Today we’d like to introduce you to Ron And Star Nelson.
Hi Ron and Star , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Our story is really a story of obedience. In 1998, God began opening our hearts to missions through service in our local church and short-term ministry opportunities in places such as Haiti, South Africa, and Kenya. What began with simply saying “yes” to the next opportunity gradually became a clear calling to help others discover their place in God’s mission.
Along the way, Ron left federal service to enter full-time ministry and later served as Director of Evangelism and Missions at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. Star brought her gifts of administration, training, encouragement, and logistics, along with her own deep heart for God and the nations. Together, we recognized that many people of color had a desire to serve but often lacked the training, encouragement, and pathways needed to become involved in cross-cultural missions.
In 2007, we founded Sowing Seeds of Joy to help meet that need. Our mission is to engage, equip, and empower people, particularly people of color to serve locally and globally. Since then, we have trained more than 1,400 people, helped mobilize over 200 short-term mission teams, and developed partnerships in communities and nations around the world, including established Sowing Seeds of Joy ministries in Kenya and South Africa.
Today, we continue to serve through prayer, discipleship, missionary training, leadership development, trauma-healing ministry, and partnerships with churches and mission leaders. We are also entering a new season of writing and resource development. Coming soon is a comprehensive discipleship and spiritual-formation manual designed to help churches recognize and develop their God-given potential for both local outreach and global mission.
Churches and individuals interested in receiving the manual, learning how to use it, or inviting us to provide on-site training built around its material may contact us through sowingseedsofjoy.org.
After more than 27 years of ministry, our desire remains the same: to connect the hearts of people to the heart of God and help others faithfully respond wherever He is calling them to serve.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, the road has not always been smooth. The journey has required us to step away from security, move forward without having every detail, and trust God for provision. There have been seasons when the vision was much larger than our financial resources or organizational capacity. Raising support, coordinating mission teams, developing training, sustaining international partnerships, and depending heavily upon volunteers and faithful partners have all required patience and perseverance.
Another ongoing challenge has been helping African American churches and believers recognize that global mission belongs to all of us. Many people have the heart, gifts, and calling to serve but have not always had access to the training, encouragement, or pathways needed to become involved. Challenging long-held perceptions, building trust, and creating those opportunities have taken time.
We have also experienced closed doors, unexpected delays, changing relationships, disappointments, and moments when we did not know how the next need would be met. However, those struggles have deepened our faith and strengthened our partnership. God has continually provided through churches, board members, volunteers, friends, and ministry partners.
We have learned that obedience does not guarantee a smooth road, but it gives us a reason to keep walking. The challenges have refined the vision and continually reminded us that Sowing Seeds of Joy ultimately belongs to God.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Sowing Seeds of Joy?
Sowing Seeds of Joy is a Christian missions and discipleship organization founded in 2007 and based in Arlington, Texas. We exist to engage, equip, and empower the Church to participate in God’s mission, locally, cross-culturally, and globally with a particular commitment to helping people of color recognize and respond to their place in the Great Commission. Our guiding message is: “Connecting the Hearts of People to the Heart of God.”
We specialize in spiritual formation, missionary preparation, discipleship, leadership development, prayer mobilization, mentoring, cross-cultural training, trauma healing, Safe Conversations training, short-term mission preparation, and strategic partnerships with churches and ministry leaders. We also help churches assess their missions readiness, develop outreach strategies, prepare their members for service, and build healthier relationships within their congregations and communities.
What sets us apart is our emphasis on formation before mobilization. We do not simply take people on mission trips. We prepare them spiritually, biblically, culturally, and relationally before they go, walk alongside them while they serve, and encourage them to remain engaged after they return. Our approach is not simply “go and come home,” but “prepare, send, support, and sustain.”
We also believe that mission begins wherever God has planted us. Local outreach and global mission should never compete with one another; they are both expressions of the same calling. We help people understand that their neighborhood, workplace, school, and community are mission fields and that faithful service at home can prepare them to serve across cultures and nations.
As an African American-founded and Black-led organization, we are especially committed to serving as a bridge between people of color and the nations. Many believers have the gifts, calling, and desire to serve but have not always been exposed to the opportunities, training, or relationships necessary to become involved. Sowing Seeds of Joy helps create those pathways while honoring the leadership, dignity, and wisdom of the churches and communities with whom we partner.
Over the years, we have trained more than 1,400 people, helped mobilize over 200 short-term mission teams, supported missionaries and ministries, and developed partnerships throughout the United States and around the world. Our work has reached communities in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific, with established Sowing Seeds of Joy ministries in Kenya and South Africa.
What we are most proud of is not simply the number of countries visited or programs completed. We are proud of the people who once believed missions was not for them but later discovered that they had a meaningful place in God’s global purpose. We are proud of the leaders who have been developed, the churches that have become more mission-minded, and the relationships that have continued long after a particular trip or training ended.
We are now entering an exciting season of writing and resource development. Coming soon is Bloom Where You’re Planted, a comprehensive discipleship and spiritual-formation manual designed to help individuals and churches move from spiritual formation to faithful local witness and, ultimately, cross-cultural and global mission. In addition to making the manual available, we will offer on-site training to help churches understand and implement its principles.
We want readers to know that Sowing Seeds of Joy is more than an organization that conducts mission trips. We are a prayer-centered, relationship-driven ministry committed to equipping the Church, empowering people for mission, and helping transform communities for lasting Kingdom impact. Those interested in our training, ministry partnerships, upcoming manual, or on-site church training may contact us through sowingseedsofjoy.org.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
For this question, I have to defer to Star. One of her favorite childhood memories is of her uncle taking her for drives near the Miami airport. They would park along a nearby road and watch the airplanes pass overhead. She remembers being amazed by their size, their sound, and the wonder of seeing them soar through the sky.
Even today, whenever airplanes fly over our home in the Dallas area, Star still looks up in awe. Those moments take her back to that childhood experience near the Miami airport. At the time, she could never have imagined that airplanes would one day carry her around the world to serve people and share the love of God.
What began as the wonder of a little girl watching airplanes has become a beautiful reminder of how God can place glimpses of our future within our earliest memories.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Sowingseedsofjoy.org
