AG Next Generation Grants Awarded

Each year the AG Next Generation Grant is awarded to a select number of graduates of Assemblies of God colleges and universities, based on financial need, who plan to enter full-time ministry.

Matthew Maestas, one of 14 recipients of the 2018 AG Next Generation Grant made possible by AGTrust donors, is being commissioned as an active duty naval chaplain this month, January 2019. An ordained Assemblies of God minister, he completed the Master of Divinity degree at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri, in 2016.

“I was denied a commission at my first Navy Chaplain CARE Board,” Maestas says. “Therefore, I moved my family to Wellington [Kansas] to gain the experience in pastoral ministry that I needed. That move put us in a tight financial situation, but we knew Wellington First was where God had placed us.”

While serving as an associate pastor at Wellington First Assembly, Maestas also works as a hospital chaplain resident at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas. Matthew and Melissa have three children: Makayla, Malaki and Mavrik.

“I am humbled by and grateful to the AGTrust partners for honoring me with the AG Next Generation Grant,” Maestas says. “God has blessed Melissa and me along this journey, and because of your help I’m better prepared to do what God has called me to do.

“This grant will help us pay down the principal of my student loans quicker than expected and move into chaplaincy ministry,” Maestas continues. “It will also enable my wife and me to focus more on our family and ministry.”

Because of the faithful support of AGTrust partners, 1,385 scholarships and grants totaling over $3.4 million to AG university students and graduates have been provided since 2008. Here is the list of the 2018 AG Next Generation Grant recipients:

Tina Allen, Wentzville, Missouri; Richard Martinez, Owasso, Oklahoma; Daine Bean, Springfield, Missouri; Jada Morgan, Morresville, North Carolina; Jacob Buchanan, Culpepper, Virginia; Heidi Rausch, Burnsville, Minnesota; Adam Fogleman, Greenville, Texas; Cinthia Rea, Springfield, Missouri; Natasha George, Richfield, Minnesota; Hudson Speer, Ozark, Missouri; Ryan Gibbons, Defiance, Missouri; Hayden Sullivan, Dothan Alabama; Matthew Maestas, Wichita, Kansas; and George True, Harrington, Maine.

Learn more about qualifications and application deadlines for AGTrust scholarships and grants here or visit colleges.ag.org.

AGTrust

The Assemblies of God Trust (AGTrust) is charged with special initiatives from the Office of the General Superintendent to advance a healthy, growing Assemblies of God Fellowship and to empower future generations. Those initiatives are: to plant churches; strengthen existing churches; and scholarship future leaders.