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Prior to moving to Coronado to start Living Waters Fellowship, Leon and Teresa had been missionaries in both Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, and Mazatlan, Sinaloa, in Mexico. In Magdalena de Kino, they worked very closely with native pastors, Cuauhtemoc (Temo) and Magdalena Lazaro. After Leon and Teresa moved to the United States, Temo and Magdalena moved to Tijuana and began a church there, which they named Amistad de Aguas Vivas (Living Waters Fellowship).

Temo and Magdalena have three children: Allan, Eunice, and Hadar. Through their experiences in Magdalena de Kino, the San Quintin valley of Baja California, and Tijuana, the Lord has given Temo and Magdalena vision for the work in Tijuana as well as into central Mexico where they were born and raised. Temo is a very capable pastor, Bible teacher, and worship leader and Magdalena has been very actively involved in women's and children's ministries for many years.

Global Ministry Teams (G.M.T.) was started as Asian Ministry Teams by Irvin and Linda Rutherford over 30 years ago. G.M.T. has worked as a pioneer ministry thoughout southeast Asia and has also networked with numerous ministies in order to reach the lost and support indigenous pastors and workers throughout the world. In recent years, G.M.T. has been greatly involved in tsunami relief work in Indonesia and founded Friendship House in Hanoi, Vietnam. They have also established ministries of Associate Resource Missionary (A.R.M.) and GM Teams, both of which train laborers for short term and long term ministry.

G.M.T. has been an inspiration and support to Leon and Teresa and many of the people and ministries they are associated with in the common vision for world missions, outreach and leadership development.

Irvin and Linda currently make their home in Inman, South Carolina, the international headquarters of Global Ministry Teams, and travel frequently in Asia and Latin America.

In the early nineties, a short-term missions outreach group from Living Waters Fellowship in Coronado met Rance and Brandy Cook in Vicente Guerrero, Mexico. The group returned home impressed with the tenderness of heart and dedication to the extremely poor people of the San Quintin Valley that they had seen in this couple. In a short time, Rance and Brandy were adopted as missionaries through Living Waters Fellowship and it became their home church.

Rance and Brandy are the founders of International Disciple Training (I.D.T.) and the senior pastors of Living Waters Fellowship at Vicente, Guerrero, Mexico. I.D.T. is the physical home base and spiritual covering for a number of missionaries from varied denominational backgrounds who have the common vision of touching lives for Jesus among the migrant farm workers of the San Quintin Valley. Their areas of ministry include evangelism and starting of local congregations among the migrant workers, dispensing of food and clothing to those in need, helping with childcare for mothers working in the fields and building houses for workers who often have been living in nothing more than scraps of cardboard, lumber and plastic tied together. To date, over 1200 houses have been built through I.D.T. coordinating with church groups from all over the United States and Canada who travel to Vicente Guerrero to experience the joy of changing someone's life through this labor of love .

Rance and Brandy have an adopted son, Santiago, who is the delight of their hearts. Leon and Teresa are involved with I.D.T. in leadership training, retreat ministry, and bringing others to experience the joy of short-term missions through the house building ministry.

Leadership Training International (L.T.I.) was founded by Kevin and Carol Hinman in order to provide quality leadership training materials that are both cross denominational and cross cultural. The focus of the twelve modules developed by L.T.I. is divided between internal character development and external development of leadership skills. The modules have been written by carefully selected, highly qualified authors and reflect a broad spectrum of resources in order to have significance and impact on leadership around the globe.

Leon and Teresa have been working with Kevin and Carol for several years and are certified L.T.I. instructors, teaching the modules in the United States and internationally as a part of the global missions vision that is the central to the heart of both International Missions Support and Leadership Training International.

Leon and Teresa founded Living Waters Fellowship in Coronado, California, in 1986. From the beginning, the vision for the church was that it be family oriented with a heart for the beautiful island community of Coronado, as well as with vision for extending the Kingdom of God through world missions. Within a few short years, as the congregation grew in both size and maturity, the church was involved in missions outreach throughout Mexico in the cities of Mazatlan, Tijuana, Vicente Guerrero, and Aguascalientes as well as in Dumaguete City, Philippines, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Chennai, India.

Gary is a graduate of Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, California, and had felt the Lord calling him to be a pastor for many years. Having been active members of the church for several years, small group leaders, and the assistant pastor, as well as sharing the vision for missions, it was the Lord's timing and direction for them to continue the work at Living Waters Fellowship. Penny is a loan officer in the community of Coronado and shares in the pastoral duties and calling of her husband.

After being touched by the book, The Coming Revolution in Third World Missions, Leon prayed that the Lord would show him how to personally become involved with supporting a pastor in India. A short time later, at a conference in Oklahoma, the Lord arranged a “divine encounter” and Leon met Alex Alexander from Chennai, (formerly Madras), India. Immediately, a close bond formed between them and Leon knew that this was God’s answer to his prayer. Since that time, the lives and hearts of Alex and Hilda, Leon and Teresa, and many faithful supporters at Living Waters Fellowship in Coronado, have been closely linked.

Alex and Hilda have labored diligently and faithfully to raise up a congregation that would serve as a base for their village ministry and the result is Living Waters Fellowship in Chennai, India. Financial support has been raised through I.M.S. and Living Waters Fellowship in Coronado to construct a home for Alex and Hilda as well as a church building.

Beyond the base church, Alex and Hilda have a ministry in rural villages near Chennai and several village churches have been raised up and leaders are being trained in these churches. Since the December, 2004 tsunami, which devastated areas of the southern India coast, they have taken on new villages and also helped with food, clothes, fishing nets and other aid to these people who lost their entire homes and livelihood. As a result of this ministry, new converts have been made and at least one new village church is forming.

Alex and Hilda have two daughters: Hepzibah, who is studying nursing in Malaysia and is an intern with Global Ministry Teams, and Cynthia, who is in college in Chennai. Both daughters have been very active in the headquarters church and the village ministry.

One of the founding members of Living Waters Fellowship in Coronado, Alicia Heinz prayed for Leon and Teresa to move back to Coronado and start a church while they were still missionaries in Mexico. Because of their close connection and her intense love of the Lord, Alicia developed a heart for missions very early in her Christian life. Over the years, she often traveled to various places in Mexico with teams from Living Waters Fellowship, and on the very first trip to India, Alicia accompanied Leon and Teresa. In the meantime, she was a very busy single mother raising three children and establishing and directing the after-school childcare program for the Coronado Unified School District. But her heart longed to serve the Lord fulltime in cross-cultural, global missions.

In August of 2002, after all of her children had grown up and moved away, the Lord sent Alicia to Rainbow Orphanage in Dumaguete City, Philippines. As is always the case in missions work, this was just her formal title and her duties extended considerably beyond the office. She soon was able to utilize her heart for needy young women to work with the Agape Girls ministry at the orphanage. In the summer of 2005, the directors of the orphanage, Trip and Susan Kimball (also friends of Leon and Teresa for over twenty five years), began to transition back to the U.S., and Alicia became the co-director of the orphanage with their daughter, Becky.

However, despite her enjoyment in the work in the Philippines, Alicia's heart's cry has for many years been to India. In November of 2005, she was able to once again travel to Chennai and spend several weeks with Pastor Alex and Hilda observing their ministry and "spying out the land". During this trip and in the subsequent weeks, the Lord confirmed first to Alicia's heart and then to those around her, that He was calling her to leave the Philippines and move to India. Since the fall of 2006, she has been living in Chennai, India with Pastors Alex and Hilda and working with them in Living Waters Fellowship, Chennai in both the headquarters church and village ministry.

Alicia has three children: Heather who lives with her husband, Christian, in Alameda, California; Sean who lives in Santa Ana, California and John, who lives in Seattle, Washington. She has two grandsons, Gabriel and Elijah, in whom she delights.

When Leon and Teresa were living in Mazatlan, Mexico, and Teresa was pregnant with Leah, they invited a young couple, Joe and Laurie Pacheco, from the Horizon School of Evangelism to come and look after the bible studies which they had started while they went to the United States to have the baby. While in the U.S., Leon and Teresa began to sense that the Lord would have them leave Mexico and they asked Joe and Laurie if they would like to remain in Mazatlan and take over the work. Over twenty years later, they lead a vibrant, wonderful church that has greatly impacted Mazatlan as well as the surrounding areas.

Ministerio de Epiritu y Verdad has been a leader in the area in evangelistic outreaches, youth ministry, pastoral alliance, and village ministry. They also sponsor The Most Excellent Way, a ministry to those who are in bondage to drugs or alcohol. The church is very involved in small group ministry, the development of leadership and have dozens of small groups meeting weekly throughout the city as well as in the villages.

Leon and Teresa have been blessed to be involved with various retreats and conferences at Ministerio de Espiritu y Verdad and in the training of their leaders. They also remain personally connected to Joe and Laurie through the bond which the Holy Spirit initiated two decades before. The Pachecos have two children: Selah and Shiloh.

Stan and Becky Tedrow are former Rozel Christian Fellowship members who later became pastors at that church and then were sent out to start another church in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. After a number of years there, followed by a ministry sabbatical, Stan and Becky moved to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, to work with missionaries, Ron and Mary Bryant, who had also begun their Christian life at Rozel Christian Fellowship. Ron and Mary soon felt led to move on and Stan and Becky assumed leadership of the fledgling work that has now become Peñasco Christian Fellowship, a part of Mission Heartbeat.

In their years in Puerto Peñasco, Stan and Becky have seen the Lord work quickly to raise up a vibrant, rapidly growing church in this dusty, Sonoran desert community which sits at the top of the Gulf of California. The church is primarily composed of local Mexican families, but also has a number of transplanted Americans and Canadian “snow birds” as well who live there during the winter months. All services are bilingual.

Ray and Laverne Johnson have recently relocated back to the United States to serve at Mustard Seed Ranch, a rehabilitation ministry related to the Orange County Rescue Mission. For the past ten years, Ray was the Asian Director for Global Ministry Teams and they resided as missionaries in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while working throughout southeast Asia. Eight years ago, at Leon’ and Teresa's request, they began going periodically to Chennai, India, to encourage and support Alex and Hilda Alexander with the work at Living Waters Fellowship in Chennai, India, as well as the extension churches in the surrounding villages.

In addition to their new position with Mustard Seed Ranch back in the United States, Ray and Laverne remain closely connected to global missions. They have two children: Jamila and David.

Upon turning over the pastorate at Living Waters Fellowship and moving to the Palm Springs area of California to further develop International Missions Support, Leon, Teresa and Leah wanted to quickly get established in a local congregation. Through a youth outreach to Leah’s high school, they were led to NorthGate Community Church in Cathedral City, California. The pastor is Keith Newsome and the church is an affiliate of Christian Missionary Alliance.

When the Newsomes came to the church about seven years ago, it was a faltering denominational church that had the greatest longevity of any protestant church in the Coachella Valley. Through Pastor Keith’s hard work and innovation, NorthGate Community Church has become a vibrant contemporary congregation. As a part of the new vision, the old church facility in Palm Springs was sold and the church is meeting in a school while preparing to build a new facility on land they purchased in Cathedral City.

Since being a part of the congregation, Leon and Teresa have served in a variety of functions including eldership for two years, prayer ministry, hosting and leading a Bible study and Director of Missions. Since stepping into that role, it has been exciting to see the Lord raise up two families in the church who have begun ministries involved in setting up schools in the Philippines. It has also been a blessing to see the church become more involved with Christian Missionary Alliance missions. In 2005, NorthGate also raised funds to build a church building in the village of Ghandi Nagar, India.

One year after receiving the Lord, Leon and Teresa were sent out by their local church to assist with a fledging ministry in Rozel, Kansas, which was being pastored by their spiritual “father”, Duane Kershner. Out of this tiny 'Jesus Movement' church would come numerous pastors, missionaries, and committed laborers for the Kingdom of God as well as lifelong friendships for Leon and Teresa. Though so many were sent out to start other churches and serve as missionaries, Rozel Christian Fellowship has remained a small, yet powerful force in the community.

Rozel Christian Fellowship has been blessed for many years with Stan and Susan Bryant as pastors and the church remains actively committed to missions as well as serving their local community in the rural farming area of Kansas.

Pastor Stan has also become very involved in an outreach ministry to churches, schools and community organizations in which he presents information in the area of creation vs. evolution.