Who We Are

After meeting at Mississippi College, and marrying in their senior year, Howard and Martha (Sullivan) Beam have served the Lord in ministry for over forty-five years. They have pastored churches in West Virginia and Mississippi and have served as missionaries in Russia for eleven years (1991-2002).  In Russia, they were involved in evangelism, pastoring, church planting, and leadership development. Howard served as President of the Global Strategy Christian Association of Russian Churches for six years from 1996-2001.

For many years now, the Lord has given Howard and Martha a desire to minister to pastors and missionaries and their families. Shepherd's Rest International is the fulfillment of that vision to minister to those precious servants of the Lord who are giving their all for the Lord and for His kingdom.

Our Mission

Restoring, Renewing, and Refreshing those in ministry, by providing a quiet, peaceful setting in which to spend time with the Chief Shepherd.

We have always had a heart for pastors and missionaries and their families and have often seen the need, in ourselves and in others, for someone to minister to the ministers. For more than twenty years a vision has been growing in our hearts for a place where we could bring God's servants to love, encourage, pray for, and counsel as needed.  In doing so, we could provide an environment in which the Chief Shepherd, Jesus, could build them up and send them back into their ministries restored, refreshed, and renewed.

We have come to see, by faith, something like a hundred or so peaceful acres, with rolling hills, walking paths, lakes, prayer gardens, and several houses. We envision this as a place where weary, discouraged, or hurting ministers, and their families, can come and find peace, rest, and restoration for their minds, bodies, souls, and spirits. At present we don’t yet have “The Place” but we still have “The Vision” of the place. Please join with us in prayer for the fulfillment of this vision to the glory of God. Thank you for praying!

We also feel the Lord leading us to travel to pastors on their church fields, and especially to travel to the nations and minister to missionaries and native pastors in their countries of service. These men and women are under constant attack from human governments, demonic powers, and, sadly, even from their own churches and ministries, at times. They need prayer and encouragement, and others who will come alongside of them, and stand with them, for the harvest of souls that the Lord desires to bring into His family. They need someone who will care for them, as they care for the nations.

We believe that Shepherd’s Rest International is God’s will in heaven!  

We encourage you to join us in prayer that the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven! (Matthew 6:10)

EXPANDED VISION AND INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY

In March of 2024 the Lord added new aspects to our vision for Shepherd’s Rest as He called me (Howard) to serve as the Director of Prayer Mobilization for Men for Nations. While traveling the country to seek to raise up men who would stand in the gap and cry out to the Lord on behalf of their families, churches, states, nation, and world, The Lord of the Harvest expanded His call to us even more as we began to take the message of Christ’s love to the nations. The Lord used another ministry, The One Rescues (TheOneRescues.org), to facilitate this call.

In April of 2025 I traveled with Lee West, Founder and Director of The One Rescues, to Pakistan. Pakistan is in the 10/40 window. The 10/40 window is where the most unreached with the gospel people groups live. But yet, even though Pakistan is 98% Muslim, there are many opportunities to share the gospel and minister to the many needs of the precious people there. There is an openness for the gospel and an immense hunger on the part of the people.

Please see the May 2025 Men for Nations newsletter on the website for a full report of the April Outreach (men4nations.org). God did amazing things, and many lives were touched and changed for His glory. Also, read our report of our second outreach to Pakistan in October of 2025 on this website (shepherdsrestinternational.org). Just click the “Newsletter” link at the top of the page. You’ll be amazed, as we have been, at how God’s Spirit moved among the Pakistani and Hindu people there. By God’s Grace we were able:

  • To preach he gospel to thousands and see 2500 Pakistani and Hindu people pray to receive Christ,

  • Deliver four more families from slavery in the brick kilns,

  • Provide life- giving, healthy water to four Hindu villages,

  • Encourage Men for Nations Pakistan to continue praying for their nation and world,

  • And encourage the Body of Christ in the churches to keep loving the Lord and to keep reaching out to the lost and hurting with the message of salvation in Christ alone.

  • To God be the Glory!

I am excited about how the Lord is having Shepherd’s Rest partner with other ministries like Men for Nations and The One Rescues to reach the lost in Pakistan with the gospel, disciple new believers, train pastors, raise up groups of praying men throughout Pakistan (Men for Nations Pakistan),and minister to those in need by providing life giving water to Hindu villages, and by setting families free who are enslaved in the brick kilns. Currently there are over four million families enslaved in the brick kilns in Pakistan and the vast majority of them are Christians.

In addition to the international ministries that the Lord is having us do, there are two main assignments that He has laid on my heart for America.

  1. The Lord has called me to help build unity among praying churches and intercessors throughout our home state of Mississippi. There are many persons praying in Mississippi, but in many cases they don’t know other intercessors (even in the same city) who are also praying. We hope to create an atmosphere of greater love and unity and cooperation across denominational and racial lines to see believers come together, pray with and for each other, and fulfill the vision of unitifying the Body of Christ across the state. Our moto is: “We are building a Great Coalition, to Complete the Great Commission, until it becomes the Great Completion.”

  2. The Lord has also placed on my heart to establish a new ministry endeavor with Men for Nations called PRAY DC 52. We are seeking to bring a group of praying men to Washington DC each week of the year to pray with and for their congressman, for important issues in our government, for revival in America, to pray with other intercessory prayer groups in the capitol, and to participate in prayer tours and prayer walks in and about the city. Then, upon returning to their respective homes we hope the men will join with other men to continue to stand in the gap in prayer on behalf of their cities, states, nation and our world.

And this is just the Beginning!

Praise and Honor and Glory to the One Who is, and was, and is to come, The Almighty!

 Won’t you join with us in prayer and in monthly financial support of this ministry?