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ELE PARROT, a Biblical Counselor by profession, is the Director of Member Care for the Paraclete Mission Group. She worked as a missionary in the Latin community with OCI for 12 years, has worked in women’s and children’s ministry in her local church and has also been involved in Christian Camping ministry. She continues to lead Bible studies and is the head Mentor Mom at Sun Valley Community Church in Gilbert, Arizona. In addition to Transforming Together, Ele has authored a Spanish-language musical, El Futboles es mi Vida as well as Spanish materials for use in Christian homes and Sunday School classes.Ele Parrot and her husband of 35 years, Don, the President and CEO of Finishers Project, have four grown children and three grandchildren.
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MANNY MILL is chief executive officer of Koinonia House® National Ministries (KHNM)m whose mission is to bridge the gap between the Christian inmate and the local church. For almost 25 years, KHNM has been facilitating the integration of the former inmate into the church, workplace, and society through biblical discipleship. Manny graduated from Wheaton College (B.A., M.A.) and has been privileged to proclaim the Gospel in churches, schools, conferences, and especially behind prison walls in the United States and abroad. The father of five adult children and grandfather of six, Manny resides with his wife, Barbara, in Wheaton, IL.
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RITA A. SCHULTE is a licensed professional counselor who specializes in the treatment of mental health disorders. In 2011, she created Heartline Radio, a broadcast show that addresses cutting-edge mental health issues and provides content to educate and equip listeners in how mental health affects our culture. Rita is frequent contributor to many publications and is the author of Shattered: Finding Hope and Healing through the Losses of Life; Imposter: Gain Confidence, Eradicate Shame and Become Who God Made You to Be, and Think This Not That: Rewiring Your Brain to Eliminate Toxic Thinking. She speaks around the country on mental health-related issues. She received her B.S. in psychology and her master's degree in counseling from Liberty University. Rita is no stranger to loss and suffering. In 2013, she lost her beloved husband to suicide and her world was decimated. She speaks candidly about this loss at her national workshops in the hope of helping others heal. Rita makes her home in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.
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DAVID BRICKNER is the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors for Jews for Jesus. He previously served as the Executive Director and CEO from 1996 – 2024. Born in Massachusetts to Jewish parents, he comes from five generations of Jewish followers of Messiah Yeshua. David considers himself living proof that following Jesus does not require abandoning one’s Jewish identity. David received his theological training at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and earned a BA in Judaica from Northeastern Illinois University. He went on to earn his MA in missiology with an emphasis on Jewish studies from the Fuller School of Intercultural Studies. He is the author of several books, including Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles, Future Hope—A Jewish Christian Look at the End of the World and Does the Jewish Bible Point to Jesus? David has been interviewed on secular and Christian national radio and television shows, including Larry King Live and In the Market with Janet Parshall. David is married to Sabra Brickner and is the proud father of Isaac, Ilana, and Sivan. He is also the proud grandfather of Norah, Levy, and Itai.
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MICHAEL EASLEY received his Bachelor of Science in education from Stephen F. Austin State University, and his Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. He served as Senior Pastor at Grand Prairie Bible Church and Immanuel Bible before becoming the eighth president of Moody Bible Institute. In January 2009, he became the Teaching Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Nashville, TN. Dr. Easley has authored two books: Interludes, Prayers and Reflections of a Servant’s Heart and The DaVinci Code Controversy. Dr. Easley and his wife, Cindy, were married in 1980, and together they are raising four children.
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HAROLD MYRA served as the CEO of Christianity Today International for 32 years. Under his leadership, the organization grew from one magazine to a communications company with a dozen magazines, copublished books, and a major Internet ministry. Myra started his journalistic career with "Youth for Christ" magazine, which under his leadership became "Campus Life" magazine. Author of five novels, numerous children's and nonfiction books, and hundreds of magazine articles, Myra has taught writing and publishing at the Wheaton College Graduate School in Illinois. He holds honorary doctorates from several colleges, including Biola University in California and Gordon College in Massachusetts. Myra has received various awards, among them the prestigious Magazine Publisher's Award and the James Deforest Murch Award from the National Association of Evangelicals. The Evangelical Press Association presented him with its highest honor, the Joseph T. Bayly Award, for his triple career as an editor, author, and publishing executive. Harold and his wife, Jeanette, are the parents of six children and grandparents of five. They reside in Wheaton, Illinois.
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AUSTIN PRYOR is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Kentucky where he received a B.S. degree in Banking and Finance in 1967. Pryor founded his own investment management firm, Forum Investment Counselors, in 1978 where he saw his average client account more than triple in value during its first five years of operations. He is an American financial writer, speaker, and radio personality whose work focuses on investment counseling from an evangelical Christian point of view. In 1990 he founded the Sound Mind Investing newsletter to help Christians apply biblical financial and investing principles in specific ways to their personal situations. His written articles appear regularly on www.SoundMindInvesting.com as well as the Crosswalk, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Crown Financial Ministries websites.Pryor has been married to his wife, Susie, for 50 years; they have three grown children and ten grandchildren.
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BRAD AND MARILYN RHOADS founded Grace Marriage in 2015 to help churches and couples prioritize marriage. Prior to this, Brad was a practicing attorney for 22 years. He served as a marriage pastor at their local church, where he noted the nationwide absence of an intentional, ongoing strategy to keep couples on a trajectory of growth. Marilyn holds a masters in social work and worked at Counseling Associates before choosing to stay home with their children. In 2015, Brad left the practice of law to pursue marriage ministry full-time. The Rhoads currently lead Grace Marriage, author curriculum together, speak at conferences, and work with individual couples. They are the proud parents of five amazing kids and live in Owensboro, Kentucky.
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BRUCE WALTKE (B.A., Houghton College; Th.M. and Th.D., Dallas Theological Seminary; Ph.D., Harvard University) is a preeminent Old Testament scholar. His teaching appointments at Dallas Theological Seminary, Regent College, Knox Theological Seminary, and Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando, have earned him a reputation as a master teacher with a pastoral heart. Among his many books are Genesis: A Commentary and An Old Testament Theology, both of which were awarded the Gold Medallion Book Award in Biblical reference works and commentaries by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. An autobiography of Bruce can be found in Why I (Still) Believe, Byron and Lohr, eds. (Zondervan, 2015).
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STEVE VANDEGRIFF (Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary) is a professor of youth ministries at Liberty University in Virginia. A former youth pastor, Steve enjoys ministering and speaking to young people and their parents. He previously spent thirteen years as the executive director of Youth for Christ in Alberta, Canada. He is co-author of Timeless Youth Ministry, Disturbing Behavior, and Protecting Your Teen from Disturbing Behaviors. The parents of three children, Steve and his wife, Pamela Jo, reside in Lynchburg, Virginia.
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BRAD AND MARILYN RHOADS founded Grace Marriage in 2015 to help churches and couples prioritize marriage. Prior to this, Brad was a practicing attorney for 22 years. He served as a marriage pastor at their local church, where he noted the nationwide absence of an intentional, ongoing strategy to keep couples on a trajectory of growth. Marilyn holds a masters in social work and worked at Counseling Associates before choosing to stay home with their children. In 2015, Brad left the practice of law to pursue marriage ministry full-time. The Rhoads currently lead Grace Marriage, author curriculum together, speak at conferences, and work with individual couples. They are the proud parents of five amazing kids and live in Owensboro, Kentucky.
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JOSHUA SHERIF was born in Egypt to a Muslim family and immigrated to the United States, where he later came to faith in Jesus. For the past decade, he has planted and pastored in Albany Park, Chicago, IL, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country. His congregation represents more than thirty nationalities, speaking twenty languages. Josh has enjoyed his years equipping and coaching other missionaries and pastors around the world. His story was featured in Love Costs Everything, a documentary produced by CIY and Voice of the Martyrs, concerning Christian persecution.
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STEVE RICHARDSON has served as president of Pioneers-USA since 1999. Pioneers mobilizes and supports 3,200 missionaries and marketplace professionals who impact 500 unreached people groups in 95 countries. Steve was raised in Indonesia, where his parents planted churches in a jungle tribe. He witnessed the impact of the gospel on their war-like society, a story documented in his father's missionary classic, Peace Child. Steve and his wife, Arlene, also spent eleven years planting churches among an unreached people group in Southeast Asia. The Richardsons now live in Orlando, FL and have been blessed with four daughters and ten grandchildren.
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KERWIN A. RODRIGUEZ is an Assistant Professor of Pastoral Studies at Moody Bible Institute where he teaches homiletics, spiritual formation, and cultural dynamics for congregational ministry. He has an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Seminary and is currently completing a PhD at Baylor University's Truett Seminary with a particular interest in Latino preaching. Kerwin is passionate about preaching and teaching others to preach. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Meredith and their two children, Ezra Joel and Elias Rowe.
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DAVID W. WIERSBE (Moody Bible Institute; North Park College; Northern Illinois University) has pastored four churches and currently serves at Calvary Evangelical Free Church of Spring Grove, Minnesota. He is the author or co-author of Ministering to the Mourning, Comforting the Bereaved, Making Sense of the Ministry, and Gone but Not Lost: Grieving the Death of a Child. He has also served as chaplain for a community fire/rescue unit and as facilitator of support groups for bereaved parents. David and his wife, Susan, have one son and reside in Caledonia, Minnesota.
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PATRICIA ST. JOHN (1919-1993) was a nurse, missionary and author. She earned a nursing degree at St. Thomas' Hospital in London in 1946. In the early 1950s she moved to Tangier, Morocco where she served as a missionary nurse for 27 years. Throughout her life, she travelled extensively in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, as the settings of her novels reflect. In 1977, she returned to England, where she cared for elderly relatives and ministered from her home to youths, single parents, and the elderly. Patricia authored numerous books, including Treasures of the Snow, The Tanglewoods' Secret, The Secret at Pheasant Cottage, and Star of Light.
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