Who We Are

Dan and Francine Thomas live in Southern Pines, North Carolina, where they attend Christ Community Church, a member of the Evangelical Free Church of America. Dan, a retired Army officer, is currently working as a contractor for the Army Program Management Office on Ft. Bragg. Francine retired as speechwriter for the Army Surgeon General and private industry several years ago. She holds an MA degree in Communication as well as an MA degree in Religion. The Thomas’ have six children and fourteen grandchildren.

Dan and Francine were first introduced to the Empower ministry in 2008 when they attended Carrie Miles’ training course held at Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia. In May 2012 they traveled to Kondoa, Tanzania, for the installation of the new bishop, Rev. Given Gaula, and to conduct two NMNW workshops for pastors, lay leaders and spouses. To date, they have facilitated a number of workshops for the diocese and plan to organize more in the future.

Initial interest in Africa came through a providential meeting with Bishop Given and Lilian Gaula, natives of Dodoma, Tanzania, when the couple came to the States to attend Virginia Theological Seminary and Trinity School for Ministry respectively. From their first “chance” encounter grew an enduring friendship and bond in the Lord. It wasn’t until their first trip to Tanzania in 2007, however, that they realized an overwhelming need to bring Christ’s message of redemption, restoration and equality through the Empower program to a people so bound by cultural biases and destructive relational practices.

When Dan and Francine first introduced the “New Man, New Woman, New Life” instructional material to Given and Lilian, it was received with great joy. In fact, Lilian wept. “At last someone sees into the African woman’s heart,” she cried. It was only natural, then, that they would ask for this teaching to be brought to their homeland. As a result, Lilian now uses the NMNW curriculum as part of her regular Bible School instruction for students attending the school there in Kondoa. She has also established a Women’s Empowerment Center on the diocesan compound where women and occasionally men come for six months of literacy, Bible and life-skill classes. Many of the women are graduates of the NMNW course.

Francine is currently completing a book based on the stories of God’s intervention, guidance and protection in the lives of the Gaula’s and their mothers. Plans are to have it in publication this fall.

Carrie Miles holds a doctorate in social and organizational psychology from the University of Chicago, and wrote her thesis on religion, social change, and the roles of women and men, a subject on which she continues to do research. Her book, The Redemption of Love: Rescuing Marriage and Sexuality from the Economics of a Fallen World, was published by Brazos Press in 2006. Her previous book, Male and Female in Christ (with Linda Ikeda), has been reprinted in Kampala and has being translated into Kirundi, the local African language spoken in Rwanda and Burundi, and into Finnish. Her latest, New Man, New Woman, New Life (available in English, Kirundi, Swahili, Luganda, Rukiga, French, Tamil, Guarati and Ao-Naga) is the basis for the Empower seminars. You can purchase her latest book, Face-to-Face: Discover the joy of relationships built on mutual respect, equality, and compassionate love on Amazon.

Carrie has worked extensively in Africa and India and has also led seminars in Haiti.

Dr. Miles is a senior scholar in residence at Chapman University in Orange, California and a non-resident fellow at the Institute for the Studies of Religion at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. She has two grown children.

Sarah holds an MBA and a Ph.D. in Accounting from Michigan State University. She is dean of the business school at the University of Oregon, and a founding director of Empower.  Sarah, along with her husband David, has three sons and four grandchildren and lives in Eugene, Oregon.

David Nutter holds an M.A. in medical geography from Michigan State University. He currently works in the International Studies program at the University of Oregon. He is married to Sarah Nutter and they have three sons and four grandchildren.

Linda Ikeda has been a licensed marriage, family and child therapist since 1993. She has been in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1978 and was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Washington in 1972 and worked as a pediatric and newborn intensive care nurse in a variety of hospital settings for fifteen years. She keeps her RN license active and up to date.

Linda earned her master’s degree in counseling from the University of San Francisco in 1989. She also has studied at Fuller Theological Seminary, Regent’s University and Princeton Seminary. She has received specialty training in EMDR, trauma resolution and working with children and families impacted by attachment trauma.

Linda has led women’s’, adolescents’, staff and children’s groups. She has conducted workshops for church retreats, parenting groups, counseling interns and trainees, and multi-cultural community centers on a variety of topics, some of which are: self-esteem, parenting of adolescents, parenting of special needs children, attachment disorder, adolescent psychopathology and integrating faith with psychology.

In addition to her clinical work, Linda has been involved in a teaching, training and therapy ministry with the Chi Rho Corporation which offers assistance to the House of New Life, an orphanage for HIV+ children, in Constanta, Romania; with Child Hope International in Nepal; and most currently with Empower International Ministries in several African countries.

Linda’s program for caregivers of abused, neglected and abandoned children, Created to Belong, is in great demand both in African and the United States. She added her program, Healing from Trauma, in 2010.

She and her husband Russ have two grown sons and two grandchildren. Linda strives to let her Christian faith informs all that she is and all that she does.

Bill Stefan currently serves as the Chair of the Empower Ministries Audit Committee  Bill is a retired Army Officer, former Senior Managing Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and currently is a financial management Senior Executive in the federal government.  He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), and Certified Government Financial Manager

Patty Houser is a speaker, teacher and defender of the Christian faith and has a passion for helping women and children discover God’s uncontainable love for them through the thin, crisp pages of the Scriptures. She also has a passion for teaching them how to share and defend their faith in a culture that uses the end of reason as a reason for rejecting God’s truth. Patty holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Minnesota and is currently working on her Masters of Arts degree in Christian Apologetics at Biola University in La Mirada, California. Patty is a member of the International Society of Christian Apologetics and is also a graduate of the Proverbs 31 Ministries’ 2005 and 2006 Speaker’s and Writer’s Conference.

Patty resides in the Washington D.C. area with her husband and son and loves to study and play classical piano. She also enjoys hiking, biking and traveling with her family in God’s extraordinary creation.

Betsy Anderson is a spiritual director in San Jose, California and specializing in spiritual formation.

Betsy accompanied EIM to Uganda in 2008, where she led evening vespers and supported Created to Belong programs.

Dan and Francine Thomas live in Southern Pines, North Carolina, where they attend Christ Community Church, a member of the Evangelical Free Church of America. Dan, a retired Army officer with an MS in Systems Management, is currently working as a contractor for the Army Program Management Office on Ft. Bragg. Francine retired as speechwriter for the Army Surgeon General and private industry several years ago. She holds an MA degree in Communication as well as an MA degree in Religion. The Thomas’ have six children and fourteen grandchildren.

Dan and Francine were first introduced to the Empower ministry in 2008 when they attended Carrie Miles’ training course held at Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia. In May 2012 they traveled to Kondoa, Tanzania, for the installation of the new bishop, Rev. Given Gaula, and to conduct two NMNW workshops for pastors, lay leaders and spouses. To date, they have facilitated a number of workshops for the diocese and plan to organize more in the future.

Initial interest in Africa came through a providential meeting with Bishop Given and Lilian Gaula, natives of Dodoma, Tanzania, when the couple came to the States to attend Virginia Theological Seminary and Trinity School for Ministry respectively. From their first “chance” encounter grew an enduring friendship and bond in the Lord. It wasn’t until their first trip to Tanzania in 2007, however, that they realized an overwhelming need to bring Christ’s message of redemption, restoration and equality through the Empower program to a people so bound by cultural biases and destructive relational practices.

When Dan and Francine first introduced the “New Man, New Woman, New Life” instructional material to Given and Lilian, it was received with great joy. In fact, Lilian wept. “At last someone sees into the African woman’s heart,” she cried. It was only natural, then, that they would ask for this teaching to be brought to their homeland. As a result, Lilian now uses the NMNW curriculum as part of her regular Bible School instruction for students attending the school there in Kondoa. She has also established a Women’s Empowerment Center on the diocesan compound where women and occasionally men come for six months of literacy, Bible and life-skill classes. Many of the women are graduates of the NMNW course.

Francine is currently completing a book based on the stories of God’s intervention, guidance and protection in the lives of the Gaula’s and their mothers. Plans are to have it in publication this fall.

Keri Wyatt Kent writes content for our Empower blog, newsletters, and social media, and consults on communication strategy. Keri is the president of A Powerful Story, a writing services company in the Chicago area. She’s the author (or co-author) of more than 20 books, and works with large and small organizations to help them tell their story and expand their platform. She is a member of Willow Creek Community Church, where she volunteers as a response pastor.

Sally left the high tech industry in 2008 when her avocation became her vocation. She is Pastor of Adult Ministries at Saratoga Federated Church, responsible for spiritual formation and discipleship, adult education, men’s and women’s ministries, and small groups. She is an “active contemplative” pastor who loves to travel, and has made numerous trips to Africa with Empower.

Aimee McKone is a vice-president and private banker at Wells Fargo Bank in San Jose, California.  She also serves on the board of Opera San Jose.  Aimee made her first trip for Empower in 2010, leading seminars in Malawi and Zambia. She has returned several times since.

Anita Coleman is a wife, mother, writer, and independent scholar who lives in southern California and enjoys electronics, gardens, and books. She is the recipient of a 2006 award from the Library of Congress for her pioneering work with metadata education and a 2007 Library Journal Movers & Shakers award, given to those shaping the future of libraries. Anita’s passion for intellectual access and freedom of information received new life when she began to follow Jesus 24/7 and she has published many books and blogs about this. Path of Grace, her first children’s book, was published in 2015. Anita is a friend of Pravaham: A Community for Peace and Justice in rural south India.

Donell Peck has been working with Empower since her first time trip to Kenya in July 2012. Donell is a long time member of Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana, CA, where she currently is the Mission Education team leader. A graduate of Mills College in Oakland, CA, Donell has a degree in Political, Legal, and Economic Analysis and has worked with many cultures in the classroom. With her experience of mission work throughout the world, she puts hands and feet to her belief in Jesus Christ and His word for all. Empower Ministries is a perfect fit as she meets God’s call. She is the wife of Bill Peck, the mother of grown daughters Lynn and Susan, and the proud grandmother of Katie.

Wayne Pelly has served in missions leadership at churches in southeast Washington State for well over a decade, working as an organizer, motivator, educator and sender. He currently serves as a missions elder at his home church.

He is particularly interested in the integration of New Testament studies and missiology as tools for equipping Christians for more effective understanding of our world and participation in our mission in it.

He holds an M.Div from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, and completed undergrad studies at Emmanuel Christian Seminary in Johnson City, TN and San Jose Christian College (now William Jessup University in Rocklin), in California. He has also served pastorates in Kentucky and Washington.

Wayne’s introduction to context-accurate New Testament study was at Emmanuel Seminary under S. Scott Bartchy, whose work as a New Testament historian undergirds much of the biblical analysis found in Empower’s materials on Jesus.

He has been married to Pam since 1973 and has two married children and three grandchildren.

Laura is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has a private psychotherapy practice in San Francisco, CA. She completed her Master of Arts degree in Mental Health Counseling Psychology at Boston College and earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She became interested in trauma and attachment issues while working with adolescent foster youth and juvenile offenders in the Bay Area. She is looking forward to teaching Created to Belong during her first trip to Rwanda and Burundi in June and July, 2011.

Pastor Frank is senior pastor of the Church Fellowship Church in Kabale, Uganda, and regional overseer for World Evangelical Ministries.  He has traveled to Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the United States teaching Empower material on family harmony.

Frank is married to Phobice Tweheyo, who is also a pastor. Phobice has conducted New Man, New Woman, New Life seminars in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria and worked with Created to Belong in Kigali and Burundi.