The Aquino Family
Jenny, Ronnie, and their children, Journey, Harvest, and River
Location: home mission base: Dallas, Texas with ministry across U.S. and overseas
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Missionary Agency: Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ)
Ronnie is currently involved in men’s discipleship and small-scale agricultural livelihood program development for small church communities overseas, particularly in the Philippines. Their goal in the next 3 to 5 years is to learn, serve, and network alongside local community gardens and master gardeners in North Dallas. They hope to leverage those relationships and learnings to support and launch sustainable agricultural seed projects to help meet the spiritual and physical needs of their church partners overseas.
Jenny is actively involved in connecting and engaging women in Gospel conversations, creating a safe space for them to study the Bible together, pray for one another, and be encouraged and equipped for evangelism, discipleship, and community service. She also dedicates some of her time to helping Ronnie nurture their local and overseas partnerships to advance the work of the Gospel.
Along with the thousands of Cru missionaries and ministry partners around the world, their vision is for movements to happen everywhere so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus. Cru aims to do this by winning people to faith in Christ, building them in their faith, and sending them into the world to launch spiritual movements.
In years past, Ronnie thought he was going to be a priest, and Jenny thought she was going to be a nun, but God had another plan. Born and raised in the Philippines, they individually came to faith in Christ in the mid-80s, met at a church in 1992, got married in 1997, and moved together to live in Los Angeles, California in 1998. Ronnie had been an avid listener of Insight for Living, or IFL, the international radio broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Swindoll. Feeling so blessed by the ministry, he dreamed of working for IFL someday. Sharing the same passion for missions, Ronnie and Jenny also frequently talked and prayed about serving as full-time missionaries; they named their children Journey, Harvest, and River to remind them of their calling.
In their desire to pursue Ronnie’s dream to work at IFL, they moved to Frisco, TX and became members of Stonebriar Community Church in 2006. Shortly thereafter, Ronnie began to volunteer at IFL, and in 2007, his dream to work for the ministry came to pass. He served with IFL in different capacities for a total of 5 years. In 2015, God opened the door for Jenny to join Cru. A few years later, Ronnie followed suit, and in 2021, during the pandemic, both Ronnie and Jenny became full-time missionaries with Cru.
Hobbies & Interests:
- Ronnie: Gardening, watching movies, traveling, reading (favorite book: Come Before Winter), and basketball
- Jenny: Singing, meeting new friends, listening to podcasts, and reading books on discipleship, prayer, and leadership
- Journey: Cooking, gardening, hammocking, reading (favorite series: Chronicles of Narnia), playing word games, and planning travel
- Harvest: Making music (favorite genre: classical), reading, and watching movies
- River: Playing music, cooking, baking, and photography