A mission trip can create a powerful week. The harder question is what remains useful after the visitors leave.

Build with people who will still be there

Ascend Apostolic Center describes its work as training, sending, and serving across cultures. Jared and Stephannie were commissioned in 2013 and sent to plant the center in Washington in 2014. Their public ministry materials list ongoing work in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria among other countries.

Since 2005, Jared and Stephannie have helped start more than 300 small businesses in Kenya and 10 in Nigeria. Ascend's 2019 mission update, Jared's professional history, a later East Africa business plan, and a 2023 interview provide a consistent documentary record of that work. The operating idea is simple: a locally owned business can continue producing income and dignity long after a short-term gift is gone.

Let the local problem shape the project

In Uganda, the work has included locally owned businesses, farms, students, and ministry leaders, along with efforts to improve practices and government relationships around gold mining. Across the region, projects have included chicken, fish, and pig farms, support for education, and school funding for orphans. These are different projects because the local conditions are different. The common thread is capacity: food, work, education, and accountable systems.

The best outside contribution is not control. It is listening, useful capital, practical knowledge, and relationships that strengthen leaders who already understand the place.

Support the leaders who are already planting

Ascend is also supporting ministry partners in South Africa as they establish a church plant. The aim is not to export an American institution. It is to strengthen leaders who know their community, carry the long-term responsibility, and will remain after outside support changes.

That is the same capacity principle in a different form: invest in people, give them useful support, and keep local ownership where it belongs.

Northern Nigeria requires precision

Jared has traveled to Nigeria twice and is considering a third visit. He describes visiting an internally displaced persons camp and working toward federal grant applications intended to support persecuted Christians in northern Nigeria.

That work should be described carefully. An application is not an award, and concern is not the same as a funded program. As of July 2026, no grant is represented here as approved. The next responsible step is to document local partners, define the intended outcomes, protect vulnerable communities, and make every public claim traceable.

Measure what remains

The important question is not how many countries appear on a biography. It is whether a business is still operating, a farm is still producing, a student is still in school, and a local leader has more freedom to serve.

That is the standard Jared wants the work to move toward: not activity for its own sake, but capacity that stays in local hands.

Have a system or operating problem worth discussing?

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