Bruce and Sherry Thacker
Bruce is the President of As We Go Missions. His primary role, beyond leading the mission, is as a trainer and instructor. Bruce has a MDiv in New Testament and a PhD in Biblical Studies. He has been part of a number of teams to Haiti, beginning in 2000. Those teams included medical teams, pastor and church training, construction, and encouragement. He served as President and a board member for Global Vision Citadelle Ministry which serves in Haiti. Bruce has also been to Zimbabwe where he taught stewardship to pastors and churches. He also taught a semester of Pastoral Epistles at Central Africa Chistian College. He assisted with Hippo Valley Christian Mission and worked with Chiredzi Christian Church.
Sherry was the youth minister and worship minister at Shelton Christian Church for thirty years. She has led teams to Mexico with AMOR beginning in 1984. Sherry has led medical teams to Haiti, starting in 1999. In 2001, Sherry and their daughter founded a deaf school in conjunction with Global Ministry Citadelle Ministry. She also assisted Bruce in his teaching while in Haiti. She is part of the work in Zimbabwe, especially with women and young people.
Bruce and Sherry retired from ministry at Shelton Christian Church in Shelton, WA after serving for thirty years. They have been married for over 50 years, have five children and fifteen grandchildren.
Steve and Donna Stroop
Donna was born in California but grew up in Zimbabwe as the youngest daughter of missionary parents, Dan and Esther Burris. Of her early mission experience, Donna says “my parents always involved their children in the work and I felt like I was a part of what was happening in Southern Africa for the Kingdom. I loved flying with my Daddy, taking a patient to Mashoko Hospital or going to town for supplies. After the revolutionary war in that country prevented us from living and working any longer in the bush at Dine’, the call came for my Dad to come and teach missions at Puget Sound Christian College and so we moved to Seattle where I graduated from high school and went to college.”
Donna met and married a Tennessee boy, Steve Stroop, who came to the U of Washington via a post-doctoral Fellowship from UCLA after getting his PhD in biochemistry. Steve has had a distinguished career in the biotech industry.
Now in this season of life, Donna says “it has been amazing to look back on how life’s journey weaves a tapestry of our lives! My mom always said, ‘The Lord doesn’t waste anything and He is always preparing us for something.’ I feel like I have come full circle back to my childhood home. It has been my dearest treasure to be called by our dear Lord back to the place where I grew up and to love on some people that are very dear to my heart!”
Nathan and Beca Sartori
Nathan is a board member of As We Go Missions. He loves missions. He has served in Cambodia, Mexico and Haiti. He is looking forward to going to Zimbabwe and meeting those we work with there. For sixteen years he has been the assistant pastor at Shelton Christian and Missionary Alliance in Shelton Washington doing youth/children’s ministry. He has also worked alongside Sherry Thacker with the youth at Shelton Christian Church. Nathan teaches special needs students in the high school. For twenty years he has coached basketball.
Beca has been involved with missions since high school. She has been to Mexico numerous times with AMOR to build houses, churches, and schools. Beca went to Haiti as a member of the medical teams with GVCM and was a member of the team that started the deaf school there. She currently is assisting in the youth group at Shelton Christian Church and helping in other ministries there as well.
Nathan and Beca have been married for fourteen years and they have a two-year old son, Silas.
Victoria Black
Victora serves as the treasurer for As We Go Missions and is a member of Shelton Christian Church, Shelton WA.