Special people serving the Lord at the AWF International Office

The AWF International Office is located in São Paulo city, Brazil, but its collaborators are spread all over the world. They are faithful brothers and sisters who serve the Lord with great competence and passion.

Beatrice Koopmann is an MK (missionary’s kid) born in Brazil who speaks fluently four languages. She serves as the assistant to the president and oversees all the administrative work of the Office, including the social media communications. Alex Fajardo is a PK (pastor’s kid) and an Alliance pastor himself and is responsible for the communications and website development and also the creation of the AWF Development Office. Elizabeth Brandão, also an MK, was raised in North Africa and works with French translation and content writing. They are the permanent staff of our small office.

Dick Lawyer is a pastor who lives in Delaware (USA) and was Editor of the Associated Press for decades. Dick and I started our first conversation as we sat side-by-side in a van in Spain and at the end he agreed to be our editorial consultant. Victor Carrera, who lives in Quito, Ecuador, and is an accomplished film maker, presented himself to help us exactly at the time that we were planning to develop video material.

Other volunteers include Akira Ikuno who does video processing, Angelica Maruyama who takes care of visual arts, Priscila Shimizu (PK – my daughter) who helps with content writing and Stella Moriguchi (PK) who helps in the area of communications and marketing.

I should also emphasize that our brothers from the US C&MA Office have been of great help to improve the operations of the AWF. We use the Alliance Portal for web hosting and e-mail management, receiving a lot of support from Sam Kurien (CTO of US C&MA) and his team, including Kris Rickert, Edwin Ramirez and Ken Murray. Additionally, many members of the team led by Ken Baldes (AWF treasurer and CFO of US C&MA) have helped with financial operations, including Judy Collins, Lisa Hill and Jenifer Morrell. Fred Smith (professor at Toccoa Falls College) has been the statistician of the AWF for many years.

A final word to all of them: “Thank you for your ministry, beloved brothers and sisters. You are a blessing to the Global Alliance Family”.

Merry Christmas!

Rev. Jura Yanagihara, President of the Alliance World Fellowship