Joe Burton has always been looking for new horizons to explore. “I have seven degrees,” he laughs, and quickly runs through a list of his varied career paths—engineer, business manager, missions pastor, innkeeper, military chaplain, youth minister. “I’m a go-getter,” says Burton, who lives in White Bear Township with his wife, Deborah, and teenage sons Andre and Dimitri. “I’m one of those people who always wants to make a difference in somebody’s life, in this world.”
Burton has spent 32 years in the military, and 15 as a chaplain for the U.S. Army and Army Reserves, most recently for the 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, based in Des Moines, Iowa. His travels with the military have taken him all over the world—and planted the seeds for the Isaiah Connection, Burton’s Christian mission organization.
“While I was in seminary I was working as a youth pastor in Brooklyn Park,” Burton remembers. “The mission pastor said, ‘You’re radical when it comes to missions work…have you thought about becoming a missionary?’ ” Fast-forward a decade, and the Isaiah Connection is thriving, having sent hundreds of people, many from the Twin Cities, on mission trips around the globe every year. “In 2000, the dream started forming,” explains Burton. He came up with the name for his organization after a seminary class assignment led him to the Hebrew Bible’s book of Isaiah and a verse about preparing the way for Christ.
Burton’s deep Christian faith and his calling to help others guide the mission of the Isaiah Connection. “We go only to places we are invited,” he says. “And there’s always a story.” One of the Isaiah Connection’s first mission sites was in Honduras, where Burton connected with a community in need of a medical clinic and child care, all through an acquaintance in Minnesota. “I [heard about the need] in October that year,” Burton remembers. “In February, I hopped on a plane…and now we’ve been in Honduras for 11 years.”
The Isaiah Connection doesn’t focus on just one mission area, like medicine or education. Instead, Burton explains, missionaries listen closely to the needs of the communities they serve and organize around those needs. “We walk alongside people and build a partnership,” he says. “We want to help you do the work God has called you to do. We’ve been called a ‘smorgasbord’ and, yes, we are!”
Burton and his small team of administrators founded Isaiah Connection with very little overhead and plenty of flexibility. They aren’t affiliated with one particular denomination, but instead do outreach and recruiting at various Christian churches around Minnesota—and sometimes even farther afield. Often, Burton or another missionary will speak about their experiences during a church service and extend an invitation to listeners.
Prospective mission workers sign up for a variety of global trips, which are open to all ages. Ruth Smallidge, a retired nurse in her 70s, still travels at least once a year to her favorite mission site in Nigeria. “What I love about the Isaiah Connection is that we don’t go and say, ‘This is what we will do.’ We make the connection [with the community] and say, ‘What do you need?’ ”
2014 trips
(Prices do not include airfare or transportation to and from the designated mission sites.)
- San Antonio de la Cuesta, Honduras July 16–23 // $375
- Craig, Alaska July 19–26 // $375
- Metlakatla, Alaska July 26–August 1 // $425
Where in the world is the Isaiah Connection?
The organization hosts mission sites around the world:
- Honduras
- Hawaii
- Nigeria
- Kenya
- Arizona
- Alaska
- Israel
- China
&
Isaiah Connection
P.O. Box 10753
White Bear Lake
612.280.7676
