Effective April 1, 2021, longtime Global Servant Jill Lowery began a new role as IM’s newest donor advisor for major gifts. As part of IM’s development team, Jill will engage with IM donors and supporting churches on the West Coast of the United States.

“Jill brings valuable skills and expertise that our donors and their trusted advisors can call on in achieving the greatest charitable impact for God’s kingdom work,” says IM’s Associate Executive Director for Mission Advancement Zofia Dripps, who leads the development team and strategy. “Each donor advisor adds a depth to our diverse capabilities in facilitating annual and global servants’ support, funding for international partners’ projects, and endowed support for all of the operations of IM. Jill adds a first-hand perspective through her personal experience in the mission field.”

In 1990, Jill and her husband, Global Servant Rev. Mike Lowery, began their ministry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through IM as special service workers in Vanga until they were evacuated in 1991 due to political unrest and fighting. They were commissioned by IM to serve as full-time global servants in the D.R. Congo in 1996 and lived and served in both Kinshasa and Kikongo in economic development, capacity building, and discipleship. Since 1997, Jill has been heavily involved in the ministries of the Mitendi Women’s Center and Primary School in partnership with the women of the Baptist Churches of the Congo; she oversaw fundraising for the new Mitendi school building. Mike, who has served in the D.R. Congo as a professor of theology and pastor, will retire at the end of December 2021.

“I’ve been passionate about global missions since I first felt God’s call as a teenager,” Jill says. “It has been my privilege to have served on the front lines in ministry with International Ministries in the D.R. Congo for over twenty-five years. I’m so excited for this new ministry role with IM and to be part of the great things IM is doing to advance God’s kingdom, not only in the Congo, but throughout the world.”

IM’s Senior Director of Development Rev. Ray Schooler says, “For the West Coast churches I’ve had the pleasure of serving, I look forward to personally introducing you to Jill and know you are going to love working with her.”