our people
Gretta Kriner
Gretta is from Pennsylvania, and learned about Communitas through Mike and Carol Kurtyka and Amy Swacina that share the same home church. Tri-State Fellowship in Hagerstown Maryland. She originally came to Glasgow in 2021 as an intern and felt called to come back. She...
Tony Sheng
Tony is involved in technology for his day job and runs The Ember Cast, a student missions leadership org, co-vocationally. The Shengs first got involved with Communitas in 2007 when they brought a team of students to help run the kids’ programs at Connect. Since...
Jeff Shaffer
To know me is to know someone who has always been a bit unconventional and on the outside - being the class clown of my high school and forming a fringe club on our campus based on the rabbit in Monty Python in the Holy Grail! I have re-discovered this in myself as I...
Julie Ippolito
As often is the case with many of us, Julie has come to recognize that throughout her entire life, God’s hand has been mapping her course for such a time as this. With a family representing generations of pastors and missionaries, she has witnessed firsthand “the...
Mike Kuder
Mike was born and raised in Northern New Jersey. He spent the first 20+ years of his working life building the family business alongside his parents. In 2004 he had his first exposure to mission and ministry in Europe. Observing the vast difference between American...
Philip & Martha Matthews
Philip is from Ireland, and became a follower of Jesus as a teenager. Meeting together with other believers to pray and study the Word and sharing the Good News in his hometown very soon became a lifestyle. Philip felt a burden for Ireland, as, although a very...
Chris & Jasheen McKenzie
Chris and Jasheen have been living in Glasgow since 2003, though they joined the Communitas team in 2007. They have have two children: Gabrielle (27 Sept 2005) & Isabelle (18 Mar 2007). As children, Chris lived in Alabama, California and Germany, while Jasheen...
Shannon Murray
Hola from Merida! We are the Murray family, currently living and serving in the capitol city of the state of Yucatan, Mexico and we invite you to join us on mission. We've been in ministry for many years in a variety of settings and God sent us on this latest...
Faith Olson
I was raised in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California, but my home has been Williamsburg, VA for many years. I'm pretty much the exception to the missionary rule: retired, widowed and certainly not 30-something anymore. I've been married twice, widowed twice...
Christine Thumm
I grew up in the South of Germany. I am a native speaker and a “real” German. Shortly after finishing college, I moved to Berlin (north). The reason for this transition was a employment opportunity allowed me to get training and work as a graphic designer. While...