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PMB 64
6625 Hwy. 53 East #410
Dawsonville, Ga. 30534
Email: ben@row.org
Voice/FAX: 706-344-1283
Rhodes College – B.A.
Columbia Theological Seminary – M-Div.
Washington College Academy – D.D.
Hampden-Sydney College – L.D.H.
Born: 5/14/53
2 sons: Benjamin is 29 , has his Masters in Fine Arts from University of California Irvine. He is an actor and is married to the lovely Bonnie Shores Mathes from Athens, Alabama. They live in Costa Mesa, California. Captain Adam Mathes, USMC, 27, finished his third tour in Iraq and now resides in Smyrna, Ga. where he is VP of New Business Development for Prime Power, Inc.
Ben is the President of Rivers of the World, an international exploration and development agency that targets remote river basins. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Since 1978, Ben has traveled the world in behalf of international health development, explorations and Christian missions. He has worked extensively in The Congo, Kenya, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, El Salvador, Brasil, Belize, Ecuador, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Guatemala. He serves in a different country almost each month! ROW has recently completed new ships in Congo and Brasil. The ships serve 150,000 in the Lusambo Health Zone of Congo and an average of 27 villages a year on the Amazon River. Staff members Congo Staff Omba, Akula, and Shamba, are responsible for a program that has treated over 1 million cases of river blindness and immunized over 775,000 children against polio – and every one treated by ROW staff hears the Gospel!
In addition to serving in Congo and Brazil, ROW actively ministers in Kenya, Vietnam, Belize, Honduras, Peru, and Bolivia. Ben is a regular on K-LOVE Christian Radio, reaching over 3 million listeners with a twice daily feature about his mission adventures. He is the author of the on-going series of devotion books titles “ROWvotions“, a series of audio books, DVD’s and paper back books under the title “Lessons From The Forests.”
Ben was recently honored by Rotary International with an Honorary Membership in appreciation for his his work fighting polio and river blindness. An avid sportsman, he hunts and fishes around the world. He enjoys music and is an often published photographer.Ben received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.D.H.) From Hampden- Sydney College in May of 1999, and an Honorary Paul Harris Award from Rotary International during the same month. He was honored in Apr 2007 with the James Madison Award for “Extraordinary Humanitarian Service in Some of the World’s Most Distressed Areas” by The Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest at Hampden-Sydney College.
