Ministry Statistics

Ministry Statistics

If you were truthful with us, many of you wonder what exactly we’re doing out here floating on the ocean and dropping the anchor in anchorages along the Pacific side of Central America and Mexico. Are those Kellys doing anything besides taking a vacation? Come on, be honest, many of you have thought that. We’ve actually had a few people even ask us about our vacation. Well, to quote Dennis, “If we were on vacation, it would look a whole lot different.” We’ve mentioned the places we’ve been and some of the people we’ve met, but we’ve offered few details over the last couple of years. That’s mostly intentional but living off the grid makes it difficult to constantly stay in touch. AND, the very nature of our ministry is caring for those serving full time in ministry – many places, people and conversations are confidential. We do not share details with anyone, so that makes it hard to let our supporters know exactly what we’ve been up to. However, we think we’ve devised a way to share what we’ve been doing, to prove ourselves and our ministry so to speak. 

Many member care services are offered for a cost, and sometimes a very high cost. Missionaries are already funded by supporters and they just don’t have enough to pay $400 for a 3 hour debriefing or $1500 (or more!) per person for a 3 day retreat. We raise our own financial support so that we can offer our member care services for FREE!

Without further ado, here are our stats!

We divided our numbers up into 5 categories:

• Missionaries and their families that we have personally spent time with. Most are face to face although some have been through phone/video calls during the months we are off the boat.
• Pastors and their families
• Lay leaders and their families
• Cruisers, ie. boat people. We are part of a tight knit group of sailors. Having 5 kids on a small catamaran makes us stand out too. We have developed some incredible friendships over the last few years. Some are Christians, many are not. 
• Others personally impacted such as those who attend churches where Dennis has preached and locals we have developed relationships with in places we stopped

We’ve also included how many kids there are in each of these categories. Our children are vital to our ministry and can reach other kids in ways we cannot. We were once told that our kids would get in the way of member care. The number of kids we’ve come into contact with proves that is not true. We also estimate approximately 1000+ people have been indirectly impacted through Facebook groups, in anchorages, etc. Those people who would say, “Ankyrios? Yeah, I’ve heard of them. They’re the missionary family with a lot of kids, right?”