Bio

My full name is Angela Susan Ricketts. I was born January 25, 1965. I grew up in northwest Alabama as the oldest of two sisters and a brother. At the age of 8 years old, I became a Christian after hearing a missionary preach and responding in faith to the gospel message.

As a college student, I was introduced to Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, the Assemblies of God's outreach ministry to secular universities. In 1988 I graduated from the University of Alabama with a B.S. in chemical engineering. However, I knew the Lord was calling me to full-time service.

About a year and a half after graduation, I moved to Bellingham, Washington for a 10-month campus ministry internship. I returned to my alma mater in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and joined the Chi Alpha ministry staff from 1991-93. I then moved to the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama to help re-start Chi Alpha there. In 1995 I went to Concepcion, Chile for a summer missions trip. Upon returning, I became the campus ministry director at the University of South Alabama.

In 1998 the Lord gave me a prayer burden for Asia. In the fall of that year, I began to prepare to go to Asia with a team of college students to teach English at an Asian university. However, the team didn’t get to go to our original destination because of a political situation. Instead, we went to Japan.

During that one-month trip, I learned of an opportunity to return to Japan that fall. I returned as a missionary associate to work with a local Japan Assemblies of God church teaching English and planting campus ministry. Later on, I began teaching Black Gospel music choirs.

During the first 3 years that I spent in Japan, there was much confirmation that I should devote my life to reaching Japan with the gospel. In the fall of 2002, I came home to become an ordained minister and a fully-appointed missionary with the Assemblies of God. I am presently in my second term.