Ann and Bruce Borquist retire on September 30, 2023, after serving extensively in God’s mission with International Ministries for the past 36 years.

Coming to know the Lord while volunteering in Africa with the US Peace Corps, the Borquist’s hearts have always turned toward serving others. When they met global partners at a World Mission Conference who shared how they felt loved by IM’s global servants and treated as equals, Ann and Bruce knew that serving through IM was the right choice. The idea of coming alongside others in ministry, rather than imposing ideas on others, resonated strongly with their view of God-honoring mission.

Commissioned in 1987, the Borquists were almost immediately invited to serve with Central Philippine University (CPU) and the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC), focusing their ministry on Christian community development and small business development. While in the Philippines, Bruce created a new undergraduate major in entrepreneurship for CPU’s College of Commerce. He taught the program that is still offered at the university today. Ann worked with the university’s Katin-aran program (“development from within”), strengthening and expanding its outreach to 74 communities in health, micro-finance, and sustainable agriculture.

During their nine years in the Philippines, Ann and Bruce also supported CPBC with initiatives that equipped pastors with livelihood training. Ann helped establish the Buligay Center which enabled women to sell artisanal products to support their families; Bruce helped establish church-based co-ops that serve church members and bless their communities.
In 1996, IM asked Bruce to serve as treasurer. His master’s in business administration and cross-cultural experience made him an ideal candidate for the role. Through his initiatives, teamwork, strategic planning, and implementation, Bruce helped transform IM’s financial systems and created many of the structures and foundations used today. This included working with others to design IM’s relationship-based funding program, Mission Partnership Team, or MPT.

Their time serving at IM’s home office opened new opportunities for Ann. She played an important role in moving IM forward by developing an orientation for new global servants, writing, and implementing a training guide for short-term mission teams and leaders, and advocating for and helping develop the missionary kid (MK) orientation program. She also coordinated crisis management teams, creating policies and procedures IM uses during international crises when global servants might be at risk.
In 2004, the Borquists were invited to serve in Brazil with the National Baptist Convention of Brazil (CBN). There, they trained over 70 global workers, who now serve in 23 different countries, and created two new national departments in servant leadership training and holistic evangelism. Bruce also developed a social entrepreneurship training program to equip global partners and their churches in sustainable ways to address challenging social and environmental problems. This idea of social entrepreneurship is a passion for both Ann and Bruce, and it exudes from them as they talk about what it means to be a Christian in business and to show Christ in one’s neighborhood.

Reflecting on social entrepreneurship, Bruce shares, “What a great match this is for the Gospel [and] when Christians do it, it’s part of God’s mission.” Ann agrees: “In places where you can’t just go out and talk about Jesus, [Christian social entrepreneurship] opens up spaces for people to ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ and then be able to share the Gospel.” Their passion is to encourage and equip God’s people to deepen their walk with Jesus and bless their community in practical ways so that others are drawn closer to the Lord.

After 11 years in Brazil, in 2015, Ann and Bruce transitioned into the role of global consultants, expanding their work with Baptist partners in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America. Based in Aotearoa, New Zealand, their work included consulting in multiple areas: holistic evangelism, servant leadership, and organizational development; teaching and extending faith-based social entrepreneurship training programs; and expanding a church-based discipleship program across Asia.

When asked what’s next for them, Ann and Bruce smile: “When you have a calling on your life, ‘retirement’ looks different than retiring from some other careers. God’s call doesn’t change. So we’re just naming it ‘a new journey.’” In this new journey, they volunteer their time with IM, coming alongside global partners, leaders, and students to mentor, consult, and follow up on various ministries, especially in Christian social entrepreneurship, cross-cultural mission support, and contextualized theological education.

We are incredibly grateful for the Borquists, their many years of faithful service with IM’s global partners, and the effective changes they made while on staff at the home office. They certainly have left a lasting impact through God’s mission with those they have come alongside and will continue to do so in the years ahead. Join us as we honor Ann and Bruce and keep them in prayer as they enjoy time with family and continue to serve in God’s mission during this new season of life.