Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

R1: Melody Eastman, Erin Armstrong, Nancy Goede, Sue Weber, R2: Marcia Mawe McMillin, Pam Miller, Pat Gerber-Bornholt, Dee Dee Kohlndorfer, Jeryl Mawe, R3: John Summers, Ensign Leininger, Wayne Miller, Gary Cozette, David Bebb Jones, Glenn Blackwelder, Carl Bornholt, Hector Garfias Toledo

Carl Bornholt

Carl is a retired former Human Resources Manager in a Fortune 500 company.  He is a charter member of the Lutheran Church of the Master, has served on the church council and currently sings in the church choir.  Carl is currently serving on the call committee looking for a new pastor.  He was an elected official for the Village of Carol Stream.  In April of this year, Carl married the diaconal minister of the church who is with him on this trip, Pat Gerber Bornholt.

David Bebb Jones

David is a retired Presbyterian minister in the Chicago Presbytery since 1970.  He has been and continues to be active with the interests in the Middle East and ecumenical interfaith relationships.  He has traveled to many foreign countries, but rarely in Central America (once on vacation in Mexico) and once with daughter and son-in-law to Argentina (his home).

Deanna Kohnlondorfer

Dee Dee has been a member of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Park Ridge for the past nine years. She's active in worship, youth ministry and community outreach. She's worked for Jewel for the past 26 years as a baker. In her free time she enjoys golfing, gardening and biking. She's married with three children. She's looking forward to this travel opportunity so that she can be better informed about Mexico. 

Ensign Leininger

Ensign served the United Church of Christ in the Philippines for 20 years, 20 year pastorates in the U.S.A. (Presbyterian).  He retired in 1989 and has 7 children: 2 boys and 5 girls.

Erin Armstrong

Erin is the public policy coordinator with CRLN. She is in Chicago through the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, which is a year-long service program that places people with non-profit organizations. She grew up in Southern California and went to college at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Gary Cozette

Gary L. Cozette is program director and co-founder of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN).  Prior to this, Gary served as Presbyterian lay mission worker in El Salvador (1984-1987) doing human rights reporting from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador to an ecumenical urgent action network in North America. Gary has led or helped organize over 35 delegations of religious and community leaders to Latin America.  Among them were two delegations to Cuba (with the Presbytery of Chicago in 1998 and the Illinois Conference of Churches in 2000), four delegations to Colombia from 2001 to 2007, and a delegation to Bolivia with leadership of the United Methodist Church in 2009.  Gary also coordinated a human rights fact-finding mission to El Salvador 1989 with three past or present Members of Congress from Illinois (U.S. Reps. Lane Evans, Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky).   Since 2006, Gary has served on the Board of Latin America Working Group in Washington DC, an advocacy coalition of 65 US religious and human rights organizations seeking just U.S. policies in Latin America. In June 2008, was honored with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship 2008 "Peace Seeker Award" at the 218^th General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (USA).  Gary is a graduate of Hinsdale Central High School (1969) and Trinity University (1974).  Gary lives in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood with Joseph Lada, his domestic partner of 20 years.

Glenn Blackwelder

Glenn is pastor of First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Blue Island, Illinois, where he has served for 20 years. He has also served congregations in Glenview, Illinois, and in the Chatham community of Chicago.  He has emphasized world hunger issues and social ministry outreach in all three of his congregations.

Hector Garfias-Toledo

Pr. Hector Garfias-Toledo was born in Mexico City, and graduated from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering in 1989. He received his MDiv from the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest (LSPS), Austin, Texas, in 1997, and returned to Mexico where he worked as mission pastor in Celaya, Mexico.  In 1998, he was a mission developer pastor in Franklin Park, Illinois. He also served in the Episcopal Church in Taiwan as associate pastor at St. Luke's Episcopal in Hualien, Taiwan. In 2002, he was called to serve San Francisco de Asis Lutheran Church in Aurora, Illinois (a Latino-Swedish congregation). Since 2004, he has served as part-time Latino Ministry coordinator and Associate to the Bishop.  Pastor Hector Garfias is married to Chienyu Yi (Jade). They are the parents of Sofia Garfias-Yi.

Jeryl Mawe

Jeryl resides in Clive, Iowa and works part-time for a retailer called Gordman's.  She taught for many years specializing in early childhood and music.  She attends Westview Church in Waukee, Iowa with her husband, Bill.  They are grandparents to six lucky people.

John Summers

John is a free-lance interior designer working on residential projects in Chicago and the North Shore.  As president of First Lutheran of Blue Island's Church Council, he has initiated research into developing a Latino ministry to better serve the community's Mexican population.  He is the father of a developmentally handicapped child (adult).

Marcia Mawe McMillin

Marcia works in Hispanic advertising.  She lives in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago with her three-year-old daughter.  Marcia attends Luther Memorial Church in Chicago, and serves as the VP of the congregational council there.

Melody Eastman

Melody is senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wheaton, where she has served for 11 years.  She has been active in the Metro Chicago Synod throughout her 22 years of ministry, and currently served on the Board of the Directors of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.  She has been part of the founding of two faith-based organizing initiatives, and worked with the Congregation-Based Organizing Team of the ELCA for six years.  She is married and has two adult children.

Nancy Goede

Nancy is the pastor of Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in Oak Lawn, Illinois.  She is the synodical representative to the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) from the Metro Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  She lives in Oak Lawn with her husband, Jim Vondracek, and sons Hugh and Robert, both high school students.

Pamela Miller

Pamela has served her church in leadership positions before her marriage.  Later she did mostly interpersonal jobs such as Stephen Ministry and served as a deacon.  She is a retired Federal employee who became a librarian as a second career.  She is currently not employed but volunteering at Holy Family School. 

Patricia Gerber-Bornholt

Pat was a nurse, a wife/mother, a school social worker, a Stephen's minister and is now a diaconal minister with Lutheran Church of the Master, Metro Chicago Synod of the ELCA.  Pat sings in the choir, plays bells, and is responsible for the senior citizen ministry.  In April of 2009, Pat married Carl Bornholt and together they have seven married children and 16 grandkids ranging in ages 2 to 22.  She has traveled extensively.  Mission trips include Lithuania, Thailand and Tanzania.

Sue Weber

Sue has been a member of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Park Ridge, IL since she was five years old.  She participate in choir and handbell programs, has taught confirmation classes, chaperoned youth on retreats, Global Mission Event Gatherings (GME), and three work mission trips.  She is most excited about her participation in the Global Links team at St. Luke's, which provided an opportunity to attend the ELCA's World Hunger leader's conference in 2008, and a two-week adventure in 2006 to Tanzania to learn with individuals there about the many different ways that education and companionship can provide opportunities.

Wayne Miller

Since his installation in September of 2007, Bishop Wayne N. Miller has been serving the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, helping its congregations and communities to embrace renewal, growth, and positive change. In addition to leading the synod program staff, he preaches and teaches regularly in the synod's congregations and shares his perspective and insight in his column in the synod supplement in The Lutheran.