Helping Others: Our People

Rev. Khurram Khan, POBLO International’s Executive Director, was born in Pakistan and raised in a Christian home. After finishing has a graduate degree, he married Cynthia Khan and moved to Saudi Arabia, where he worked as an engineer and project manager for a multinational oil company for 14 years. In 1995, he joined POBLO as a missionary and served for three years before becoming the Executive Director in 1998. Rev. Khan attended Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, earning a degree from the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology. He was ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 2005. Under his leadership and his desire to help others, POBLO has expanded throughout North America and has also started missions in the Middle East and South Asia. Rev. Khan together with his wife Cynthia, pioneered an innovative cross-cultural ministry model that is now utilized for establishing International Friendship Centers at churches across the country.

Rev. Farrukh Khan, Director of Development, has been serving with POBLO for 20 years. Originally from Pakistan, Rev. F. Khan comes from a family that converted from Islam to Christianity and raised him in the Christian faith. After spending 17 years in Saudi Arabia as an engineer from a Texas-based multinational corporation, where he also worshiped in the Lutheran Church, Rev. F. Khan was called to work as a missionary from POBLO in Toronto, Canada. While there, he helped to plant All Nations Lutheran Church, a primarily Pakistani and Indian congregation. He is a graduate of Concordia Seminary’s Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology. He has also received church planting training through the Center for U. S. Missions. Since joining POBLO, Rev. Khan has planted new churches and trained existing churches on how to effectively engage in outreach to Muslims and other unreached people groups.

Rev. Dr. Gary Rohwer is the National Missions Consultant at POBLO. He has served in Gospel outreach and community engagement for over 30 years. His experience in proclaiming the Gospel, grassroots missions, and church planting include locations such as Cross River State, Nigeria; Lahore, Pakistan; Punjab State, India; Los Angeles; and Detroit. He is a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he also received his Doctorate in Missiology in Islamic Studies. Dr. Rohwer has served among a dozen different Muslim ethnic groups, including Arabs, Kurds, Iranians, Sudanese, Indians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis, training missionaries and congregations on how to engage their immigrant communities and share Christ’s love in a culturally relevant way. D. Rohwer is currently writing a book for American Christians on engaging in cross-cultural approach.

Tim Bickel graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis 1971 and served Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod parishes in Illinois, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Michigan until 2008 when he retired. Both as a volunteer summer teacher and since retirement as a contract teacher during school years, he has taught English in Asia. He also co-led a theological seminar in Ethiopia in 2002. For 16 years, he was a volunteer firefighter and designated chaplain in Washington and Oregon. In Oregon, he coordinated and conducted crisis debriefings to help keep emergency personnel in health service. Tim sees himself as a grateful servant of Jesus Christ. He has a passion to be and bring the good news to all. He has cross-cultural experience at home and abroad. And now, he is humbled and honored to join POBLO, bringing together God’s people and foreign newcomers in response to Christ’s Great Commission (Mark 16:15). He urges you to pray for the salvation of the lost, especially Muslims, and to ask what your part is while there is still time.

tim@poblo.org

Rev. David Cecil earned his undergraduate degree from Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, after which he served as a teacher for two years in Rockford, Illinois. Returning to California, he worked in the secular job market for 19 years in retail management, as a contractor, tax preparer, and securities and insurance agent. After these many occupations, he was led by the Holy Spirit to go back into full-time ministry and graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1996. Then served as pastor in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, for six years. He then served as a Ministry Consultant Director of Camp Bethesda, and Director of Religious Life for Bethesda Lutheran Communities, supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities with the Gospel until retirement in 2015. Rev. Cecil believes that sharing the precious message of the Gospel with those who do not know Jesus as their Savior needs to be the focus of every congregation’s mission and vision. As the people of God, we have an opportunity to share with a world, that is lost, a living hope in Jesus Christ who gave his life that we might have life and have it abundantly. Rev. Cecil is thankful and blessed to be a part of POBLO International and the work that they do to share the Gospel.

david@poblo.org

Deen Albert was born to a Norwegian Christian mother and Pakistani Muslim father. His mother converted to Islam, and Deen was raised in the Islamic faith for the first eight years of his life. He attended a mosque with his father and an Islamic school, where he learned to face the East toward Mecca and to recite Muslim prayers. After his parents divorced, his mother went back to her Christian roots and helped Deen to understand the God of the Bible. He was baptized into the Christian faith as a child and gave his life to Jesus. Deen attended Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, where he enrolled in the pre-seminary program. Now, he is an executive in the trucking industry and sees his work as a ministry in its own way. Even before Deen connected with POBLO, he had a strong desire to share the truth about Islam among churches. That and his love for the Gospel led him to POBLO. Deen represents POBLO to churches and individuals in his home state of Indiana.