In 2000, long-time elder and Fox Valley Church attender Bruce Strom left a highly successful law practice to start Administer Justice, which provides free civil legal assistance to low income individuals and families. What started in the Chicagoland area has now reached across the nation with more than 100 legal clinics.
Refuge for Women is a residential healing and recovery program for survivors of human-trafficking. Refuge was founded in January 2009 in Lexington, KY, by Ked and Michelle Frank. In 2014, Ked was looking to open a branch in Chicago and reached out to Fox Valley attender Karen Schultz, who has served as the RFW Chicago City Director since then. The RFW Chicago-area home opened in October 2016 and received the first residents in November 2016.
Alliance Family Services is a ministry working daily to offer hope and support to women and families through free medical, material, emotional and spiritual support, helping them choose and value life. Those who come are often desperate and confused; they find a place of safety and a caring staff.
Caring for the needs of children and orphans is deeply important to the heart of God. Engaging in adoption, foster care, and Safe Families fills life with beauty and joy, but it can be difficult and challenging work. Parents and families often struggle and need support.
Replanted provides support to adoptive and foster families and those considering it, and empowers the church to play an active role to help.
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God has equipped each of us with unique talents to make a meaningful impact on the mission field. Complete this brief survey to let us know how you might serve on a future short-term mission trip.
EFCA: GlobalFingerprints | Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cora Holloway serves as the EFCA’s GlobalFingerprints Tabitha Site Coordinator in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her work focuses on empowering vulnerable young women through the Tabitha Centers program, which provides life skills training in sewing, cooking, hairdressing, and cosmetics while offering biblical guidance and safe community spaces.
After discovering her calling to international ministry during her college studies in fashion merchandising and entrepreneurship, Cora developed a passion for serving vulnerable youth in Congo. Through her leadership, she aims to expand the Tabitha ministry throughout Kinshasa, providing alternatives to exploitation while strengthening local churches.
Fun Fact: When not coordinating programs, Cora enjoys outdoor adventures including rock climbing, hiking, and roller skating.
INTERNATIONAL TEAMS | PHILIPPINES
In 2000, the Lord called Ana to serve Him. She worked as a missionary in Vietnam for 18 years, ministering to young people, serving in the Filipino church, teaching discipleship classes, and leading mission teams from the Filipino church in Vietnam.
In July 2019, Ana returned to the Philippines to be close to her elderly mother. Back in her home country, she continued her work as a missions mobilizer with International Teams. In her current role, Ana serves as a trainer for Access 2 and Ignite the Nation, missionary training programs that aim to train and send new long-term missionaries to the mission field.
Fun fact: Ana and her mom love dogs and live with 17 canine companions!
HEART OF HOPE | CAMBODIA
Coleen Briggs serves as Heart of Hope’s (HOH) assistant director/donor relations manager. HOH works with at-risk children and families on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where many local children suffer from abuse and exploitation and do not attend school. In December 2007, Coleen and the current HOH director, Bic, began teaching the children basic academic skills, health and safety lessons, and sharing the Good News of Jesus.
Coleen speaks conversational Vietnamese and has served in Hong Kong for 5 years, Vietnam for 3 years, and Cambodia for 17 years.
Fun Fact: Coleen dreams of writing a book about how God transformed an ordinary country girl from Muskegon, MI into a woman thriving in Southeast Asia!
EFCA: REACH GLOBAL | NORTHWEST SUBURBS OF CHICAGO
Mark and Cathy Kato grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and met while studying missions at Moody Bible Institute. They have been married for 25 years and have two children, Hannah and Joshua.
Mark serves with Apex, the student missions’ program for the EFCA, to help equip the local church by mobilizing the next generation of gospel influencers to take the gospel from here to everywhere. Cathy serves with GlobalFingerprints, EFCA’s child sponsorship ministry, which equips the church to be transformational in the lives of vulnerable children, opening doors to strengthen, revitalize, and plant churches.
SEND INTERNATIONAL | POLAND
Brett and Michelle Hamilton have been serving in Wroclaw, Poland, since 1995. They helped plant the city’s third Polish Baptist church and later joined the International Church of Wroclaw (INCW). Brett served as Area Director for SEND International for Poland and the Czech Republic for five years. He is now the Missionary Pastor for INCW, where he preaches, mentors, and leads men’s discipleship groups.
Michelle leads women’s discipleship groups and manages greetings and hospitality. Together, they lead a couples and family group and offer pre-marital and marriage counseling.
Brett and Michelle have four adult children and 13 grandchildren!
Fun Fact: Brett and Michelle attended seminary with Pastor Tom and Cathy Atchison at TEDS!
BUDAPEST CITY TEAM | BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
Matyas and Kate are a Hungarian-American family serving with the Budapest City Team in Budapest, Hungary. Kate and Matyas were married in Budapest in 2015 and have two awesome kids.
Matyas and Kate have been in missions for over 10 years, formerly in Kyiv, Ukraine, and are grateful to serve now in Hungary, which is Matyas’ home country. Matyas and Kate work to create initiatives that enhance the church and increase Gospel outreach opportunities. As former ministers in Ukraine, discipling local Ukrainians remains integral to their work. They serve in international and Hungarian churches, where they disciple believers through worship, prayer, and sound teaching to see God’s transformational work in the Hungarians and internationals who call Budapest home.
Fun Fact: In their free time, Matyas and Kate enjoy music, being outdoors, reading, being creative, baking, and visiting Budapest’s famous thermal baths.
EFCA: REACH GLOBAL | CANADA
Jay serves as a church-planting catalyst. As a “church multiplier,” he assesses prospective church planters and provides them with training and coaching, and he helps develop systems to enable an increase in church plants.
Kathy also serves in the area of church planting by assessing and coaching church planters and their wives. She is also involved in women’s leadership development and worship ministry in their local church. Both Jay and Kathy work with a Quebec partner, C2C Collective.
Fun Fact: Parlez-vous français? Most of Quebec’s population speaks French, so Jay and Kathy’s ministry here is primarily in French.
We equip the church to be transformational in the lives of vulnerable children, opening doors to strengthen, revitalize and plant churches. We accomplish this through partnerships with individuals and US churches as well as national churches and church planters overseas.