Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The move of our Home Office from Glendora, CA, to Charlotte, NC, was quite a challenge. Not only were there hundreds of boxes to pack and unpack, there was the challenge of getting the staff members who moved from California to North Carolina situated in their new homes. There was also the challenge of filling some key staff positions. Thankfully, those tasks are now complete, and I’m pleased to report that GCI’s International Home Office is open for ministry!
Open House
To celebrate, we recently held an open house at the Home Office. It was attended by local GCI members and other guests. Here are some pictures (click to enlarge):
New Media Team
As noted by Joseph Tkach in his March 14 Update letter, several Glendora Home Office employees did not relocate to Charlotte. As a result, we needed to fill several Home Office staff positions. A primary need involved staffing the GCI Media team. In Glendora, that team was competently directed since 2010 by Nathan Smith. But having recently become a father, and with all four of the grandparents located on the West coast, Nathan decided not to relocate to Charlotte. We are grateful for his service, including his willingness over the last several months to share his knowledge and expertise in preparing our new GCI Media Director, Michelle Fleming.
Michelle, the daughter of one of GCI’s mission directors, has been a Home Office employee for several months. She is bright, quickly learns new skills, and has the management acumen needed to tackle the challenge of producing media content on behalf of our global GCI family. Most importantly, Michelle is a GCI elder with a passion for how the Spirit is shaping us as a fellowship. I’m confident that her passion will shine brightly in the new and creative media productions to come from the newly formed GCI Media team, which now includes Joe Brannen and Charlotte Rakestraw. For an article about the Media team, click here, but first let me brag a bit on the newest team members:
Joe Brannen, a GCI elder, is our Digital Content Developer. Joe does a magnificent job telling the GCI story in videos, photographs and other media because he and his young family have lived the story at home and through ministry in GCI congregations and camps. Charlotte Rakestraw, the daughter of a GCI pastor in Florida, is our Social Media and Correspondence Coordinator. Having discovered a passion for graphic design as a teen, she majored in that area of study in college, and has worked as a designer for ten years. Charlotte now uses her considerable graphic design talent to tell the GCI story using 21st century technology.
I’m thrilled that this talented Media team is now in place in our Home Office. I’m blessed to have their offices adjacent to mine. Their infectious energy keeps me excited to come to work every day!
Come visit us. We’re open for ministry!
Greg Williams, GCI Vice President
This is a milestone issue of GCI Update in many ways. It speaks to the passing of the baton of church leadership to a younger generation as some our longtime leaders are retiring, and some of them (sadly, for us) are going home to be with the Lord. We were blessed by those stepping aside and also blessed to have younger, highly qualified leaders stepping up, not merely to fill a space, but to take these positions to new levels, into new territories in a rapidly changing world. I’m thrilled to see this happening and wish all concerned many blessings. GCI’s future is in good hands (both divine and human)!
Hi all; I’m from Ontario and maybe one day I’ll be able to take you up on that 50cents tour offered by someone?