My name is Tim Drinkard, and I am originally from Oskaloosa, Kansas. I have served the Lord in various capacities over the last fifteen years. This has included preaching in nursing homes, starting two rescue mission ministries in Lawrence, KS, and Topeka, KS, bus ministries, local church ministries, etc. In 2009, after the Lord called me into the ministry, I began preparing for the mission field with doctrinal studies online through Salt Lake Baptist College. However, I consider my highest education to have been gained in my duration on the mission field. For the last five and a half years, I have been a missionary in the country of Panamá among the indigenous group called the Emberá People, located at the edge of the Daríen Jungle in the southeastern part of the country near Colombia. By God's amazing grace, I was able to start the first ever autonomous, indigenous, self-supporting Baptist church among Emberá people who have been in that region for over 800 years. This was also the first ever autonomous Baptist Church in the history of the Daríén Province since Panamá became a nation in 1903. On February 13, 2022, the Darién Independent Baptist Church was born as it was handed over to an indigenous Pastor of the Emberá People, Pastor Chango Casceras. 

During the church planting process, I also started two major refugee camp ministries. One located on the side of the country closest to Colombia in the Darién jungle, and the other located near the border of Costa Rica, in the old training camp of the former dictator Manuel Noriega. The refugee ministry in the Daríén jungle is still going on today. This area of Panamá is infamous for narcotics trafficking and human trafficking. It is still a "do not travel" zone, according to the U.S. Embassy.

By God's grace, in 2020, I witnessed an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, particularly among the refugees from Cameroon, Africa, in which hundreds and hundreds came to Christ in the camps. The Lord gave me the opportunity to be the first missionary/pastor in the country to have been granted full access by the government through the National Director of Immigration to these camps. This amazing opportunity afforded me the ability to preach and distribute humanitarian aid at my disposal in any of the camps in the country at that time. I was able to consistently distribute the gospel in eleven different languages, and by God's amazing grace, this work is still being carried out today, and many are still coming to Christ deep in the jungle through the labor of the Daríen Independent Baptist Church, under the care and guidance of Pastor Chango Casceres.