Meet the Team

Ms. Gomez was raised in Northern California. As a child she was exposed to travel to Canada, Mexico, Russia, & Finland. As a young adult she was a student in the Up With People International program, which deepened her love for cross-cultural experiences & communications. Ms. Gomez received a BA in Spanish Literature in 2003 from UC Santa Cruz, a year and a half of which she spent in full immersion at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Her return back to California was the most trying time, then finding herself feeling alone, desperate, and eventually trapped in sin, which resulted in becoming a battered single parent. In 2006 she turned her life over to Christ & was baptized in Monterey Church - California. Ms. Gomez was exposed to ministry models which included short-term international missions & child sponsorship in Bolivia & Burkina Faso through Compassion International, and explored international Christian ministries that address Christian persecution.

In 2016, Ms. Gomez received her Master of Social Work degree from California State University, Monterey Bay & gave 11 years of service to public child welfare & foster care / adoption services. In 2023, Ms. Gomez earned her LCSW for clinical practice in California.  In 2017, God called Ms. Gomez to West Africa for the first time where she was exposed to Christian education & children's ministries in Burkina Faso & Ghana. Since 2019, Ms. Gomez has been serving in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Forensic Social Work and Correctional Mental Health. Having never married & finding ,herself an "empty-nester" she follows God's calling to the mission field for the next phase of her life.

Mr. Koala was born and raised in a Christian family of Burkinabe parentage in the West African Republic of Cote d'Ivoire. After high school, Mr. Koala returned to his family's homeland of Burkina Faso & received a BA in Linguistics from the University of Ouagadougou.

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In 1998, as a teenager, Mr. Koala fell seriously sick with an unknown illness that began to rob his body of energy and nutrition. Medicines seemed to do nothing to help. Fear began to surround him & his loved ones, as he gradually became weaker, that he was going to die. His aunt took him to a church that prayed over the illness that was attacking his body. Thereafter, Mr. Koala heard God speak to him, "I am here & you will not die," as he tasted the sweetness of the Holy Spirit in his mouth. His illness began to lift & he knew that his life had been saved for Jesus's purpose.

After his graduation, Mr. Koala began serving with Compassion Internation children's ministries as a French / English interpreter / translator. Through his work in translating letters & communications between children & their sponsors, Mr. Koala's passion for the needs of children, their education & their well-being, began to develop. As a patriotic Burkinabe person, he received revelation that the future of his country was in the great responsibility to care for its children. Mr. Koala also speaks the native Burkinabe languages of Moore & Dioula.

As a talented & dedicated businessman, Mr. Koala is currently a regional sales manager for Wave money transfer services. He is currently dedicated to providing trans-lingual ministry services at the International Evangelism Center - Interior African Mission. He and his wife currently reside in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

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