ReachGlobal Q&A With Heather Hall

For more than 100 years, the EFCA has sent missionaries around the world to establish the Church where the gospel isn’t known. From Hans Von Qualen, the first international missionary to China, to more than 500 missionaries on almost every continent, the EFCA is committed to the Great Commission’s call to make disciples of all people. To learn more about how God is working through international ministries, we asked Heather Hall how God called her to missions, how she's using her gifts in her ministry context and how she's seen the gospel transform lives. 

Q: Tell us about your path to missions—and specifically, your path to ReachGlobal.  

God has been preparing me for the mission field for almost 25 years. Looking to combine my childhood interest in culture with my desire to pursue healthcare, I felt God call me to medical missions at age 15.

I pursued a bachelor’s degree in nursing with a minor in missions and cross-cultural ministries and later worked for a year as a nurse at a mission hospital in Kenya, East Africa. During this time, I pursued my interest in culture by working with the mission hospital’s community health and development program. I realized my true passion for global public health and community development and felt God leading me to use that as my platform for missions. So, I pursued a master’s degree in global public health nursing and worked for three years at a health department in Ohio as a program manager for the tuberculosis, refugee and immigration programs. 

I first heard about ReachGlobal after connecting with long-term missionary, Holly Freitas, at a medical missions conference. She has been a mentor and friend for almost 12 years and gave me my first glimpse into the life of a ReachGlobal missionary. In addition to their focus on missionary care, I had searched for an organization that shared my value of empowering people in ways that bring about lasting change.

Q: How are you using your God-given gifts on the mission field?  

I began working with GlobalFingerprints—ReachGlobal’s child sponsorship program—as a program development consultant in 2019. After connecting with our site in Gemena, DRC, God opened the opportunity to serve long-term as the GlobalFingerprints Congo site coordinator. The site partners with the local church, the Free Church of Congo (CECU), and serves close to 2,000 children. 

I provide leadership to our GlobalFingerprints Congo field staff who are all from the local church—the team that oversees the educational, medical, nutritional, physical and spiritual needs of the sponsored children. Built upon the foundation of relationship, I also work to empower the site’s leadership and strengthen the site’s infrastructure through training and program development consulting. 

At the heart of this work are our GlobalFingerprints care workers—they are our frontline workers. Conducting monthly home visits to each of their kids, the GlobalFingerprints care worker may be the only caring person in that child’s life and is often the only person who shares the gospel with the child and their family. 

Q: How are you seeing God transform lives in your context—and in what ways can others/churches join you in that work?  

For Landrine, a child in the GlobalFingerprints Congo program, her spiritual life was not good. The GlobalFingerprints care worker and program manager counseled her and connected her to a local pastor—she eventually became a believer and was baptized just before Christmas. At the Elikya Center—our sibling ministry that is a vocational training center—there were 30 baptisms this past year.  

Bodja, a boy who came from Brahmanism, attended New Horizon School—our sibling ministry that is a private Christian school—and learned about Jesus through different devotions at school. He would continually go home and act as a pastor with his friends. Bodja now loves Jesus to the point of influencing his mother and grandpa who became Christians. 

Pray for the church in Congo to continue to grow deep in their love of and walk with the Lord. People can also join us by sponsoring a child.