“We are passionate for youth ministry and international missions, YMI has given us the opportunity to combine the two. We are looking forward to reaching the youth of Asia by training the trainers of national youth workers.”

Joe and Cori Beth Grom are excited to be appointed to the YMI team of trainers. They have made the transition from youth ministry in Ohio to life in Kentucky where Joe is completing his M.Div from Asbury Theological Seminary.

While living in Louisville, Joe and Cori are serving at Highview Baptist Church where they are coordinating a YMI pilot “pen pal” project connecting students from Highview with students from one of YMI’s graduate’s youth groups in Asia.

Joe and Cori Grom are YMI’s newest appointees and will be joining the Kaptain family in serving as YMI trainers in Asia.

The Groms Survey Trip to SE Asia

Ever since we were teenagers, serving long-term internationally has been on our hearts. For us, the picture of missionary work that usually came to mind looked something like living in a mud hut in the middle of the jungle while trying to learn the language and plant a church!

But, this was certainly not the image of life and ministry we received in the city where we ourselves will be based! The city we visited was very developed and quite commercialized. While church planting “in the bush” still has great value, our twenty-first-century context calls for training and equipping missions to the majority-world church in the more developed cities such as the one we visited. Our mission, and that of YMI is to evangelize and disciple the world’s youth through the local church by training the trainers of indigenous youth leaders. The most strategic place to do this work are the cities which function as regional travel and trade centers.

A highlight of the trip was getting to know one of our YMI-trained youth pastors who is doing an amazing job serving his church and reaching youth for Jesus. Our prayer is that God might use us to help raise up more youth pastors to reach the 1 billion young people in Asia who do not know Jesus.