About KIRSTEN AND MICHAEL BELLONI

It all began when...

We were introduced to Cambodia by Mark and Joan Bouman, long-time missionaries who ran the Sihanoukville Children’s Home.  When Mark sought to partner with Grace Christian School in Anchorage, AK, to take a team of High School students on a short-term mission trip, Kirsten thought it was an “interesting” idea.  When the school asked for volunteers everyone else “stepped back,” and we were chosen by default.

Little did we know that helping to lead that first group of students  would subsequently result in our selling our house, leaving our jobs, saying “good-bye” to our puppy, Phoenix, and heading to Cambodia for a year of service.  In all we have have come to experience Prov. 16:9 intimately:  “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Kirsten and I both have backgrounds in education.  I retired from the Anchorage School District, where I was a Training Specialist in the Professional Learning Department.  Kirsten took a leave of absence from Grace Christian School, where she had been the elementary music teacher for the previous 9 years.

We returned to Anchorage, where I resumed work on a contract basis with the Anchorage School District and Kirsten resumed work on her Masters in Photography and running a portrait business, all the while continuing to make short trips twice a year to Cambodia, serving primarily with the Asian Hope Village Development project.  And then we headed back again to Cambodia full-time, serving at Logos International School, a mission of Asian Hope.  We returned to Alaska, once again, at the beginning of the Covid outbreak, completing the ‘19-20 school year online.

Now we are embarking on a new project, partnering with Christian education in Cambodia by providing much needed teacher training. We are currently in the preparation stages, but expect to develop this into full-time ministry by the spring of 2024.

We have two grown children.  Our daughter, Heaven, and her husband, Mike, live in Anchorage with their two children adopted from Ukraine and their newborn daughter, Lilah. Mike is a flight paramedic and Heaven is a flight attendant.   Our son, Wayland, and his wife, Brandi, live in Washington and have two children.  We also have a "fur-baby" in our family, Shelby, who you’ll see often on Instagram - #shelbyseestheworld. She’s had a lot of adventure for a 13-inch beagle!

PHOTO GALLERY