J.D. and Kim Crowley

J.D. was raised in Japan and Hawaii, while Kim grew up in South Carolina. Both J.D. and Kim Crowley trusted Christ as Savior at an early age. After meeting in college, they were married in 1980 and moved to Hawaii, where J.D. pastored Kea’au Bible Church for twelve years. But their hearts were always drawn toward work among the unreached. In 1994 Hampton Park Baptist Church commissioned J.D. and Kim as missionaries to pursue this long-held dream. Following a year of training with New Tribes Missions, they contacted EMU to pursue the prospect of missionary service under this organization. Although the mission had expanded into Chile, it had no tribal missions experience and no missionaries in Asia. After months of prayer and a meeting with the Board of Directors, the Crowleys were accepted as missionaries with EMU. Among the Crowleys’ early goals in Cambodia was reducing the Tampuan language (a minority language) to writing in preparation for a Bible translation. They accomplished this task – slowed by many linguistic and bureaucratic hurdles – during their first two terms on the field. J.D. and Kim have also witnessed God establishing over 50 churches in 5 different language groups in NE Cambodia, and they have helped disciple the church leaders and their wives. In 1999 J.D. began the Ratanakiri Bible School, an indigenous training program for tribal and Khmer church leaders. This school is now directed largely by the nationals. The Crowleys have also worked to produce doctrinally-sound Christian literature in the Cambodian and tribal languages – geared to the culture of SE Asia. J.D. is the author of The Kingdom of God: Studies in Matthew in Khmer and English; Commentary on Romans for Cambodia and Asia (English language edition available at Amazon.com); The Tampuan/Khmer/English Dictionary; and co-author of Gospel Meditations for Missions (available on Amazon.com). J.D. and Kim have five adult children and a sixth, Nathaniel, still at home.