our leaders

The Cirones

John and Michelle have had the wonderful opportunity to lead ten YOM Australia summer mission trips. Beginning in 2008 with the Maldoff missionary family in the Mildura region, since this time God has expanded the Cirone’s ministry to now include ministries in Australia’s top three cities/regions: Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. This has allowed John and Michelle to develop many close and life-long friendships with missionaries, pastors, and evangelists throughout Australia which have provided the YOM teams a variety of exciting and practical ministry opportunities. The Cirones have a love for the Australian people and desire to see people surrender to full-time Australian missions as the opportunities are great and the laborers are few. After living in Australia during summers 2013 and 2014 while John was serving as an interim pastor, they now consider Australia their second home.
John and Michelle have served at Pensacola Christian College for over 30 years. Although retired, John taught in the undergraduate and graduate business programs, and Michelle currently works in the Reservation Office. They have four adult children, two grandchildren, and two grand puppies.

Their Ministry in Australia

YOM Missions Teams to Australia

Since 2008, John and Michelle Cirone have led ten YOM missions teams to Australia. Their teams have served several local churches, including the ministries of missionaries Steven and Christy Maldoff (Mildura), Joe and Melissa Marshall (Brisbane), Jim and Becky Heberle (Outback/Aboriginal communities),  Kyle and Jamie Sutton (Melbourne) and Joshua Zacharias, as he partners with Pastor Manny Mallari and Calvary Baptist Church (Melbourne).

In addition to their entire family’s work in Australia in 2013, the Cirones’ children have also joined them on missions trips. Jared went to Australia in 2010; Zachary, in 2011 and 2014; and Annaliese, in 2015, 2017, and 2019.

Service in Australia

For the summer of 2013, the entire Cirone family served at Murray River Baptist Church in Australia while missionaries Steven and Christy Maldoff furloughed in the United States. John had the opportunity to pastor the congregation.

When Steven and Christy Maldoff were called to a leadership position with BIMI (Chattanooga), the Lord laid on the Cirones’ hearts to serve in Australia for the summer. John became the interim pastor of Murray River Baptist and ministered with Michelle and their son Zachary until Pastor Keith Foley assumed full-time pastoral duties in August 2014.

Their Mission

The Cirones’ mission is three-fold: to serve the Lord by furthering His Kingdom and Great Commission in reaching Australians for Christ, to serve and encourage Australian missionaries and pastors and their local churches in reaching their communities for Christ, and to serve and encourage our missions team members to develop a desire to pursue a life of full-time missions.

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Ready to serve on the mission field? Sign up for one of our short-term missions opportunities available each summer.
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