Jason and Rebekah Oberholser

Jason’s two passions – agriculture and serving God – were evident by his teen years. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, he was introduced to a love of farming, and BIC missionaries visiting his church fostered a love for the world. While pursuing a degree in dairy cattle production and management from Ohio State University, he remained open to the Holy Spirit’s direction for his future and spent a summer in Zimbabwe after graduating where he caught a glimpse of how God could use him cross-culturally. In 2003, he attended the Urbana Student Missions conference where he heard Native American contextual worship music for the first time. After, he began to pray for the Navajo People.

Rebekah grew up on a small farm in Pennsylvania and received an education in food service and nutritional counseling. For several years, she operated a small baking and cake decorating business. While on a family vacation trip in the Southwest, she was exposed to the Navajo culture, not knowing that she would later live among them.

Rebekah enjoyed supporting missionaries as a teenager but never expected to serve on the mission field herself. However, after she met Jason, her perspective broadened to see that God’s purpose for their family included missions. Rebekah enjoyed serving on her congregation’s world prayer team and hospitality committee, giving her exposure to missions work and serving others.

Jason and Rebekah met in 2004 and were married the following year. As newlyweds, they prayed for how God wanted to use their family. God provided an opportunity for them to take an exploratory trip to New Mexico, and further opportunities confirmed that God was calling the Oberholser family to serve among the Navajo People. In 2008, Jason and Rebekah, along with two young children, moved to the Four Corners Region in Northwestern New Mexico. Since then, they’ve been blessed with four more children.

The Oberholser’s have served in a variety of ministry settings in the Four Corners over the years. Since 2021, they have served as the lead pastoral couple of a BIC church planting network called Freedom of Nations Church. This network consists of several small cell groups that meet in community buildings, apartment complexes, coffee shops, college campuses, etc. It’s their prayer that these fledgling groups will grow into a thriving church network capable of reaching the Navajo People in culturally relevant ways for generations to come.

The Oberholser family enjoys riding bicycles, camping, woodworking, gardening, and raising goats. As a family, they regularly engage in their community through 4-H, homeschool co-op groups, piano lessons, and after-school children’s programs. Jason also serves as Chaplain for first responders.