serve generously in order to show Christ.

Then, in 2010, God moved the family on again, this time to Kansas. Tim was hired as Director of Ministry Development for Shepherd’s Staff Christian Conference & Retreat Center. During their time there, God continued to impress upon them the importance of rural ministry, and to lead Tim into relationships with people and organizations all over the United States! One of those relationships was with Village Missions.

In the summer of 2012, Tim was approached by Village Missions and after a series of interviews, visits to the International Service Center in Oregon, and much prayer, he was accepted as Director of Stewardship. The family moved to Oregon and began their Village Missions adventure. They are soaking up all the northwest coast has to offer, traveling with Tim as often as possible, and seeking to serve and honor God in all that they do.

Assistant Director: United States

Jon & Deb Hansen

Jon Hansen and his wife, Debbie, have served with Village Missions since 1996. The first 14 years were spent serving on Village Missions fields in Nebraska and Kansas. Then, for 10 years (2010-2019), Jonathan and Debbie served as the District Representatives for the Mountain Central District, which included North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and eastern Montana. Jonathan began serving as the Assistant Director on January 1, 2020.

Jon was raised in a Christian home. He learned about the Lord at a young age as his father was a rural pastor in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. Living in rural communities formed Jon’s passion for rural America. He accepted the Lord as his Savior at age 4, when he realized his need for a Savior and his mother explained the gospel to him. At 14 he committed his life to full-time service during a worship service at summer camp. In high school, his father gave him ministry experience by having him lead worship for the evening services at his church. Jon also attended Christian Youth in Action, a ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship. This experience helped ignite his passion for teaching and mentoring.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Grace College of the Bible in Omaha, Nebraska. Jon felt the Lord calling him to be a music teacher in a rural community and work within the local church in lay ministry. He then attended the University of Nebraska and was certified to teach K-12 band and music in Nebraska. He taught full time and earned a master’s degree. He married Debbie, and they have one daughter. While teaching at a school in Kansas City, Missouri, Jon sensed the Lord nudging him towards full-time ministry.

Jon first heard of Village Missions as a teen when his family lived near a VM church in Nebraska. While teaching in Kansas City, Jon heard of Village Missions again from women who worked at Stonecroft Ministries. Later he was in a small group with a man whose relative was a Village Missionary. Jon called that missionary and later visited him.

That visit confirmed to Jon and Debbie that they should pursue full-time ministry with Village Missions. In 1996 they attended the Village Missions Candidate School held at Stonecroft Ministries and were accepted into Village Missions. In October they were placed on their first field in the Sandhills of Nebraska.

Over the course of 15 years, they served at Wood Lake, Nebraska; Pierceville, Kansas; Mingo, Kansas; and their last field at Red Cloud, Nebraska. During his time at Red Cloud, Jon’s passion for mentoring and passing the torch came alive as he mentored a Moody student over two summers.

In 2010 Jon and Debbie became District Representatives. This role entailed visiting his district missionaries twice a year to encourage and support them in their ministries. Another part of his duties was to recruit at Bible colleges in his area. At an Association of North America Missions conference, he was challenged to teach and train the next generation of leaders. In 2012 Jonathan invited two students from Frontier School of the Bible (in Lagrange, Wyoming) to his home in Chadron, Nebraska for a weekend. He and a local retired Village Missionary shared their experiences in rural ministry. That weekend birthed the Elijah/Elisha Mentorship Weekends, held each January at Frontier School of the Bible to teach and train future rural ministry leaders. Using Village Missions candidate school material and courses on rural ministry, he trained future leaders over a three-year course of study that culminated with a one-year internship on a Village Missions Field. From this endeavor, five missionary pastors were placed into full-time church leadership with Village Missions.

In 2018 Calvary University in Kansas City, MO, requested Village Missions to consider joining them in a new program they were developing called Synergy. This program would partner with the student, the university and the agency (such as Village Missions) to help develop pastors for rural churches. In 2019 the agreement was signed to partner with Village Missions. One of Jon’s responsibilities as Assistant Director is overseeing Village Missions’ part in the On-Ramp to Rural Church Revitalization at Calvary and developing the same type of program with other Bible Schools and Bible Institutes that are favorable to rural church revitalization.

In his free time, Jon enjoys fishing, hiking and following Husker football.

Director of CDI

Ron & Marilyn Sallee

Ron and Marilyn Sallee were married in 1969. Marilyn was 20 and the daughter of a dairy farmer; Ron was 21 and had grown up nearby in Everett, Washington. Within nine months they had their own dairy farm and a few months after that their first son David arrived. Marilyn helped milk cows right up until the day she went into labor and never stepped foot into the barn again! Their daughter Robin joined the family 15 months later.

Ron was a new born Christian at the time and grew in faith as he prayed his way through the responsibilities of a newly acquired family and dairy farm. He looks back at this as his training to be a shepherd of God’s people. A pastor loves, feeds, protects, heals and prays for his flock; his flock included family and a whole herd of cows that all depended on him.

In time they sold the dairy and Ron was able to go to Bible School, not because he wanted to be a pastor but because he wanted to know what the Bible was all about. He wanted to know what he believed, why he believed it, and to be able to share it with others. Ron remembers thinking on the long commute back and forth to Seattle Bible School that this should be taught in the local churches. In fact that is exactly what the Bible says in Ephesians 4:11-16 and this was the seed that would grow to become Contenders Discipleship Initiative (CDI).

After Bible school Ron and Marilyn started attending a Village Missions church: Camano Chapel on Camano Island, Washington. They had purchased ten acres there and intended to build a home. A short time later Ron asked Pastor Bill Wayland if he could teach an elective course on Sundays on How to Study the Bible. After several times Ron added another course in Christian Doctrine. These early courses became the foundation for what would be Contenders Bible School and eventually the Contenders Discipleship Initiative.

Early in 1979 Ron and Marilyn said yes to Walter Duff when he asked them to become the pastor at Arago Community Church in Oregon. Ron quit his job in real estate, Marilyn quit her volunteer position at the school, their two children left their friends, and the entire family left the comfort of their home church and property on Camano Island to become Village Missionaries.

The Sallee family ministered at Arago for 6 ½ years and during that time they did what dairy farmers do–they raised replacements: Ronda and Paul were born and now they had two sets of kids 11 years apart!

In 1985 God moved the family back to their home area: Machias Community Church where Ron had preached Sunday evenings just before they left to go into Village Missions! Ron and Marilyn already knew people in the church and community since they had grown up in the area.

Still, it took 10 years before Ron was able to start Contenders Bible School in 1995.

Contenders Bible School was designed to prepare God’s people for ministry in the church. It was a six course accelerated curriculum taught over two years. At the end of the first two year period a couple wanted to go into Village Missions and that has continued to be the case for the last twenty-one years.

People were trained and equipped to serve the ministry of the church and some of them heard the call to give up their homes, place and position (just like the Sallees did) to go. Machias Contenders has been used by God to send out many into Village Missions as well as other ministries.

Ron’s goal was not to start a ‘school’ that others would need to travel to attend. It was to put Ephesians 4:11-16 into action. But they found that people were coming from other churches, even driving as much as three hours one way. This was unacceptable. It was worse than Ron’s commute to Seattle so many years ago!

Ron was able to see the Contenders model start in two other places. Russ Richardson and Rob Dore started Servants Bible School in Vancouver Washington. At the same time Ron and Marilyn commuted 2 ½ hours to McKenna Washington to start the Contenders Bible School at McKenna Community Church.

Now in partnership with Village Missions, Contenders Bible School has become the Contenders Discipleship Initiative and is being used by churches as well as individuals, primarily in the United States and Canada but also around the world in other countries.

Ron and Village Missions Executive Director Brian Wechsler knew that the CDI would need leadership dedicated to seeing all of the courses to full development and that ongoing administration would be necessary. This was simply more than Ron could do and still function as the full time pastor of Machias Community Church.

Brian Wechsler and the Board of Village Missions asked Ron to be the director of the CDI in 2016. That necessitated stepping down as the pastor of Machias Community Church. Ron accepted the appointment as the CDI director and started the process of transition.

As the CDI director Ron and Marilyn desire to be of assistance to those who are using the program both within and outside of Village Missions. They are available to conduct special training seminars in mentoring as well as generally promoting both the CDI and Village Missions. They plan to attend the VM summer conferences in both the U.S. and Canada to maintain contact with as many Village Missionaries as possible.

Ron and Marilyn live with their older daughter Robin and husband Shane while in Washington and with their younger daughter Ronda and husband Sam while in Missouri. Their youngest son Paul and his wife Amy live in Missouri as well. Their oldest son David is a detective with Tulalip Tribal police and lives in Washington State.

They feel blessed to serve with Village Missions!