Jon Cassel

As CapMin’s Global Director for African, Jon helped CapMin establish ministries with national leaders in 30 countries. Today, as Assistant Director, he continues to employ his gifts in administration, planning, and discipleship among national political leaders across the globe.

Jon is originally from Pennsylvania where he worked on farms and in the railroad industry, including as engineer. In the 1970s Jon sensed a call from God to ministry. He went on to serve with the Mennonite Central Committee in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), decades working with the Christian Broadcasting Network in Zaire and Senegal, Trans World Radio in Benin, and World Team in Cameroon.

Jon has accumulated 25 years in Africa and well understands the customs, traditions, and way of life in many nations. He also speaks fluent French. With CapMin, Jon has now served for a total of 11 years.

In hindsight, Jon’s desire to minister to political leaders comes as no surprise. His convictions reveal a heart for bringing others to the Lord. “I’ve had an life-long passion for seeing our Christian values in the marketplace and public arena,” he explains. “As Edmund Burke has said, ‘All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing.’

“So, we must be pro-active in supporting godly men and women to be elected to public office,” he continues, “and then following through to see that they have the opportunity to be discipled through solid Bible study.”

With this outlook, he leads a weekly Bible study in French with the Baka-speaking pygmy peoples in the rain forest of eastern Cameroon. As he teaches, the study is simultaneously translated into the Baka language. Jon is so committed to this ministry that he lives there among the remote pygmies.

Jon cites Matthew 28:19 as inspiration for his ministry: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

He brings educational experience to his role having graduated from Delaware Valley College in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science in large animal husbandry and a minor in agronomy. In addition to his educational background, Jon is a former emergency medical technician and firefighter.

With so much of his own service experience, Jon understands that ministering to public servants has the ability to change nations. “How can we expect righteous, biblical governance from legislators who do not know, or adhere to, the teachings of the Bible?” he asks. “Bible studies will lead to spiritual development and maturity and will result in right thinking and biblical laws.”

As he continues to partner with CapMin, Jon has a clear goal in mind: to see as many countries in Africa as possible with thriving Bible-teaching ministries in their capitals.