The Team

Some of you have been curious who I’m with here in Africa. So I did a few bios for ya’ll.

The team…
Gio is a sophomore in Elementary Education at Southeastern University in Florida, but originally from Cleveland. He has been taking 4 online classes while we’ve been in Africa (lots of work!). He wants to teach little kiddies in Africa and start an orphanage here someday. He has a huge heart to teach every child how important they are to God. The kids love him and we do too! He’s all about “peace and love” and loves anything hippy-ish, minus the drugs of course. He is also crazy about a girl named Anna Strong who is currently doing missions with YWAM in Australia. I’m really proud of them for following God even though it meant different countries and minimal communication for awhile. Can’t wait to meet her!

Jeff just finished high school and is from Cincinnati. He will be going to school at Union University in Tennessee this fall to study English Lit. He is your very intelligent, practical, competitive guy. He is also a boyscout, which he does not like being explained by (to which I reassure him I was a girl scout in college), but it does help explain his outdoor hardiness if you will. He is extremely self-sufficient in some of our roughing-it conditions and always a great bug killer when in a bind. Jeff and Gio have gotten very close and I think will be BFF’s for life.

Lauren is from Albuquerque and a junior at New Mexico State. She is taking the semester off from school, where she is studying Speech Pathology. Lauren is one of the sweetest, most servant-hearted people I have met. You basically have to force her to sit down, stay out of the kitchen, or stop cleaning and tidying up. She is a very skilled photographer (yay!) and has a hardcore camera in tow. But she does have thiss Jen Oberhausen spirit to her where if she doesn’t feel like taking pictures, she’s not going to do it gosh darnit. (haha I love you jenny!) Lauren is really good with the children, and very much a mother at heart.

Hillary just finished high school and is from Cincinnati as well. (Hillary and Jeff grew up together and went through the same home schooling program. Both very sharp people!!) Hillary comes from a big Italian family with lots of artistic and cooking genes built into her! She is a ridiculously good artist and would love to someday use art in the missions context. She will be attending Anderson University this fall (wahoo Indiana!) which is very exciting because she has been trying to decide on a college while here in Africa. I can’t wait to have real Italian pasta with Hil’s family someday. :) Hillary is the chatty Kathy of the group :) and , in my opinion, very mature for having just graduated high school.

Our leaders…
Vanessa is 32, born and raised in Fort Lauderdale (wouldn’t that be nice!). She studied psychology in college and has done a variety of work since then. I’m so thankful for Vanessa’s leadership because her down to earth, fun-loving personality totally set the tone for our group to be open and real from the start. She is a good cook, good delegator, good communicator, and awesome off-road driver. Vanessa is always making us laugh.

Ryan is 32 as well and is originally from Fresno, California. He has been with BoH for several years and has a huge heart for Africa. He gave up his consistent, steady paycheck job (at the firm in Erin Brachovich) to follow God’s calling on his heart to missions. He will be staying here in Africa for the summer intern team after we’re gone. It will be weird not having him on the plane ride home. Ryan is our behind-the-scenes leader. He takes care of a lot of the BoH details- budget, reports, etc. Ryan is an awesome cook and we are always excited when it’s his dinner night!

Leah is 29 and lives permanently at the farm here in South Africa (though a native of Toledo). She has been with Book of Hope for 8 years leading teams around the world and is now stationed in Africa full-time. She loves the people here and is very good at building relationships in the community. She decides where we go, when we go, and how we go… she is in charge of setting our entire schedule and connecting us with the nationals we have been working with. Leah is an awesome story teller and always has us laughing.

(Gio and Jeff wrote this about Renee. She was not allowed to edit.) For all you who don’t personally know her…Renee is from Fort Wayne, Indiana and graduated from Purdue this past May with a degree in psychology. She is the fun, bubbly, giggly one of the group. She has said many memorable quotes…you can ask her to explain them. You can tell she really has a heart for following God and desiring His plan for her life. She has stepped out many times and shared at different times (youth group meetings, church services) and she always has deep and impactful insight. She also connects with the secondary learners a lot and you can tell she has a passion for them. Renee makes us laugh a lot. Well, she laughs a lot naturally…and it is just contagious. Random, you should all ask her about “Smooth Moves” sometime…that’ll be a good story. She is definitely the African Queen here! All the guys flock to her. We usually have to beat them off with sticks…as all good brothers do. We have been looking out for her. It’s very funny and we play it up all the time. We love her like a big sis! You are all lucky and blessed to have her in your life.

Haha, thanks little bros. So that’s our story. I’m very thankful for each of these people and the way God brought us together as a team. The experience would be quite different without them.