About Us

    Who we are?

After a dozen years of located ministry in Illinois, the Atkin family answered the call to share the Gospel among an unreached people group – in Taiwan.  In 1998, David & Brenda, with grade-school age daughters, Emily and Tabitha, joined with Team Expansion to plant churches in East Asia, among the least reached peoples.  Noah, who was “Made in Taiwan,” came just before the new millennium.

Dave and Brenda are celebrating a few milestones:          25 years of both full-time ministry and marriage, including 15 years of church planting in Taiwan.

What is Gloritrek?

Team Expansion’s Gloritrek will be a US coast-to-coast and church-to-church cycling event by David & Noah Atkin, from May 19 to August 4, 2013.  Every evening along their route, in every town or city they visit, David & Noah, to adults as well as children, desire to share from their unique perspective about God’s passion for the unreached nations.

Why Gloritrek?

"Declare His glory among the nations..." (Ps 96:3)  It is God's desire that all nations have opportunity to respond to the Gospel, that God may be glorified among them and they experience the peace and love of Christ.  David & Noah, as both missionaries and cyclists, are on a trek to see God's desire fulfilled.  Thus, you have Gloritrek!  Likewise, Team Expansion, as a missions organization, exists to see God's desire completed among the nations. 

The vision for Gloritrek was actually an all-night, morphine-induced hallucination, while David lie paralyzed in a hospital bed in Asia?  (To hear the rest of that story, which was made into a Discovery Channel documentary, you’ll need to attend a Gloritrek event near you!)

            What route will we take?  

Lord willing, it will begin in Los Angeles and end in New York City, a trek of nearly 3,500 miles (nearly 5,650 km).  Most cross-country cyclists prefer to avoid the cities, but not us!  We plan to visit as many cities as possible!  And, we plan to ride through Louisville, KY; the host city for the North American Christian Convention, July 9 -12, 2013.  Louisville is also the international headquarters for Team Expansion.  (click on the ROUTE tab to see maps / click on the CALENDAR and scroll to May-August, 2013; to see probable dates and destinations)

    What can YOU do?

PRAY.  As you can clearly see, Gloritrek is completely in God’s hands!  Who David & Noah meet, the impact of the message, the hospitality of the churches, the weather, the expenses, their health and safety – all are in God’s hands.  Praying daily for them will be made easier through daily blogs and an online GPS location map.  To join the Gloritrek prayer team, and receive daily updates from them along the route, click on the CONTACT US tab. 

HOST a Gloritrek event.  If your church is along the route, please plan to host a one-night event.  Invite not only your own church, but also other churches in the area!  (We'll provide you with publicity materials!)  Host churches would also be responsible to feed and shelter David & Noah for the night.  If we are with you on a Lord’s Day morning, we’d ask that you allow David to preach & Noah to share his message with the youth.  David's Sunday morning message will be "Declaring God's Glory Among All Peoples."  If it is a weekday Gloritrek event, prior to the evening, host churches will be invited to choose from a list of ten 10-minute topics -- topics that are relavent to your congregation.  (Click on the 10 MINUTE TOPICS tab to see a complete listing.)  Example:  if David has 30 minutes to speak; then you could choose three topics that would be helpful to your congregation.   

ATTEND a Gloritrek event.  Even if you aren’t on the route or hosting an event, maybe you can get a group together and drive to the nearest Gloritrek event.  Or, see David & Noah at the Team Expansion booth at the North American Christian Convention .  

GIVE.  The Atkin family already has the best support team of any missionaries on the planet.  These faithful financial partners have stood with them for 15 years, generously providing all they need for church planting in Asia.  However, the expenses of Gloritrek are above and beyond their commitments. 

Before the launch of Gloritrek:

Confident that the Lord will provide all that they need, David & Noah launched the plan for Gloritrek and trust that all the expenses will be paid BEFORE the trip even begins!  This could amount to $10,000.  If you believe in Gloritrek, and the Lord has prompted you to give, you may send a check to their forwarding agent:

                  Kathy Murrell

c/o             Team Expansion

                  PO Box 51

                  Bement, IL  61813

The check should be made payable to Team Expansion, with Gloritrek written on the memo line.  All gifts are tax deductible.  Thank you!

                 

During Gloritrek:

It is the hope that any offerings received along the way will go straight to Team Expansion:  to be used around the world in reaching the unreached.   However, churches that agree to host a Gloritrek event are NOT required to receive an offering.  Any offering is completely voluntary.

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Click the link to see our current location in a full page:

Current Location Note: When in areas where no signal is available the updating of the map page will be suspended, as soon as the signal is reacquired the map will be updated toshow the current position.