Biographical Information: Dr. Gary T. Hipp and Merri Lee Hipp

 

 

Gary and Merri Lee Hipp both were called at an early age as missionaries, began dating during a high school missions trip to Mexico and were married in 1974.

Gary became a Family Practice physician and completed a Master in Public Health while Merri Lee completed a Masters of Divinity in the early 1980’s. During this time Merri Lee’s father, Dr. Richard Patterson founded Mission: Moving Mountains (M:MM) and the ministry philosophy of community development and discipleship attracted them both. They were sent to Uganda as the first missionaries to establish M:MM’s work in East Africa. After this short ten-week trip of seeing God do impossible things in the lives of people they grew to love, they left their hearts in Uganda.

 

The Lord brought Carissa (’83) and Samuel (’85) into their lives and soon after they left in 1986 as full term missionaries leading M:MM’s first team which ministered among the Bagisu of Mbale, Uganda. The Mbale Team discipled nine Ugandan disciplers most of whom remain at work to this day in a multitude of village level development/discipleship projects throughout Eastern Uganda.

 

After directing the training and ministry of several new teams of missionaries in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the Hipps returned to the US in 1995. Gary became M:MM’s second president and Merri Lee serves as a Missionary Equipper in missionary preparation and care.