Vision Ministries is the personal missionary ministry of the Barraclough Family, comprised of Joe & Judith Barraclough and their four children, Nadia, Isaac, Jennifer, & Caleb.  Vision Ministries is an outreach of Global Missionary Taskforce, Inc., a missionary-sending agency of which Joe is the co-founder and Secretary/Treasurer.  Currently, the Barracloughs are serving in northwestern Panama, among the Naso Indian tribe, and have been active in this church-planting and pioneer evangelism work since August of 2005.

A Brief History
     The ministry began in November 2001, when the Barracloughs were ministering in El Mirage, Arizona and felt called of the Lord to move to Caracas, Venezuela to assist veteran missionary Chuck Akers, Jr. and family with their work in the slums of Caracas.    While in Venezuela, the Barraclough family worked in pastoral ministry, youth outreach, childrens ministry, street evangelism and music ministry.  Caracas became home to this family.  The many friends and converts that they had the joy of bringing to the Lord made for a special time of ministry, even though they lived through the challenging times of a political revolution and the tightening control of the leftist government. 
     The family looked forward to ministering in this nation for many years; however, a medical emergency whisked the family backed to the States in early 2005 when their fifth child, Melissa Faith, passed away after a premature birth due to lung failure.  With the political tension growing in that nation and receiving direction from the Lord, the family decided to leave Venezuela, which was consummated in April 2006. 
     Prior to the departure from Venezuela, upon invitation by Global Missionary Taskforce's president, Chuck Akers, Joe began making trips to the Naso Indian tribe living in the northwestern jungles of Panama to help found a work there.   The entire family was able to accompany Joe in May 2006, and since this time a church has been established and a mission station built on property purchased in February 2006.  God continues to work among the Naso Indians, and the ministry is maturing under national leadership through the efforts of several GMT missionaries.
     At present, Joe is working closely with veteran missionary Chuck Akers in an attempt to open up several new works in Latin America through pioneer evangelism, children's crusades, revival campaigns and pastoral conferences.  In addition to his work as a field missionary, Joe also provides accounting services to all GMT missionaries, oversees the administration of GMT, is active in the training of first-term foreign missionaries affiliated with GMT, and teaches part-time at Ozark Bible Institute & College in missions classes and Spanish.

Our Vision
     It is the thrust of Vision Ministries to establish indigenous works among unreached and less-reached people groups in Latin America.  Please see our Ministries link for more information about the various ministries in which we are currently engaged.

Rev. Joseph W. Barraclough

     Joe Barraclough has been married to Judith (Fonseca) Barraclough for over nine years.  They have four children, who work with them on the mission field and in the home.
Joe began preaching the Gospel at the age of sixteen.  He became increasingly interested in foreign missions as a teenager, and got involved through taking several short-term missions trips.  After gaining a dozen years of pastoral and evangelistic experience in the United States, Joe & family launched out into full-time missionary service beginning in 2002.
     Joe attended Berean College (now Global University) to obtain an institute level ministerial education while jointly attending the University of Texas at Arlington where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting.  Joe worked in the public and private accounting sector, while remaining active in ministry.  He retains a heart for bi-vocational pastors and Christian workers as a result.
     Currently, Bro. Barraclough is a full-time missionary and the Secretary/Treasurer of Global Missionary Taskforce, Inc. (“GMT”), and the Director of Vision Ministries. He has been involved in missions work in Old Mexico and Venezuela, and is currently active in church-planting in northwestern Panama.  Besides doing the accounting work for GMT and their missionaries, he assists first-term missionaries through a mentoring relationship, and promotes full-time missionary service among conservative and holiness congregations in the United States and abroad. 
     Bro. Barraclough’s two main burdens are 1) to see young people and couples answer the call to foreign and home missionary service, hence the creation of GMT with veteran missionary Chuck Akers, Jr., and 2) to preach the Gospel and plant churches among unreached and less-reached people groups of the world.
In addition, Bro. Barraclough also serves on two home missions boards, one a pioneer holiness church in the State of Arizona, and the other a ministry which provides housing and other assistance to low-income families and seniors. 
     Above all, Bro. Barraclough loves working with his wife and children in ministry and being blessed by God to disciple them in the Faith. 

Judith (Fonseca) Barraclough

     Judith Barraclough has been married to Rev. Joseph Barraclough for over nine years.   In addition to being an outstanding wife and helpmeet for her husband’s ministry, she is also the mother of four children, supervisor of the Barraclough home school and homemaker, and might we add a very flexible homemaker, because “home” has taken many forms over the last nine years of ministry.  She has worked hard to provide a Christian environment for her family, whether amidst the violent gang culture in Caracas, Venezuela, or the serene and rugged rainforest of Panama, all while balancing the responsibilities of the mission work.
     Born in Acapulco, Mexico, Judith was raised in a nominal Roman Catholic home, but received Christ in salvation through the influence of relatives at the age of 23 after she had moved to the United States.  Growing up, she was active in the family bakery business, until age 22 when she moved to Arlington, Texas to attend college, studying English, and to assist her cousin in their new bakery.  Joe and Judith met in the Spring of 1997, when Joe began tutoring Judith in English.  The couple married in February of 1998.  She remains the only Christian among her parents and siblings, and assists her husband in the ministry with children’s ministries and some public speaking. 
     Judith has provided enourmous encouragement and strength to her husband, and is selflessly devoted to her family and the ministry.