Elijah Swaney

Elijah was born and spent his early years at Fort Irwin Army base in Southern California. Growing up in a military family, Elijah was instilled with a love for family, hard work, everything history, and the outdoors. Each of these has greatly influenced his desire to serve the Lord internationally.

From a young age Elijah has said that he wanted to be a missionary, and in the summer of 2021, after learning about the experience his mother had had while on a mission trip, he decided to follow in her footsteps and traveled with Teen Missions to Tanzania on a foot washing team. After seeing the needs of the Tanzanian nationals, Elijah decided that he wanted to be involved in missions in the future. This led him to India in the summer of his senior year of high school. Not knowing what exactly the Lord was leading him to do after this, Elijah applied to multiple colleges, including Sojourner School of Ministry, but eventually had peace about pursuing full-time missions further. Since attending Sojourner, Elijah has had the opportunity to lead a team to Bolivia, and plans to lead another team to Taiwan this summer.

Now finishing the academic portion of his missions training, Elijah will begin his 12-month internship. He will be serving in the Philippines and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.