Trey and Elise Atkins’ first overseas missions experience was 1985-1987 in Livingston, Scotland, where they served as evangelism ministers with the International Mission Board (IMB) Journeyman program. After Trey attended SWBTS (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) and pastored in Colorado and Canada for eight and a half years, they went to Sarajevo, Bosnia, with their two sons, Ryan and Bret, for four years in 1999 as IMB career missionaries.
After being on stateside assignment in Austin, Texas, for a year, they moved to Zagreb, Croatia, in 2004 as team leaders for the country of Croatia and the Croatian portion of Bosnia named Herzegovnia. Trey and Elise continued in this role until 2009 when they were asked to serve as cluster strategy leaders for Central Europe. Trey and Elise have served with the IMB for a total of 14 years and returned to the U.S. on July 31, 2011, for their stateside assignment as Missionaries in Residence (MIRs) at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) for the 2011-2012 academic school year.