Emerson and Velda Rickstrew

Emerson Rickstrew is a graduate of West Texas State University with a BBA in accounting and economics. He has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1971.  Emerson has extensive experience working with various businesses in Texas, St. Croix, and California.  He is currently a trustee for many major businesses throughout the United States.  In 1983, he started his own company and is the CEO of Emerson K. Rickstrew, CPA - a tax , accounting and consulting service.  

In 1969, Emerson married Velda in Amarillo, Texas.  Velda was born again and in 1971.  Emerson made the decision to dedicate his life to Christ.  Soon after, Emerson took a job as a comptroller in California.  Their new church and mentors helped them grow in God and prepared the for the ministry opportunities God had destined for them.

Velda Rickstrew has forty years experience as a women's church leader and extensive experience in organizing group trips, travel and training for Christian mission work in America and Kenya.  She was a successful small business owner and manager from 1981 to 2004.  She currently works with Starbucks Corporation.  

In 2006, their ministry changed with a trip to Kenya arranged by Saddleback Church in California.  There they fell in love with the Kenyan people.  In Kitale, they developed connections with an orphanage, a clinic, Oasis of Hope and a day school.  

In 2010, the Rickstrew family moved from California to set up business in Texas.  The same year they returned to Kenya; reconnected with friends in Kitale and developed new relationships.  While in Texas they met Pastor Mark Jobe of Gateway Church in Southlake and were introduced to the work Gateway is doing in Kenya.  That linked them to new relationships with Mission Barnabas International and Clarence Matheny Ministries in Kenya and other ministries.  

During this time they established Crossing Boundaries, Inc,. a non-profit mission to provide support to existing Christian ministries in Kenya, and support new ministries that spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in Kenya and to provide humanitarian assistance for people suffering from lack of food, water, and education. 

In 2011, the Don Babin Ministry introduced them to the Maasai tribal people living in remote areas of Kenya.  In 2012, with funds from Gateway Church (their new home church), the Rickstrews and the Babin Ministry installed the first water well in Kurum; a remote Maasai village.  The village women and children had been walking about 6 miles, each way, to get water to their homes.  The water well drastically improved life for the villagers and about twelve-hundred people who live in the area. 

Since then, nine  additional wells have been completed affecting the lives of many thousands of Kenyans. 

In 2016, a new ministry, a vocational school teaching tailoring skills was started in a slum village, Kasarani.  We  began  just  this  year,  2020,  our  project  to  provide  vocational  tailoring  training  and  to  make  re-usable  feminine  hygiene  products  for  thousands  of  impoverished  rural  school  girls.

Providing water wells, Bibles and training materials for local pastors, supporting orphaned street kids and orphanages, and other means of improving the live of Kenyans are close to the hearts of Emerson and Velda Rickstrew.  They see their call from God as coordinating the efforts of several ministries to improve the impact they can have on the spiritual and physical lives of the incredible people of Kenya.  

You too can be a part of this vital ministry!  To know more about Crossing Boundaries, Inc. and see how you can get involved,  email us at Contact@crossingboundariesinc.org