Today's Message

Coming at the end of 2008, Open Arms International will offer you something new - the Today's Message section. On a regular basis, our contributors will offer up words of encouragement, OAI updates, and other tidbits we think you'll find inspiring. Keep checking back!

David Gallagher is a dynamic leader with a global vision for compassionate ministry and evangelism. As a Festival Director for the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, David led highly successful festivals in England, Africa and the United States. Prior to joining Luis Palau, David served as a pastor and as Founder and President of Lightside, Inc., a television production company. He is a graduate of Portland State University, Christ For The Nations Institute, and L.I.F.E. Bible College. David serves as Founder and Senior Evangelist for Open Arms International.

Rachel Gallagher is a compassionate registered nurse who has carried healing in her hands through a variety of medical and evangelistic experiences, including work with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India. A graduate of Oral Roberts University, Rachel has worked as a staff and charge nurse in the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units of three leading U.S. children's hospitals. She is fulfilling her life-long dream of caring for the dying and destitute of the world. Rachel serves as President for Open Arms International.

Tim Henley has been in public ministry since the mid-’60s, beginning with working among the "Jesus People" on the streets of Denver, Colorado. For nearly 15 years, he held a denominational executive position shepherding, training, and nurturing Christian education and youth workers, pastors, and seminary students over an eight-state area in the Midwest. He has organized and implemented scores of national and international conferences, youth camps, and family seminars. He has a fiery passion for preaching/teaching and a deep abiding love for the hundreds of pastors in Southeastern India and the African nations served by Open Arms International. Married for forty-three years to the sweetheart of his youth, Frieda. They have two married children and six grandchildren on whom Tim dotes without reserve.

James Andrew served in pastoral ministry beginning in 1977. He was part of the start up team of pastors of New Song Church, an inner city, multicultural church. With an extensive counseling background, James served several years as a marriage and family counselor and led the counseling team at New Song. He has been senior pastor of three churches, including a two-year assignment in Mexico, and retired from congregational pastoring in 2003. Prior to pastoring, James worked as an artist and designer, a career he’s always kept in parallel with the ministry. He is currently working as an architectural designer. He’s been married thirty-five years to his high-school sweetheart, Irene. They have two married children and one grandchild.

Dr. Matt Tallman has developed two passions in life: working in global missions and training the college students who are becoming the future work force of global missions. He earned his PhD in Church History at Regent University in Virginia Beach, and previously taught as an adjunct faculty member at Christopher Newport University and as a faculty chair at Bethel College in Hampton, Virginia. He has worked as a college and career pastor in Portland, Oregon, and a campus pastor/university chaplain at the University of Oregon, the College of William and Mary, and Old Dominion University. He works as Volunteer and Pastoral Coordinator with Open Arms International, assisting them in developing their ministry center in Eldoret, Kenya. Matt is married to Cheryl, and they currently reside in Portland as they prepare to move to Eldoret.