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Meet the Director, Rob Finney
I was born and raised in New Zealand, a “kiwi” through and through. I accepted Jesus as my Savior at the age of 11 while attending a Christian camp. The only believer in a family of six, I knew something had changed in me and I dedicated my life to following the Lord. With very little support from my family, I set out to make Christianity my own and became rooted and grounded in a church family. When my parents divorced, I left home at the age of 14 and lived with a family who mentored and discipled me in a hands-on, experiential way. After graduating from high school, I became an apprentice and acquired skills in many different areas of trade.
Like many other New Zealanders, at the age of 21, I left my home country to travel around the world. While traveling, I had the opportunity to experience many different cultures, work in a number of different vocations, volunteer at Christian camps and smuggle Bibles into China. After four years of traveling, I was invited to come to the States and volunteer at a camp in upper state New York. It was at this camp that I met my wife, Lisa. Lisa was raised in a solid Christian home and was very involved with her church youth group. After graduating from high school, she attended Carson Newman College and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Home Economics/Interior Design. She credits her family’s spiritual dedication and church influence with the strong spiritual walk she has today. Lisa and I were married in 1991, and I ran my own small business for three years, a building and remodeling company in West Palm Beach, Florida. Simultaneously we began working for Adventures in Missions, a short-term missions agency.
After serving at AIM’s headquarters in Florida for three years, Lisa and I felt God calling us to Mexico to build “The Gateway,” AIM’s first international base and missionary training center. I served as the director of The Gateway for six years and then began to feel God calling me to disciple young adults and train them to become passionate servant leaders.
In 2000, Lisa and I founded Radical Action Disciples (RAD) Ministries. Our mission with RAD’s discipleship program is to produce young adults boldly committed to Jesus Christ through intense hands-on experiential leadership training. We are continually blessed to see the fruit of God’s vision as our student graduates go forth as disciples and servant leaders in whatever marketplace God calls them.
Lisa and I have been married for sixteen years and have four children, Michael, Sara, Matthew and Rachel
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Rob Finney says: “During my experiences of working with young adults, I saw too many young people, especially in colleges and universities, that were not making the impact they could during this critical stage of life. They don’t know their personal strengths, weaknesses, or spiritual gifts and, as a result, spend most of their college years and early twenties being influenced BY their culture rather than CHANGING their culture. And with the state that our current society is in, most young people are left desperately crying out for direction and hope. God’s calling on my heart is to raise up young adults who will stand with integrity and impact their generation and the generations to come.”
Grasping the importance of a firm foundation in Christ, the vision of RAD was born.
“JESUS DID NOT HAND OUT pre-printed lectures to them (the disciples). Instead, He used normal events, circumstances and difficulties to teach them spiritual truth by experience, which resulted in completely changed hearts.”
-Gisela Yohannan
Wife of Gospel for Asia founder, K.P. Yohannan
