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Authors

Joel Veldkamp

Joel Veldkamp is the head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International. He holds a PhD in history from the Geneva Graduate Institute, an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago, and a BA from Dordt University. His research and work with CSI have taken him to fifteen different countries in the broader Middle East and North Africa. A lifelong CRC member, he is currently based in Zurich, Switzerland

Cindy Verbeek

Cindy Verbeek is a Do Justice columnist and board member for Diaconal Ministries Canada. She has worked as a volunteer and board member and has been a staff member of A Rocha Canada since 1996. A Rocha is an international conservation organization working to show God’s love to all creation. She is now working as the Northern British Columbia representative and community mobilizer. Cindy volunteers as a stream-keeper, and manages the Buck Creek Canfor Hatchery, an A Rocha project raising coho salmon, providing environmental education and participating in habitat restoration projects. She attends Houston CRC, where she coordinates the church’s community garden, and she is the regional Climate Witness Project contact for British Columbia.

Rachel VerWys

Rachel VerWys recently moved to West Michigan after living many years in Southern California. Her greatest joy is sharing life with her husband, Ryan, and their four kids, Malachi, Abram, Ezekiel, and Selah. She volunteers as the Board President for Communities First Association, a national organization committed to asset based community development. She also serves on the the board of Grand Rapids Initiative for Leaders, an organization that invests in emerging youth and adult leaders. She studied social work at Calvin College and the University of Southern California, where she focused on community organizing, planning, and administration. She worked in community development in Southern California for 14 years through Kingdom Causes Bellflower. She is passionate about engaging in conversations and work that advance shalom in people’s lives, along neighborhood sidewalks, and in local institutions.

Patti Victor

Patti Victor is Stó:lō living on the traditional ancestral unceded territory of Xwchíyòm First Nation where she enjoys her children and grandchildren. She and her late husband Gary are the founding pastors of a thriving First Nations Church in Stó:lō territory.

As the Stó:lō leader at Trinity Western University, Patti teaches Indigenous perspectives; mentors Indigenous students; builds relationships with other First Nation communities and organizations; and provides opportunities for TWU community to understand Indigenous perspectives in education, spirituality, community, history and reconciliation.

Patti's passion is to create place and space to build good relationships with our neighbors. 

Joshua Vis

Joshua Vis (jvis@rca.org) is the Church Engagement Facilitator for Israel and Palestine for the Reformed Church in America. In this role, he leads immersion tours of Israel and Palestine with the aim of teaching participants about the biblical stories, the history, archaeology, and the geography of Israel and Palestine, along with the realities of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Josh does a podcast called the Viscast, preaches and teaches in local churches, and organizes educational events on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Josh has a Ph.D. in Old Testament from Duke University and, upon completion of his doctoral degree, he spent two years teaching Old Testament to graduate students at Universidade Metodista de São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil. Previous to his current position, Joshua taught New Testament for two years at Central College in Pella, Iowa. Joshua is a Do Justice columnist. 

Jisoo Vis

Jisoo Vis lives in Vancouver, B.C., with her husband, Douglas, and their son, Jonah. She is a corporate commercial lawyer and a member of the First CRC of Vancouver.

Marie Vogel

Marie is the Communications and Team Coordinator for the Office of Social Justice and a co-editor of Do Justice. A life-long member of the CRC, she loves the Contemporary Testimony, good design, DIY projects, anything striped, and helping the Church be a prophetic voice. As a Grand Rapids transplant from the Chicago area, Marie is fascinated by the way place shapes our interactions and identities. 

Anna Vogt

Anna Vogt recently graduated with what she likes to call her Masters Degree of Real Life: two years living and working in the community of Mampujan on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia with the Mennonite Central Committee‘s Seed Program. Since then, she has transitioned to the capital of Colombia, Bogota, where she continues to work with MCC and their partner Justapaz. She loves coffee, llamas, and writing about life through her blog: thellamadiaries.wordpress.com. 

Kevin Vollrath

Kevin is a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary, writing as Ambassador Warren Clark Fellow of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). His dissertation research is on the relationship between the Israeli occupation of Palestine and Palestinians with disabilities, focusing on how religious communities resist.

Rachel  Vroege

Rachel Vroege is privileged to live with her husband Russ and four children on the Stó:lō unceded traditional territory of the Pilalt, Semá:th and Ts’elxwéyeqw tribes. She is the Western Canada Regional Developer for Diaconal Ministries Canada and works to equip CRC deacon teams in justice, benevolence, community and stewardship ministries.

For the past 7 years, Rachel has led the Kairos Blanket Exercise for church groups and in the Chilliwack public school system for Grades 4-6 in partnership with Indigenous teachers and is committed to supporting reconciliation in Canada through these learning opportunities.

 

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