Meet Equip's Missionary ...

Matt and Ellen Zell

Matt and Ellen met while attending Towson State University in the early 80's. Matt graduated with a degree in Biology and after graduating entered the Coast Guard as an officer. They married shortly after Matt completed Officer Candidate School. Matt left the Coast Guard after three years and spent fives years as the sole proprietor of a home improvement business and then seventeen years with the Food and Drug Administration as a lead administrative manager. Ellen has successfully home schooled their two children Kelly and Brandon through high school. Kelly and Brandon are now college age and are walking with Jesus. Matt and Ellen started in missions by serving in Indonesia at a National Christian School from 1994 to 1995. After returning from Indonesia the Lord placed a burden on their hearts for Honduras in Central America. Matt went on his first trip to Honduras in 1996. Since then Matt and Ellen have been on many short-term mission trips together. For the past two years they have organized and lead teams to an orphanage of over 400 children. Their target people group are the Lenca Indians. The Lenca are an indigenous Indian group who mostly live through subsistence farming. Their poverty is often exacerbated by alcohol abuse. There is very little evangelical outreach to the Lenca. Matt and Ellen look forward to working with the Lenca utilizing the information from Community Health Evangelism, CHE, which has lesson plans on health, hygiene, sustainable agriculture and appropriate technologies. The lesson plans are coupled with Scriptures and sharing the gospel is an integrated process of helping the people meeting both the physical as well as the spiritual needs.