God called this Arizona couple to South Africa

“Ever since I was a little girl, I felt God’s call. I felt like God was calling me to go overseas. I just didn’t know when.”
— Ashlynne Walton

This fall, John and Ashlynne Walton are serving as missionary Journeymen in Johannesburg, South Africa, through the International Mission Board.

There, they will work with churches near university campuses to mobilize them to make disciples among students and train leaders.

The origins of the call

“In high school I started really reading the Bible, and the Great Commission kept grabbing my heart more and more,” John said.

In 2020, during his sophomore year at Arizona Christian University, God began planting seeds about South Africa in John’s life when he met and ministered to students from the nation.

Then, after the Arizona Mission Network began its Sub-Saharan Africa partnership, John and Ashlynne were able to serve on multiple mission trips in Johannesburg.

As a little girl, Ashlynne was impacted greatly by missionaries who visited her church. Throughout middle and high school, she served on various mission trips in the U.S. It was during her mission trip to Johannesburg that she knew she was being called to serve there.

“We got to talk to a lot of people from the IMB there, hear their stories and see what God was doing there,” she said. “God was telling us to pursue international missions. After we got back from the trip, there was a sermon about following God right away and not delaying.”

“I have to tell you something”

John stayed in Johannesburg a little while longer than Ashlynne. And yet, thousands of miles apart, he felt the same burden she did. It was back in John’s office at First Southern Baptist Church of Glendale — the very Sunday after he got back — where the couple nervously confessed to each other: “I have to tell you something. I think God is telling us to apply with the IMB.”

John and Ashlynne Walton are sent out from First Southern Baptist Church of Glendale to serve as missionary Journeymen through the International Mission Board. (Photo by Crystal Castaneda)

The Waltons applied within a month of returning from their mission trip. Their sending church is First Southern Baptist Church of Glendale, where John was the youth minister and Ashlynne a youth leader. John also previously served with Heart of Mesa and Iglesia Experimenta Vida and as a Christian Challenge missionary at Arizona Christian University.

Reaching university students abroad

The couple will take their collegiate ministry experience to the mission field.

“[At one particular church in South Africa] if I was standing at the church and threw a rock, I could hit the nearest university. But they could not figure out how to reach them,” John said. “It’s not us going and reinventing the wheel. It’s joining what God is already doing and empowering churches to reach the university students in their backyard.”

Claudia Macdonald, a freelance writer living in Phoenix, is a member of First Southern Baptist Church of Glendale.