Jessica Brand

Jess works for New Hope Church as the Children’s Ministry Coordinator, and is a stay at home mom of two wonderful children. Tammy Heidbuurt is the Community Ministries Coordinator for New Hope Church, a new site of First Hamilton CRC. She also works with Diaconal Ministries Canada as a Community Ministry Developer. As part of starting New Hope Church, Jess and Tammy have explored and experimented with various ways of connecting with their East Hamilton neighbourhoods. Using Servant Evangelism strategies, friendship evangelism, and other networking resources, New Hope is making inroads in their community, and has plans for further linking with their community this Spring.

Andy Busa

He has twenty-one (21) years of pastoral ministry experience in the Philippines. He served at one time in a mega-church with 8,000 membership as assistant pastor for five years. He had served as pastor for several churches with membership ranging from fifty to a hundred and he planted a church too. Subsequently, he was elected as Head Minister of a local organization overseeing 12 local churches. He also taught for two years at Southern Baptist School of Theology- Manila handling various courses before coming here in 2004 as missionary from a Two Thirds World country. He has also been in Singapore, Taiwan, and Hongkong for training and ministry purposes.

These rich experiences have helped him identify the challenges and difficulties churches from countries of the Two Thirds World are facing as they fulfill their global mandate. It also gives him understanding of some important components that has shaped the theology and orthopraxy of the Two Third World churches with regard to their involvement in Global Missions.

He has a Diploma in Biblical Studies, a Bachelor Degree in Theology (BTh), a Masters’ Degree in Practical Theology (MPT), and a Master of Divinity Degree (M.Div.) with Pastoral Leadership Award conferred upon graduation.

He is married to Rowena Vasquez-Busa and blessed with three children, namely; Tim, Aya, and Angeli.

Sue Carr

Sue is the chaplain at Mission Services. She is excited about the hunger for the gospel that is on the streets. Sue is married to Tony. They have an ever growing family as their children find wonderful husbands and wives.

Dwayne Cline

Dwayne’s passion for the city is contagious. He has been the pastor of the Hughson Street Baptist Church in Hamilton for the past 10 years, and is presently also serving as the coordinator of the Baptist Urban Ministry Network for the Fellowship Baptist Churches in Canada. Dwayne is married, a father of 2.

Al and Karen Craig

Al  is the founder and director of Living Rock Ministries. He is an ordained minister, trained chaplain and musician. His personal background on the streets and employment experience working in ministry, addictions and corrections have equipped him for this outreach. There is a powerful anointing on his speaking and music ministry.

Karen (BA/BSW) is a social worker in addictions with a youth specialty. She speaks to groups and women’s ministries.

Gary Dumbrill

Gary Dumbrill is an Assistant Professor at McMaster University School of Social Work. Gary’s teaching focuses on the ways to recognize and stop racism and other forms of oppression. Gary attends Philpott Memorial Church in Hamilton and is particularly interested in social justice issues from a Christian perspective. (www.garydumbrill.com)

Dallas Friesen

Dallas is originally from out west. He is not always sure how he got from playing in bands and working in coffee shops on Vancouver Island to pastoring with his beautiful “Newfie” wife in Hamilton. But slowly the journey is making more sense.

Dallas provided leadership in arts and worship in a simple church in the greater Seattle area for three years. He has also participated in emerging missional church plants at various levels in both Calgary and Hamilton. He came to Hamilton to attend McMaster Divinity College where he met his wife Leanne on the first day of orientation. They married and later each ended up with the responsibility of ministering at Mount Hamilton Baptist Church. They love helping others engage their neighbourhoods, respond to a changing culture, take missional risks and explore spiritual questions. Josiah came into the mix about 6 months ago with his big bright eyes and cute laugh so he is teaching them how to parent and love greater.

Lane Fusilier

Dr. Lane Fusilier is a Cajun, born in southeast Texas. Though he grew up in a Cajun village, he was enamored with the sciences, became a Westinghouse Science Talent Search Finalist, studied at M.I.T. and completed a degree in experimental psychology at the University of Texas. By graduation, his interests had focused on linguistics, so he took a masters degree in Semitic languages at Dallas Theological Seminary, followed by a doctorate more recently.

Lane planted and pastored one church in central Texas for 21 years, leading that congregation to involvement with Habitat for Humanity, World Hunger Relief, Inc., the Evangelical Free Church of America, and Prison Fellowship.

Philpott Memorial Church of Hamilton, Ontario called him as their pastor in April 1999. He was delighted to find a post-Christian, secular city influenced by post-modernism. He calls himself a “past-modernist.”

He moved here in August 1999 with his wife of 31 years, debi, and their children, three sons and one daughter.

He completed his D.Min. in leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary (2004).

Lane enjoys reading, dialogue, and coaching. He coaches a men’s soccer team each summer in the Hispanic League of Hamilton.

Peter Giokas

Peter currently serves as Pastor of Little Bethel Community Church, located in the East of Hamilton in the shadow of the steel mills. This church is engaged in two significant partnerships with other local churches and with Cafe Adonai. Prior to working at Little Bethel, he worked for Mission Services of Hamilton where he was directly involved in numerous partnerships of varying kinds over many years. He believes God has called all of his kids to play nice together in the same sandbox, sharing the the toys and inviting other kids to come and join in the fun.

Pernell Goodyear

Pernell lives in The Hammer with his wife, Margie, and their three kids: Samantha [8], Lucas [6] and Jacob [4]. He moved here in June 2001 in order to plant a church for The Salvation Army. They packed up all their stuff in a U-haul and moved here [from Calgary] and The Freeway adventure began. The Freeway is now a missional church community and coffee house in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada.

Pernell also helped start a Canadian network called Resonate a few years ago with a few friends. Resonate is network of Canadians striving to love God and our neighbours in a changing culture. Through Resonate, he has helped create [and now co-leads] Greenhouses – local church planting networks all across Canada; he has also started “Cultivate Gathering” – an annual non-conference for those interested in church planting and new forms of church.

Ian Havercroft

Mark and Ian are the co-pastors of Lightway Church in Hamilton’s far-east community of Riverdale. Lightway is a church plant out of Hughson Street Baptist Church, and held their first public service in September. Along with their wives, Jodi and Amy, and their team, they are working to develop good relationships at every level: from the school board to the high-rise superintendents to their next-door neighbours.

Tammy Heidbuurt

Tammy Heidbuurt is the Community Ministries Coordinator for New Hope Church, a new site of First Hamilton CRC. She also works with Diaconal Ministries Canada as a Community Ministry Developer. Jess works for New Hope Church as the Children’s Ministry Coordinator, and is a stay at home mom of two wonderful children. As part of starting New Hope Church, Jess and Tammy have explored and experimented with various ways of connecting with their East Hamilton neighbourhoods. Using Servant Evangelism strategies, friendship evangelism, and other networking resources, New Hope is making inroads in their community, and has plans for further linking with their community this Spring.

Michael Hryniuk

Michael Hryniuk, Ph.D. is a theologian, writer, speaker, and teacher in the field of Christian spirituality, contemplative formation and ministry development. From 2001-2004, he was co-director of the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project, an international research and teaching initiative based at San Francisco Theological Seminary that promotes contemplative spirituality in the field of youth ministry among mainline Protestant, Evangelical and Catholic churches. In 2005, he founded Theosis Ministries, a resource centre that promotes contemplative formation and renewal in congregational and denominational life. He now serves as the Executive Director of the Henri Nouwen Society and lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Verna Hutchinson

Verna Hutchinson is a hospital pharmacist at Groves Memorial Community Hospital affiliated with Hamilton Health Sciences Centre. She received a B.Sc.Pharm. degree from the University of Pittsburgh and completed an American Society of Hospital Pharmacists accredited residency program at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.  She returned to the University of Pittsburgh and completed 2 years of graduate work in Clinical Pharmacy. While serving as Clinical Coordinator at the former Chedoke-McMaster Hospital, she completed the Faculty of Health Science’s Program for Faculty Development in Problem-Based Learning and Teaching in the Clinical Setting. She worked as Organization Development and Education Specialist for the newly formed Hamilton Health Sciences Centre and taught as Associate Clinical Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh and at Purdue University and also as Clinical Instructor at Butler University School of Pharmacy and Lab Instructor and Tutor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Pharmacy. Verna has an MDiv from McMaster Divinity College and is currently enrolled in MacDiv’s advanced degree program. Her special interest is in developing educational models that integrate faith and best practice in the clinical setting.

Chris Jones

Chris Jones has been involved in ministry to youth and young adults for over nine years. A gifted communicator, Chris combines an exciting and engaging speaking style with a relentless, consuming hunger to follow wherever God is leading, even when that means stepping beyond the boundaries of traditional religion. His goal is to help young people get a glimpse of the fanatical love God has for all of us, and how that impacts who we are, and how we live. Currently Chris is a site supervisor for a large home building company and the team leader for 24-7 Prayer Canada.

Hans Kater

Hans Kater lives in East Hamilton and enjoys his involvement with a new church plant in the Ottawa St. N. area. He has been employed as the Director of Diaconal Ministries Canada for six years. His passion is church-based mercy and compassionate ministries.

John Kirstein

John Kirstein is originally from South Africa, but has lived in the greater Hamilton area for the past few years. He currently attends First Christian Reformed Church in Hamilton and is involved in encouraging and developing the arts in worship there. He plays piano and accordion, and also enjoys reading, writing, sketching, and philosophy, among many other things.

Winnie Lo

Winnie Lo is working as a research assistant for the Social Work and Health Sciences Departments at McMaster University. She together with May Marr assisted Dr. Dumbrill in the Photovoice project. Winnie received her Master’s degree in Social Work in 2007

Kim Loney

Though born in Ontario, Kim has lived most of her life in a cross-cultural setting including Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Austria, Romania, England and the U.S.  Kim recently graduated from Regent College, Vancouver with a Masters of Christian Studies.  Prior to her move to Europe in the mid 80s to work with International Teams, Kim worked as a Public Health Nurse in Toronto.  Today she works out of the International Teams Canada office in the Waterloo Region with a focus on urban ministry development.

Abraham Mandrandele

Abraham was born in the Congo and has pastored there and in South Africa and now Canada. He is currently co-pastoring a Congolese immigrant church called Evangelical Pain de Vie that meets at First CRC in Hamilton. Pastor Abraham is passionate about prayer and has a contagious love for the Lord and for people and the city of Hamilton.

Jeff Neven

Jeff is the Director of Operations for Homestead Christian Care. He lives with his wife and three children in central Hamilton where they are active in the community and in New Hope Church. Jeff has worked in a variety of social service organizations, mostly focused on grass roots community development and mental health. In the last six years, Jeff has been part of a team that has grown Homestead Christian Care from a small charity supporting 7 people to an organization providing recovery-focused supportive housing to over 150 people in Hamilton and Woodstock, Ontario.

Jeff is currently completing a Masters of Social Work at Wilfred Laurier University focusing on Community, Policy, Planning and Organizations. Jeff is also the Secretary/Treasurer of the Board for the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton.

Crystle Numan

Crystle Numan currently lives car free in Hamilton with her husband Dave. Her passion for God’s creation was ignited by her Chemistry professor at Redeemer University College. She has worked for the Evangelical Environmental Network, raising creation care awareness among American Evangelicals, eaten only local food for a month, participates in Community Support Agriculture and is keenly interested in the relationship between economics, the environment and poverty.

Greg Reader

Greg’s love for the city has developed over 20 years with International Teams (IT) in Europe and Asia. He spent two years in Manila helping to develop training for Filipinos in mission, and 17 years in Austria, including 5 years as IT Europe Regional Coordinator. He and his family joined the IT Hamilton Team in June 2004, adding Hamilton to the list of cities that have captured their hearts.

Steve Rolfe

Steven Rolfe R.N., BScN, CPRP: Steven is the Director of Education and Community Development for Homestead Christian Care. He is a Registered Nurse with many years of clinical experience in mental health. He is a clinical instructor with the McMaster School of Nursing. Steven is currently completing his Master’s Degree in Education at Brock University. He is involved in a variety of community development, advocacy and networking activities at the local, provincial and national level.

 

Steven lives with his wife and three children in Ancaster. He is a member of the parish of St. John’s Anglican Church. He comes with a deep and abiding interest in community based outreach ministries.

Clayton Rowe

W. Clayton Rowe (M.Div, Th. M.) has been with World Vision Canada since 2002. He is currently the National Manager of Canadian Programs. Currently, World Vision Canada (WVC) is working with 42 organizations across Canada and partnering around 50 projects. WVC is working with 3 partners in Hamilton.

During the last two years Clayton has been on the core team of a inner city church plant in downtown Toronto. He has also launched a non-profit to work in the area of leadership development with youth in his neighbourhood.

Al Roxburgh

Alan Roxburgh is a pastor, teacher, writer and consultant with more than 30 years experience in church leadership, consulting and seminary education. Alan has pastored congregations in a small town, the suburbs, the re-development of a downtown urban church and the planting other congregations. He has directed an urban training center and served as a seminary professor and the director of a center for mission and evangelism. Alan teaches as an adjunct professor in seminaries in the USA, Australia and Europe. His books include: Reaching a New Generation , Leadership, Liminality and the Missionary Congregation , Crossing the Bridge: Leadership in a Time of Change , The Sky is Falling – Leaders Lost in Transition and The Missional Leader. He was also a member of the writing team that authored Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America.

Alan is working with the Allelon in the formation of leaders for the missional/emergent church. His Roxburgh Journal is a regular feature that offers commentary and perspective on the global missional church movement. Through Allelon, Alan manages an international project, the Mission in Western Culture Project, a multi-year project to address the question of mission in Western culture from the perspective of the local church and its context, and the implications for leadership development. He also manages the Missional Schools Project. This project involves some twenty diverse schools and seminaries from across North America addressing how it is we train a new generation of leaders for the contexts in which we now find ourselves.

Alan also leads conferences and seminars with denominations, congregations and seminaries across North America, Australia and the UK as well as consulting with these groups in the areas of leadership for missional transformation. Alan has been a leader in the Gospel and Our Culture Network where he was involved in the Lilly Endowment funded research project Innovating Missional Systems.

When not traveling or writing Alan enjoys mountain biking, hiking, cooking and hanging out with Jane and their five grandchildren as well as drinking great coffee in the Pacific North West.

E-mail:alanjroxburgh@gmail.com

Mark Sinke

 

Mark has worked with SIM Canada in various capacities in India and North America, training people in cross cultural ministry. He has also been involved with churches in Hamilton developing ministries for refugees and immigrants at Philpott Church, First CRC, and with the Ride for Refugees.

Mark Soderquist

Mark graduated from Taylor in 1980 with a degree in Business Administration. Upon graduation, he worked for a year at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and then joined Operation Mobilization where he served in various capacities for the next five years. His work with OM included: evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development in India and Nepal; providing shelter and food to Afghan refugees in Pakistan; and training churches and teams for evangelism in Sri Lanka and England. He also traveled for a year as a special assistant to George Verwer, the founder and director of Operation Mobilization.

After earning a Masters Degree from Wheaton Graduate School, Mark founded a new ministry with International Teams focused on partnering with Ethnic Churches in underserved urban communities. As the Director of International Teams Urban & Ethnic Ministries, Mark overseas missionaries working with Cambodian, Vietnamese, Iranian, Afghan, Pakistani, Indian, African-American, and Mexican-American churches in Chicago, Elgin, Philadelphia, Boston, Long Beach, Fresno, Los Angeles, and SW Michigan. International Teams Urban & Ethnic Ministries is committed to working in partnership with ethnic churches to see lives transformed by the power of Jesus Christ through evangelism, discipleship, leadership development and youth ministry while cooperating in the economic, social and educational development of the community.

Mark, his wife, Jennifer, and their sons Dane (14) and Anders (10), have lived in an inner city neighborhood in Chicago for the past 17 years. Jennifer is a singer, composer and worship leader as well as a College Volleyball coach. Their ministry involvement also includes leading short-term sports ministry trips to Guatemala, Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and Hong Kong.

Beth Terpstra

Beth Terpstra is currently the Worship Coordinator at First Christian Reformed Church in Hamilton. She has been working at the church for several years, and she plans and leads worship there regularly. Beth has a BA in Theology and Theatre Arts from Dordt College. She lives in Hamilton with her husband Paul.

Lynda Tracy

Lynda Tracy, a former Registered Nurse and retired music therapist, is a graduate of Tyndale Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in counselling. She also holds Associate diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music in teaching of piano and singing.  She has worked in the past in Medical Nursing, as piano teacher and accompanist for singers and dancers, as Administrative Coordinator of the national office of the Canadian Association for Music Therapy, as Coordinator of Supervision for the Music Therapy Program at Wilfrid Laurier University, and most recently in private practice as a music therapist.  She is currently the Community Mental Health Coordinator at First Hamilton Christian Reformed Church, where she enjoys cultivating friendships with people with mental illness and other disabilities. Lynda lives in Kitchener and her interests include her grandson, her garden, her cat, reading, writing, knitting and crocheting, and keeping up with her geographically scattered friends via  email and Messenger!