We are blessed to provide member care for ministry leaders across the globe. We equip and strengthen resilience in missionaries in their work to promote the Gospel, specifically focusing on building authentic communities to promote sexual wholeness and healing from trauma.
Our Ministry:
Throughout our time serving in Ecuador, we saw first-hand the devastation that Satan’s twisting of our sexuality is wreaking on the majority world. Unfortunately, the new generation of ministry leaders entering the mission field has been shackled by unprecedented access and exposure to sexualized imagery, distorting their emotional and spiritual development. So as ministry leaders who grew up exposed to sexual brokenness are facing high stress and hardship on the field, silence and shame threaten their faith, families, and mission.
Often, people just don’t know where to turn and instead struggle in secret. We know that nothing that remains hidden will be healed, instead it will fester and infect. And trauma makes breaking chains even more difficult. A study done by The Barna Group found that 79% of Christian teens who struggle with pornography say they have no one who is helping them stop. 87% of Christian adults say the same thing. We can’t tell you how many times someone has told us, “I’ve never shared this with anyone before…” and it just breaks our hearts.
Across the world, in general, the church doesn’t know how to talk about healthy relationships and is afraid to discuss important topics like sexual wholeness, so we let the world do the teaching. Unfortunately, much of that teaching comes from the pornography industry, even within the church. Barna found that 75% of men in the church and 40% of women in the church report some level of use of pornography. That’s 3 out of every 4 men in the church and 2 out of every 5 women that have a current problem with pornography.
Our Christian leaders are not exempt from this. Around 67% of American pastors report having a history of engaging pornography while 20% of pastors say they currently struggle with it. Think about what challenges these leaders of the faith would face if they were to jump into the deep end without a life raft, which is what it often feels like when supports are stripped away and new stressors emerge for missionaries in a foreign context! What are the chances they’ll fall back into that old habit?
Christians who struggle with pornography face overwhelming obstacles. They have a problem they have tried to stop and cannot. Like Paul says in Romans 7, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” They feel like they are fundamentally broken and shameful. Oftentimes “professional Christians” (pastors, missionaries, and ministry leaders), feel pressure to be committed to the mission of Jesus, whatever the cost, without the hope of being changed by him. When there is no one to turn to for help, many lose hope.
We recently heard it said that you can’t help people find freedom if you yourself are not free. That’s where sexual wholeness ministry comes in.
Our group programming provides safe spaces for vulnerability and growth, leading to spiritual transformation, restoration in families, and fruitful engagement with the local context for Kingdom building. Our mission is to support and train up ministry leaders to be continually changed by Jesus, so that discipleship flourishes throughout the world.
As a result of group, ministry leaders have found:
– freedom for the first time after decades of struggling
– healing from past traumas
– deepened intimacy with their wives and children
– growing emotional intelligence
– new friendships formed within a healthy community
– opportunities to disciple and educate locals in their various contexts around this topic,
And after several years of active participation, veteran members have begun leadership training. This is exactly what we want to see ongoing! We’re excited to train individuals and even local organizations to be able to implement this same programming in their own communities and with their own ministry leaders. People globally deserve to take hold of the victory Christ has for them. As the majority world becomes the main sending force in missions, we can equip them to minister in a more sustainable way while also preventing ministry blow up due to unwanted sexual behaviors.
If this is something you or someone you love struggles with, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! You can write to us at s.knutson@worldventure.com. You can also find resources on sexuality, parenting, betrayal trauma, and shame here: Click Here
A little about us:
We met at pre-orientation camp as freshmen at Wheaton College and dated throughout our collegiate career, during which God began to lay upon our hearts the desire to serve in Latin America. Emma was studying Spanish at the time and felt the tug of the Spirit toward that people and culture. As she shared this with Sam, he became excited and jumped on board. We married two months after graduating college, ready to pursue this vision while also wanting to be realistic about where we were financially. Due to our student loans from college, we were unable to look into fulfilling that calling until 2018, when we were appointed with WorldVenture.
As we waited for God to open the door to missions, we moved to Colorado for continuing education: Sam received his Masters of Divinity at Denver Seminary and Emma received her Masters of Social Work at the University of Denver and became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW).
Throughout that time, we served in many ministry roles together, including starting the Student Ministry Program at our church and reaching the surrounding community through helping launch WyldLife and Fellowship of Christian Athletes at local schools. Throughout this, we moved from a student ministry that started with one kid to reaching over a hundred students every week. God worked through us in ways that we could never have predicted or planned. God affirmed our partnership in how we can be an effective team in sharing the Gospel and we saw that ministry and Kingdom building happens by and through the Holy Spirit alone!
In August of 2020, smack-dab in the middle of the pandemic, God opened the doors for us to move to Ecuador! What a blessing it was to take our passion for doing ministry together into the mission God is doing in Guayaquil.
We served in Ecuador alongside a local organization, Paz y Esperanza, until 2026. During that time, we worked alongside locals to bring redemption and justice into the lives of the systemically abused, working alongside impoverished individuals, families, and communities so that they can live with dignity, free from violence and injustice.
Sam worked with men, collaborating on workshops and engaging in individual mentorship, in order to teach a new understanding of masculinity – one that is based in a culture of peace from the model of Jesus. Emma supported empowerment of women to break cycles of violence in their homes as well as teaching healthy parenting. We both served kids and teens, finding engaging ways to capture their attention while teaching on important topics such as their rights and what to do if they witness or experience abuse.
God has been so faithful in bringing healing and restoration in so many lives around us. And we see His grace primarily in how He has given us grace in our innumerable failings! He is so good in allowing His grace to change our lives and we get to see it overflow in how He is moving in the lives of others!
We are so excited for you to partner with us in this mission and see God’s redemption sweeping in such marvelous ways across the globe! Please pray about whether God is leading you to partner with us in our ministry, whether through prayer, finances, volunteering, or connecting us to others who share a passion for healing from trauma, seeing families restored, or sexual wholeness!
Connect with Them on Instagram
Blogs and Articles on WorldVenture:
* Healing Wounds in Ecuador
* From Participant to Volunteer
* How COVID19 Changed Language Learning
* God of Shepherds
Publications with WorldVenture:
* Peace to Those on Whom His Favor Rests–YOU!, Day 13
