Jonathan Raffini couldn’t help but absorb a healthy dose of missions-mindedness while growing up in Anderson.
Jonathan and Rebekah Raffini, with 1-year-old Elizabeth.Both his parents were RA (Royal Ambassadors) leaders at Concord Baptist Church, and Raffini spent many summers at picturesque Camp McCall, the South Carolina Baptist RA camp nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains of Pickens County.
It was at Camp McCall that Raffini made a life-changing profession of faith in Christ at age 9, and it was at McCall that he got his “first look into missions.” Youth mission trips followed, and Raffini served as a children and youth intern at his home church.
When he was a student at Lander University, Raffini had the opportunity to travel to Canada as a Baptist Student Ministries summer missionary. Since then, he says he’s spent as much time in Canada as in the U.S. He and his wife Rebekah recently wrapped up a two-year-plus stint as Nehemiah church planters in Okotoks, Alberta, Canada.
For the present, the Raffinis, including 1-year-old daughter Elizabeth, are living in Maryville, Tenn., with Rebekah’s parents, while they wait to see what door God will open next. Raffini, who was children and outreach pastor at Big Rock Baptist Church in Okotoks, hopes to serve a church as an associate pastor.
While acknowledging that it has been difficult to “leave people we’ve built relationships with” in Canada, Raffini said he and Rebekah have been “rewarded with things that are here,” mainly close proximity to family members.
– Yvonne McGee contributed to this story.