Bill & Susan Otten- Founders & Director

Lifeline International began with a simple burden: to help the gospel go farther.

Founded in 1990 by Bill and Susan Otten, Lifeline International was born out of years of ministry, missions, and relationships with overseas leaders. As Bill and Susan traveled and served around the world, they saw both the incredible faithfulness of local pastors and missionaries — and the very real needs they faced while trying to reach their communities with the gospel.

They realized that many faithful workers in the nations were doing powerful kingdom work with limited resources. They did not need someone to take over. They needed someone to come alongside them.

That is the heart of Lifeline International.

From the beginning, Lifeline has served as a connection point between generous partners and valid gospel needs around the world. Through ministry, equipment, literature, finances, training, and practical support, Lifeline has helped strengthen churches, encourage missionaries, equip leaders, and accelerate the work of evangelism and discipleship.

Over the years, Lifeline International has touched more than 60 nations with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Bill Otten is a 1979 graduate of Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas, and a 1981 graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

His ministry of evangelism has taken him around the world preaching evangelistic crusades, planting churches, training leaders, and strengthening the local church. With a heart for world evangelism and practical ministry, Bill founded Lifeline International as a way to support worthy projects that help advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For decades, Bill has carried a passion to reach the lost, encourage pastors, and help provide resources that make ministry possible in difficult and often overlooked places.

Susan Otten brings many years of ministry experience and a strong teaching grace to the work of Lifeline International.

A 1981 graduate of Christ for the Nations, Susan has served in local church ministry and has impacted many through her practical, passionate, and biblical teaching. Her ability to communicate truth with candor and compassion has helped equip believers to face the challenges of life with faith, wisdom, and strength.

Together, Bill and Susan have given their lives to ministry, missions, and the strengthening of the global church.

Since 1990, Lifeline International has made continual investments in world evangelism and discipleship through crusades, seminars, retreats, Bible schools, church planting, leadership training, and practical ministry support.

The needs Bill and Susan encountered overseas helped shape Lifeline into a supply line for missionary efforts around the world. Through faithful partners in the United States, Lifeline has been able to send resources to pastors, missionaries, churches, and ministries working in places where support is often limited.

Lifeline has helped provide Bibles, gospel literature, ministry equipment, financial support, transportation, water wells, training, and many other forms of practical help.

Every project has one purpose: to help move the gospel forward.

Lifeline International believes the local pastors and missionaries in the nations are the true experts in their communities. They know the language, culture, needs, challenges, and opportunities better than anyone.

Our role is not to arrive with all the answers. Our role is to listen, learn, encourage, support, train, and equip.

We look for faithful pastors, missionaries, and ministry workers who may be overlooked or under-supported, but who are diligently doing the work of evangelism, discipleship, and church strengthening. Lifeline exists to help them get it done.

Many of Lifeline’s overseas partners serve in areas where it is not wise or safe to publicly name them or display their pictures.

These faithful co-laborers help with translation, production, distribution of materials, evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, church planting, and practical ministry in their regions. Their efforts are vital to the work of Lifeline International and to the strengthening of the local church around the world.

We are deeply grateful for the leaders, pastors, missionaries, and workers who faithfully serve Jesus in places where the need is great and the cost is often high.

As Lifeline International continues forward, Pastor Joey Williams has joined the Lifeline team with a heart to help bridge the future of missions to the next generation.

Joey has served in ministry for more than 25 years and has been involved in missions for 18 years. He holds a Master’s degree in Practical Theology from The King’s University and carries a deep passion for training leaders, strengthening the church, and helping people discover their place in the Great Commission.

With a heart for Gen Z, discipleship, and global ministry, Joey desires to help young leaders see missions not as a distant idea, but as something they can personally experience and participate in. Through Lifeline mission trips, Gen Z leaders will have opportunities to come alongside the work, serve with local leaders, and “taste the nations” for themselves.

The heart is not just to take trips, but to help raise up a generation that loves Jesus, carries compassion, honors local leaders, and says yes to what God is doing around the world.

Today, Lifeline International continues to honor its foundation while looking ahead to the future — strengthening local leaders, supporting gospel work around the world, and helping raise up the next generation to take their place in the Great Commission.

What began as a burden to help overseas missionaries has become a global ministry touching nations, strengthening leaders, meeting practical needs, and helping the gospel reach people in real places.

The story is still being written — and we believe the best is yet to come.