Our Story

Pioneers Europe was founded in 1998 with a passion to send more European missionaries onto Pioneers teams among the unreached around the world. Our home office has moved a couple of times over the years, but our passion has always remained the same. Since our start, we have fulfilled this passion by not only partnering with local churches, but also by partnering with other missions service providers, such as DMG and VDM in Germany, and SMG in Switzerland. Since early 2017, we have been based in the Netherlands under the Dutch foundation Stichting Arabische Wereld Zending (AWZ), since 2021 called Stichting Pioneers (Foundation Pioneers). Legally, Stichting Pioneers has two departments under it: Pioneers Nederland to send Dutch missionaries and Pioneers Europe to send missionaries from the rest of Europe (except from the UK since Pioneers already has a local sending office there). We look forward to what God will do in the years ahead! Thank you for being part of the journey!

1979

Ted Fletcher and his wife Peggy stepped out in faith and founded Pioneers.

1980

First Pioneers team commissioned to Papua New Guinea.

1998

Pioneers Europe was founded with a passion to send more European missionaries to the unreached around the world.

2003

Pioneers co-founder, Ted Fletcher, finishes well.

2004

Pioneers Europe is legally registered in Slovakia.

2010

Pioneers and Arab World Ministries merged in order to strengthen the work in the Middle East and North Africa.

2010

Pioneers and Arab World Ministries merged in order to strengthen the work in the Middle East and North Africa.

2013

Pioneers UK begins temporary legal and operational responsibility for Pioneers Europe.

2017

Pioneers Europe moves to the Netherlands under the AWZ Board, .
You can learn more about the AWZ history here (you’ll need to use Google Translate).

2018

Pioneers Europe celebrates 20 years!

2021

The official name of Foundation AWZ has been changed to Stichting Pioneers.