Kaylene has been involved in both short- and long-term missions, helping to plant churches in Birmingham (Ala.), and Halle, Germany. Kaylene also traveled to South America with a drama team and led a youth coffee house in the Netherlands. She considers communication one of her passions, and has written and produced two plays. Kaylene enjoys leading worship with her husband, Jimm, and loves being a mother to her daughter, Helena.
Special focus: stories on stewardship and missions giving.
Along with the Harrisburg Discipleship Center staff, Chris mentors and trains youth who are preparing for short-term missions. Chris has a heart for ministry and has helped to develop closer ties between the discipleship center and the surrounding inner-city neighborhood. He lives across the street from the discipleship center with his wife, Katie, and their children.
Special focus: stories of short-term mission; God’s love: the motivation for all mission; discipleship; relationship with God; and God as a loving Father.
Dave Harnish has more than 20 years of missions involvement in going, training, and sending. He believes that a passion for missions must grow out of a deep, vibrant relationship with God. Dave served with short-term YES teams in France and Haiti, and he also directed the Baltimore Discipleship Center. Later he was involved in sending the first YES teams to Central Asia and continues to have a particular love for that region. Currently, Dave is the mission internships administrator at Eastern Mennonite Missions and serves as the pastor of Marietta Community Chapel. He and his wife, Brenda, live in Landisville, Pa., with their two sons.
Special focus: stories of short-term mission; God’s heart for missions; and the journey of discipleship.
In his role as facility manager, Galen is responsible for all aspects of the physical plant, grounds, and office machines at EMM’s central administrative offices, and he oversees the mailroom. He has a passion to “see believers work and serve together for the one great and all important cause, knowing God and making Jesus known to all the earth and not be divided over issues that we place as more important than that one all important purpose.” Galen and his wife Jolie are the parents of three grown children.
Special focus: missionary stories of God at work; and our call to take Jesus to the world.
Darrel and his wife, Sherill, previously served with EMM for 11 years in Swaziland. During his time there he worked with African indigenous churches where he was involved in leadership training, marriage enrichment, youth and discipleship ministries, and encouragement to pastors. He has pastored for over 5 years in the U.S. and is trained as a spiritual director. Darrel has experienced very positive mission and pastoral roles, as well as having experienced pain, conflict, and loss in those roles. These experiences have given him empathy for those struggling and hope for healing and health which God wants for us all.
Special focus: missions (listening for God’s heart and dream); ministry in a postmodern world; spiritual formation, marriage enrichment, sexuality (God’s creation, our temptations), building team, and healing (conflict, pain, and loss).
Sherill has served as co-director of Human Resources since 2000. She and her husband, Darrel, previously served with EMM for 12 years in Swaziland. During her time there she engaged in leadership training in African Indigenous Churches and facilitated the start of an AIDS prevention and treatment center. She also has experience as a pastor, spiritual director, and facilitator in conflict mediation and team building. She and Darrel have three adult children.
Special focus: stories from Swaziland; spiritual formation; biblical vision for mission; and postmodern missions.
Gerry focuses on the ways EMM administration can best help ministry to happen. He works on the implementation and planning of mission vision within EMM. Gerry also serves as a non-resident missionary to Vietnam along with his wife Donna. Having been connected in some way with EMM for more than 30 years, he and his family most recently served as missionaries in Vietnam for 12 years. He continues to work with theological education and leadership development in Vietnam. Gerry and Donna along with their two daughters, Viktoria and Yen Elizabeth, live in Lancaster, Pa.
Special focus: mission stories from Vietnam; call of missions; and life journey in ministry.
As EMM’s seventh president, Nelson looks forward to “participating in re-envisioning of mission for the next generation.” Born and raised in Kenya, Nelson interacted with the Kenya Mennonite Church and the EMM mission community in Nairobi. He is fluent in English, Kiswahili, and Luo. He has participated in numerous short-term cross-cultural mission experiences; he and his wife, Jessica, served at the Mennonite Theological College of Eastern Africa in 2004. He most recently served as the lead pastor at Capital Christian Fellowship in Lanham, Maryland. Nelson and Jessica are the parents of two young sons, Barak and Izak.
Special focus: Anabaptist witness and mission; Christian discipleship and virtue formation; unique mission opportunities and challenges in the 21st century; and engaging in postmodern dialogue.
As the pioneering coach, Steve trains and encourages EMM’s regional representatives in various pioneering locations around the world. He, along with his wife Rose, planted three churches in Latin America and two in Pennsylvania. For over ten years he worked as a consultant, helping churches and church networks develop vision and implementation strategies for mission and church planting ventures. Steve has taught in mission training schools, short-term missions preparations, colleges, leadership training schools, and graduate schools in the areas of missions, church planting, and leadership development.
Special focus: stories of Latin America; mobilizing the local church; giving heart-to-heart; and youth and children’s mission education.
As a child of EMM missionaries, David was born and raised in Tanzania. David and his wife Grace served in Somalia, Kenya, and Lithuania, including helping to develop Lithuania Christian College. For most years since 1980 David has been engaged with EMM in administrative leadership and then more recently as global consultant. He is especially concerned with equipping Christians to bear faithful witness to Christ within a world of many religions, including Islam. That commitment has taken him to more than 100 countries. He is the author of many books, including A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue and Journeys of the Muslim Nation and the Christian Church: Exploring the Mission of Two Communities. His latest writings are Teatime in Mogadishu and Fifty-Two Questions that People Ask Christians. David and Grace are parents of four children who have blessed them with 7 grandchildren.
Special focus: Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ; sharing the gospel with Muslims; and Christ-centered peacemaking in a world of many religions and ideologies.
With her husband, Richard, Jewel has served in Kenya, Turkey, Cyprus, and with multiple church plants in the United States. Her experience in missions began at a young age, as her parents were missionaries in Ethiopia for almost twenty years. In 2009, she and Richard co-authored the book A Silk Road Pilgrimage: Discovering the Church of the East. Richard and Jewel are blessed with three children and many grandchildren.
Special focus: mission storytelling; the whole gospel; hospitality; and women’s retreats.
Ryan focuses on engaging young people in missions and discipleship. He is developing YES program in a new direction, so that training occurs around the globe and teams are made up of international members. He has personal experience in short-term missions, having served in both Connecticut and Wales. Ryan has a background in youth ministry and has also worked with Youth for Christ. His passion is to see young adults released into missions – raised up in discipleship and growing in simple, dynamic, and personal relationships with God. Ryan and his wife, Jen, live in Lancaster, Pa.
Special focus: stories of youth in mission; God’s heart for mission; and hungering for God with our head, heart, and hands.
As partnership coach, Amos supervises and coaches the field-based regional representatives in partnering locations – those locations with an established church presence. He provides pastoral care and support and empowers them to implement EMM vision and strategy in their setting. He also works with EMM partner churches and agencies around the world. For three years, Amos and his wife Rowena led EMM GO! teams to various parts of the world, and most recently they served with their son, Dirgham, in India for five years. Before serving with EMM, Amos pastored Rockville Mennonite Church (Honey Brook, Pa.) for 23 years.
Special focus: Stories from India; and partnership in missions.
In 1992, Antonio, his wife Patricia, and their two sons moved to the U.S. from their native Honduras in response to a calling to work with the Mennonite churches of North America. He was a church planter in Allentown, Pa., and now works with EMM as a church consultant, mainly in the area of Natural Church Development. Before coming to the U.S., Antonio was the academic dean of the Christian Education Center of the Amor Viviente churches in Honduras, as well as a worship program director and an associate pastor. He holds a master’s of Divinity degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary.
Special focus: Natural Church Development; need-oriented evangelism; dying to self, living for Christ; hearing God; and the purpose-driven church.