Benji & Kerri Dryden

Caribbean Director

Benji grew up in Port-de-Paix, Haiti, in the ministry of his parents, Don and Bridgitt Dryden. Under his dad’s preaching, he was born again at the age of five and called to be a missionary when he was 14 years old. Throughout his four years of college at Pensacola Christian College, he remained unsettled with where God would send him.

Kerri was reared in Flora, Illinois, and she accepted Christ as her Savior soon after a church was started in her home. While a teenager, she felt led to serve the Lord as a preacher’s wife or missionary’s wife.

Benji and Kerri met in college and married after Benji graduated in 1996. Still not having a clear direction of which country the Lord wanted them to serve in, the Drydens became very involved in Calvary Baptist Church of Flora, Illinois, putting their training to use. Leading the song services, playing in the orchestra, teaching Sunday school, teaching in Calvary Baptist Institute, working with the youth, and working with preschoolers were part of God’s will to prepare them for His plan. While on a missions trip to Haiti in the fall of 1998, their hearts were settled on serving with Benji’s parents in Haiti.

They joined BIMI in June of 2001 and on September 9, 2003, Benji, Kerri, Micah, Ethan, and Katie moved to Port-de-Paix and began serving in Desroulins Independent Baptist Church and its ministries. During their 20 years in Haiti, a junior church ministry was started, an orchestra was formed, and over 350 men graduated from the 5-year program of study at Grace Baptist Bible Institute.

Benji and Kerri are excited to expand their missionary service beyond the seashores of Haiti and reach the dozens of islands scattered throughout the Caribbean. Haiti has been increasing in turmoil during the past decade, making it difficult to stay there. In this ministry expansion, they will still be involved in the training of nationals as well as future missionaries, encouraging and uplifting those who currently serve on the field, and promoting missions throughout the churches and Bible colleges in the United States.

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