T&F International was founded in 2009 by John and Sylvia Putman. The purpose of the ministry was to teach, train, and facilitate ministry – aiding in whatever way they found to be useful for the churches/ministries wherever the Lord would lead them. In 2014, after five years of annual mission trips to Moldova, Romania, Kenya, and Bulgaria, the Putmans felt led by God to turn the ministry focus to one field – Bulgaria.
View a full timeline of the organization here.
Putman Early Ministry
John and Sylvia began their foray into ministry by joining Campus Crusade for Christ (now, “CRU”) in 1991, as associate staff of “Here’s Life” (discipleship ministry among adults). At the time, they still held secular jobs in their home of San Antonio, TX as an architect (John) and a hospital administrator (Sylvia). For three years, they worked in, and through Alamo City Church, as discipleship group leaders, and helped train people in evangelism.
In 1994, the Putmans took their family to Moscow, Russia, as part of a CoMission team sent by Campus Crusade, where they had their first taste of living abroad, training public school teachers in an “Ethics and Morality” curriculum. As part of their work, the team also befriended these teachers, shared Christ with them, and discipled those who received Christ. At the end of the one-year mission, they returned to Texas, ministering with Here’s Life once again, but waiting for the Lord to direct them further in missions.
In 1996, the Putmans joined the ministry, Crossover Communications International (CCI), and in spring of 1997, moved their family to Chişinau, Moldova. The plan was to help a missionary in a local church there, but before they arrived, he severed his relationship with CCI. John and Sylvia ended up starting the work of the ministry on their own. But, of course, they were not alone, the Lord was with them, opening the door to much vital ministry, where, by late 1998, the Church of the Great Commission (CGC) was started.
By the year 2000, three churches had been started through leadership developed at CGC; and by 2002, through church-planting training, over 100 church starts had begun in Moldova and the Ukraine. The Putmans handed over leadership for this training to trustworthy servants, and the work is continuing even now. In 2005, they also handed over the reins of leadership to others in CGC, and returned to Texas, to support their children’s high school and college needs, and in 2008, John and Sylvia formally resigned from CCI. However, in 2009, they felt the “itch” to return to ministry overseas, and after much prayer, started T&F International.
tandfinternational.org 