Trip Overview

Progress Through Partnership
Working to Make a Difference in the Lives of Women

Since 2000, our team leader Karen Milco, her husband Michael, and countless volunteers have committed their time, resources, and skills to help alleviate the suffering of the Angolan people living in the Osire Refugee Camp in Namibia, Africa and across war torn Angola, Africa.

Angolan Christians suffering the long-term effects of Angola’s 27-year civil war are being renewed and empowered to find hope in Christ and become freed from oppression and poverty. Our Lord is using His church to respond to the spiritual and physical needs of the Angolan people.

The Church at home and in Africa is being strengthened through partnerships that provide opportunities for members of the Christian community to use their knowledge, skills and resources to:

• Train and equip men and women for ministry
• Improve lives through vocational skill training for men and women, and
• Diminish chronic hunger through sustainable agricultural initiatives.

In response to an invitation from Rev. Dinis Eurico, President of Igreja Evangelica Sinodal de Angola, we have the opportunity to join a team of volunteers who are preparing to travel to Angola, Africa in November to lead a women’s conference at the Kalukembe Mission Station.

Diana Woodland attends Park Community Church in Chicago where she serves on the Global Missions Team. She has been described as a “frontier woman” because of her expertise in fiber arts, cooking, canning, chocolate making, gardening and Bible study. In addition to co-leading the team, Diana will lead our morning and afternoon Bible session on the attributes of God and our response to Him in various aspects of life. Her desire is to help women grow and ground their faith firmly in scripture. In addition she will lead a workshop on Amish rug-making with the aim of teaching a skill that has the potential to provide income for women and their families.

Jean Fisher serves as the Director of Women’s Ministries at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Chicago. She is a dedicated wife and mother of three children and enjoys home schooling and any type of “creating,” whether gardening, decorating, photography, making stained glass or oil painting. Jean traveled to Africa 15 years ago with Wycliffe Bible Translators to assist missionaries in Ghana and is thankful for the opportunity to return to Africa to work with women. While serving in Angola she will share her personal testimony and the transforming power of prayer and God’s word in her life. She will also lead a workshop on soap making using locally grown ingredients.

Jean has also partnered with His Wheels International (video here) to develop a distribution site in Kalukembe. His Wheels provides adult tricycles (“trikes”) to people with disabilities. Angola is the nation with the second highest number of Africans who have been crippled by injuries from land mines. Many of them literally have no legs and must drag themselves through the dirt just to get anywhere. His Wheels constructs hand-pedaled trikes that provide not only a means of transportation, but a restoration of dignity, all in the name of Jesus Christ. Jean will help the local hospital develop a vocational rehab where people can learn to construct these trikes and distribute them to those in need.

Michelle Stambaugh serves in ministry with her husband, Pastor Scott at Sister Lakes Community Church in Michigan. In addition to working with the youth and leading worship, she is a professional artist. For several years, Michelle has prayed and waited for an opportunity to serve in Angola. During this time she has researched the pottery making tradition of the Ovimbundu people of southern Angola. While in Kalukembe, she will pursue, along with the Angolan people, how to use the resources available to create functional and accessory pottery, with the hope of creating an income-generating product. Her desire is to combine her love for pottery with the message of our gentle potter, God the Father, molding and shaping us into His prized and cherished vessels.

Karen Milco has served along side of her husband in pastoral ministry for 20 years. Since 2000 she has spent an average of three months a year in Africa working on projects aimed at addressing the physical and spiritual needs of the Angolan people. God has given her a love for women, especially those who are suffering. She feels compelled to finds ways for women from the US to use their natural gifts and abilities to support and strengthen the ministries of women in Africa. While serving in Kalukembe, she will partner with Jean Fisher to lead a workshop on infectious disease prevention and traditional soap making. She will also begin making preparations for her husband to lead a team of his students and colleagues from Moody Bible Institute to teach at the Kalukembe Bible Institute next year.

It is humbling and encouraging to be given the opportunity to serve with the church in Angola. Our heart's desire is to see the women of Kalukembe renewed and empowered to find hope in Christ, and become transformed when freed from oppression and poverty.

We desire nothing less than to serve well and celebrate the transformation that comes as a result. Please prayerfully consider how God will have you give. As they say in the Ovimbundu language, Suku ukalai la na. God be with you.

Seeking to make a difference for the kingdom,


Diana, Michelle, Jean and Karen

Just imagine the difference we can make,
Working together, making it possible!