Don and Dana Larimer have been a part of the Grace Church family since June of 2005. They have served together in Marriage Builders small groups, men’s and women’s discipleship groups, special needs events, fellowship committee, and Dana served on the women’s leadership team and Don served as an elder. A strong call for discipling young adults grew during their time at Grace and as they served with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries’ On Eagles’ Wings teams every summer.
On November 2 of 2020 Don and Dana were led to full-time ministry with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries’ On Eagles’ Wings and moved to Arkansas to serve as the administrator and dean of students for the new On Eagles’ Wings Discipleship Center. The mission of the residential center is to provide discipleship and training to committed Native leaders equipping them to be lifetime Jesus-followers, prepared with the skills and strategies needed for Native ministry and assistance in placement for a lifetime career in ministry.
Please pray with them that the Lord will raise up the first Jesus-Generation of Native America led by fully equipped Native leaders, transforming Native communities through the power of Christ’s Gospel and their Christlike lives.
Ray & Bobbi have been members of Grace Church for 25 years, with Ray serving on the Elder Board and on staff as the Pastor of Outreach and Shepherding for over 21 years. They also served together in our Biblical Counseling, Special Needs & FLOCK ministries. Together they served in Iraqi Kurdistan for six months reaching out to the Kurdish people.
As Global Outreach Pastor, Ray was involved in equipping & sending Global Workers. His position on staff also afforded Ray (and Bobbi) the opportunity to lead evangelistic teams to serve alongside our workers in several countries. Ray taught systematic theology in Armenia twice per year for 20 years.
Ray retired from Grace Church in April 2020, but through an old friend, the Lord called Ray to serve again in Global Outreach. In October, Ray began serving as the Vice President for Church Planting with the To Every Tribe missions agency, located in Los Fresnos, Texas. Ray will be working with current field staff and new trainees to plant churches among unreached peoples.
Grace Church has had a longstanding relationship with Steve and Heather Lestonwhich began in 1989 when Steve began attending. At Grace Church, Steve served as the Youth Pastor, College Pastor, director of the training program called Ministry Preparation Course (MPC) and Local Outreach Coordinator. He met his wife Heather in 1991 when they served together in the youth ministry. They were married at Grace in 1994. In 1997 Grace Church sent Steve, Heather and their daughter Anna to Alaska to work in a church in the Southeast panhandle. From 2003 to 2016, Steve left Alaska and became the teaching pastor at our sister church, Kishwaukee Bible Church (KBC - a church he helped plant in the early 90's). Out of KBC, a mission to the First Nations peoples in Northwest Ontario began. This is what led Steve to develop a relationship with To Every Tribe.
In the summer of 2016, Steve Leston responded to God's call to take a new role: Director of the Center for Pioneer Church Planting (CPCP). The CPCP is To Every Tribe’s training center through which missionaries are trained to do pioneering work–to take the Good News of Jesus to places without a gospel presence. In 2018 Steve became president/ CEO of the ministry. Steve’s life and ministry are driven by a desire to help people understand the Scriptures and experience the deep and life-changing transformation that comes from the Word of God so that they would participate in the mission of extending the church to the ends of the earth. Grace Church became Steve's sending church in the Spring 2021. Steve and Heather have four adult children, Anna, Amber, Alyssa and Anderw.
We are blessed to have Theresa Kerns serving with us from the states as she supports the work God is doing through Josiah Venture from their home office in Wheaton, IL. Theresa began serving full-time with Josiah Venture as Human Resource Director in 2002. Theresa builds relationships with Josiah Venture team members by providing admin assistance to those on the field and by preparing new workers for the field. She also spends time visiting the JV women overseas, encouraging and helping the women better serve the Lord, their families, and the nationals.
In addition to her work in Eastern Europe, Theresa has also conducted women’s seminars in Israel in conjunction with the Kashtan Family.
In October of 2019, the Lord laid on the hearts of Pastor Charles Butler, his wife Donna, and Pastor Steve Mason and his wife Kerri, to begin a congregation in the city center of Chicago. Both the Masons and the Butlers made Chicago their home for well over 30 years and have a deep love for this city. While the Masons have now gone on to pastor at a church in Winnetka, the Butlers continue to serve and lead Hope Church. Hope Church is in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood, a few blocks south and west of the Medical District, and minutes from I-290 and I-94. This is a burgeoning area comprising multiethnic, socioeconomic, and generational diversity.
Their goal is to develop a church where God’s people are nourished and equipped by in-depth preaching of God’s Word and engaging worship, and then are faithful witnesses of Christ as they move through the city.
GO-USA Updates & Prayer Requests
