The Team

Administration

Alex Bjergbæk Klausen

Director of Administration
abk(at)relaytrust.org

Alex holds a Bachelor and Master degree in theology from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. During his time at Aarhus University he was chairman of Emmaus Summer Seminary, which offered annual summer training courses for theological students, and chairman of Ecumenical Youth in Denmark, which was part of the international ecumenical movement. He was also actively engaged in student politics.

Alex is specialized in ethics with a special interest in New Testament. He also enjoys studying the early church history. In December 2006, he completed his theological studies and was ordained and employed as pastor January 2007. He served as pastor in the western part of Jutland (Denmark) for a little more than two years, until he and his wife, Mette, were employed as missionaries by Mission Afrika. They travelled to the northeastern part of Nigeria in September 2009, where they were stationed at Brønnum Lutheran Seminary, Yola, Adamawa State. Alex taught at diploma and bachelor’s level and was also partly coordinating the Danish volunteer programme together with Mette. After three years in Nigeria he and his wife were transferred to Sierra Leone in 2013 to build up a new programme called “Theological First Aid”. Through this programme more than 100 lay-readers were trained in the Anglican Diocese of Bo. This programme became the source of inspiration for new projects in West Africa. In 2016 they returned from Sierra Leone and were employed by Relay Trust to handle similar training projects in West Africa with a specific focus on Christian formation and theological education. Alex has been employed by Relay Trust since 01.10.2016.

Charles Raven

Director of Development
cr(at)relaytrust.org

Charles read Philosophy Politics and Economics at Oxford University and Theology at Durham University. After a few years in the banking industry, he was ordained into the Church of England and served as an incumbent in regular parish ministry and pioneered the first church in what is now the Anglican Mission in England. He is an honorary Canon of All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi and St Anslem’s Cathedral, Sunyani, Ghana. From 2012 to 2016, he lived in Kenya and served as Archbishop’s Officer for Anglican Communion Affairs in the Anglican Church of Kenya under Archbishop Eliud Wabukala. This period of living in Africa and travelling widely gave him first-hand experience of the developing world and he continued to travel widely on returning to England where he served until March 2021 as Membership Development Secretary for the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) with particular responsibility for the development of its nine global networks. Since 2016 he has served as a trustee of Anglican International Development and is actively involved in developing its work, in which church strengthening is a key element. The primary focus is South Sudan, but it is expanding into other areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Charles has written widely on Anglican Communion matters and is the author of a major study of the theology of Rowan Williams and his leadership of the Communion. He has also written numerous articles and is a regular columnist for a UK Christian newspaper. In Sheffield, Charles assists at Christ Church Central, a growing inner-city congregation which is part of the Anglican Mission in England and heads up its overseas mission support team. He is a widower but blessed with seven grandchildren and enjoys walking in the nearby Peak District National Park. While in Kenya he was Chairman of the Friends of Nairobi Railway Museum and retains a strong interest in railway history and preservation

Finn Kier-Hansen

Strategic consultant
fkh@relaytrust.org.

Finn enjoys being under the open sky, it gives him a strong sense of God’s presence in the World. He spends several hours daily walking the family’s three Labrador Retrievers around the small village in the very northern part of Denmark, where he lives together with his wife, Sofia. It is also in the local area he will be going hunting as well as train the dogs to be good gun dogs. 

Finn feels rich in his life due to the blessing of a beautiful wife, three adult sons, two lovely daughters in laws and four grandchildren. Most of his family lives with range of 75 minutes of driving, so good.  Vocationally the road was not paved towards Christian ministry since Finn did not grow up as a believer. But God called Finn not only to be his child, but also to be his servant, a path he has followed for more than 30 years now, serving as pastor of churches, national director of Youth for Christ, board member and chair of several church bodies, business director of the Danish Teacher’s Missions organization, but also as truck driver and furniture mover.   Most of what Finn knows he has learned from actual, hands on ministry work, but he does also hold a master’s degree from the University of Aarhus with the science of religion.  

Finn Kier-Hansen

Strategic consultant
fkh(at)relaytrust.org

Finn enjoys being under the open sky, it gives him a strong sense of God’s presence in the World. He spends several hours daily walking the family’s three Labrador Retrievers around the small village in the very northern part of Denmark, where he lives together with his wife, Sofia. It is also in the local area he will be going hunting as well as train the dogs to be good gun dogs. 

Finn feels rich in his life due to the blessing of a beautiful wife, three adult sons, two lovely daughters in laws and four grandchildren. Most of his family lives with range of 75 minutes of driving, so good.  Vocationally the road was not paved towards Christian ministry since Finn did not grow up as a believer. But God called Finn not only to be his child, but also to be his servant, a path he has followed for more than 30 years now, serving as pastor of churches, national director of Youth for Christ, board member and chair of several church bodies, business director of the Danish Teacher’s Missions organization, but also as truck driver and furniture mover.   Most of what Finn knows he has learned from actual, hands on ministry work, but he does also hold a master’s degree from the University of Aarhus with the science of religion.  

Design Team

Mette Bjergbæk Klausen

Director of Training
mbk(at)relaytrust.org

Mette holds a Bachelor and Master degree in theology from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. During her time as a student she was very engaged with student politics and both vice-chairman of the board of studies and member of the academic council. She was an active member of the student congregation and part of the parochial church council. While still a student she went to India for 5 months with Danmission to participate in Western Youth, a project on inter-religious dialogue, later she was employed as coordinator of this project.

Mette is specialized in Old Testament and has a great interest in church dogmatics as well. When she completed her education in 2009 she and her husband, Alex, were employed by Mission Afrika and stationed in the northeastern part of Nigeria, where she was teaching diploma and bachelor students at Brønnum Lutheran Seminary, Yola, Adamawa State. She was part of the team that managed to affiliate the bachelor’s programme to one of the universities in Nigeria. In 2010 Mette was ordained as a Lutheran pastor by the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN), as the first Danish woman to be ordained in LCCN. At Brønnum Lutheran Seminary Mette was teaching various topics but was mainly focusing on Old Testament. After three years in Nigeria she and her husband were transferred to Sierra Leone to work with the Anglican Diocese of Bo. They were in charge of establishing a new project called “Theological First Aid”. Through this project, they were involved with the training of more than 100 lay-readers within three years. In 2016 they both returned to Denmark and were employed by Relay Trust to handle the new projects in West Africa with a similar focus on Christian formation and theological education. Mette has been employed by Relay Trust since 01.10.2016.

Jennifer Ward

English communication
jw(at)relaytrust.org

Jennifer Ward is a second-year communications student studying at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, United States. Despite growing up in Idaho, United Sates, Jennifer was surrounded by the world of international missions from a young age, as her family served at the national headquarters of Mission Aviation Fellowship. During high school, she moved overseas with her family to Papua New Guinea. There she first became involved using her communications interest in local opportunities, both writing and editing content for missions and fundraising projects.

Currently, Jennifer is majoring in Strategic Communications with minors in Peace Studies and Philosophy at Whitworth University. Besides her full-time studies, she is involved in a student run public relations project for NGOs in Spokane and works part-time with Relay Trust.

Fidèle Constance Etjeke

French Translator
fe(at)relaytrust.org

Fidèle lives in Cameroon and is a trained translator/interpreter. She graduated from the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters, ASTI, University of Buea, Cameroon, and has worked with translation assignements for many NGO’s and companies. Today she lives in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, but is frequently travelling to manage various freelance translation assignments. Fidèle has been employed as part time translator in Relay Trust since 1st September 2019.

Solveig Dret

French translator, proof-reader and theological consultant
sd(at)relaytrust.org

Solveig was born in Paris’ suburb and gave her life to Christ at a young age. She got her baccalaureate in literature and languages in 2006 and worked as an administrative assistant for an international company for3 years. However, after a period of struggle with God, she rediscovered His grace and became thirsty for more. This led her to Benin for a short mission trip with Serving in Mission (SIM), followed by a one-year full-time internship at her local church in Paris before joining the Institut Biblique de Bruxelles (IBB) in Belgium. She studied theology there while serving in several churches – especially amongst teenagers, young adults and in worship music as a singer – and graduated in 2017. She met her husband-to-be Yohan in one of the communities she was involved in and they got married in 2016. Since 2018, Solveig has been a translator and a proofreader for several Christian organisations, including Moore College (Sydney, Australia) and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). She is a member of Chrétiennes Consacrées, a committee which organises annual Christian conferences for women in the French-speaking region ofBelgium. She is also completing her theological cursus at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) on a part-time basis.

Gabriela Kishi Cristofani

Executive Assistant
gkc(at)relaytrust.org

Gabriela was born in São Paulo, where she completed her undergraduate education in Portuguese Language and Literature at University of São Paulo in 2014. From 2015 to 2016 she was focused on completing her Training Course for Translators and Interpreters at Associação Alumni – São Paulo. Before opening her own company, she worked teaching English as a second language to children and teenagers and as a Cambridge Speaking Examiner for students taking Cambridge Exams. She ran her own company of written and simultaneous translation services for 5 years in Brazil before moving to the UK in December 2020.

Solveig Dret

French translator, proof-reader and theological consultant
sd(at)relaytrust.org

Solveig was born in Paris’ suburb and gave her life to Christ at a young age. She got her baccalaureate in literature and languages in 2006 and worked as an administrative assistant for an international company for3 years. However, after a period of struggle with God, she rediscovered His grace and became thirsty for more. This led her to Benin for a short mission trip with Serving in Mission (SIM), followed by a one-year full-time internship at her local church in Paris before joining the Institut Biblique de Bruxelles (IBB) in Belgium. She studied theology there while serving in several churches – especially amongst teenagers, young adults and in worship music as a singer – and graduated in 2017. She met her husband-to-be Yohan in one of the communities she was involved in and they got married in 2016. Since 2018, Solveig has been a translator and a proofreader for several Christian organisations, including Moore College (Sydney, Australia) and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). She is a member of Chrétiennes Consacrées, a committee which organises annual Christian conferences for women in the French-speaking region ofBelgium. She is also completing her theological cursus at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) on a part-time basis.

Brian Ward

Instructional designer and curriculum developper
bw(at)relay trust.org

Brian feels humbled and blessed that God continues to use Brian’s passion for good training and technology and his many years of experience to bring training for life and ministry to Christian leaders who need it most. Brian found his professional home in the University at the intersection of teaching and technology .while studying for a post-masters degree (Ed.S.) in Educational Technology from Virginia Tech, Brian worked there as an Educational Technologist and Instructional Designer that trained faculty, created online courses/degrees, and built eLearning software.

From there Brian moved to the University of Virginia’s College at Wise where he served as faculty and Chief Information Officer, responsible for all administrative and academic technologies, both on campus and online. In 2006, Brian and Christy Ward left the world of academia to join Mission Aviation Fellowship in MAF’s Learning Technologies division where Brian became the Manager of the eLearning Team. MAF-LT targeted the needs of isolated Christians, partnering with local ministries and churches to provide these leaders with culturally and educationally appropriate biblical training and resources. While Brian served from MAF’s headquarters in Nampa, Idaho, USA, his involvement in ministry was worldwide with projects on all continents (except Antarctica!) such as online seminaries for the Middle East to digital libraries for mobile phones, delivering training to those who cannot read or write. In 2015, the Ward family moved to Papua New Guinea (PNG), a rugged and remote place where many people do not read … including pastors and ministry leaders. The Wards addressed this need by guiding a MAF team of national staff to develop culturally appropriate ministry training and resources, many of which could be listened to on mobile phones or solar-powered audio players. The Wards mentored church and ministry leaders, encouraging them and providing consulting and training to strengthen their skills and organizations. In 2019 the Wards returned to Nampa, Idaho, and many children went off to university. As MAF closed the Learning Technology division, Brian needed to find a new ministry to serve with and God brought him together with Relay Trust. Christy continues to have a heart for sharing the Gospel and does so mostly while she homeschools the three Ward children still at home. Together with them she provides hospitality to traveling missionaries and ministry to international refugees. The common thread in the stories of Brian and Christy is how much they benefited from people in church and college ministry organizations who took the time to disciple them and show them how to live for God, as singles, a married couple, and as young parents. These examples inspired Brian and Christy to want to disciple others and to dedicate their lives to bringing training in the Christian life to those who do not have it. This thread started as they attended secondary school together and was in college that Brian and Christy’s relationship grew, and they were married soon after Brian started graduate school. Brian has been employed as full time instructional designer and curriculum developper in Relay Trust since 2019.

Production Team

Maria Silkjær

Project and Educational Consultant
ms(at)relaytrust.org

Maria lives in Denmark and is married to Jens. Together they have three children. She is a trained teacher and animal behaviour therapist and together with her husband she has a dog kennel with doodle puppies. She has a great passion for Africa and is the development consultant in Farming4Life, an agricultural project she started with her husband in 2010. Through her engagement with Farming4Life she has many years of experience with development projects. Maria has been employed in Relay Trust since 1st August 2019 as their Project and Educational Consultant.

Issa Maguey

Media Production/Graphic Designer
im(at)relaytrust.org

Issa was born in Cameroon in a muslim family and despite all challenges after the loss of his father, Issa was able to complete his secondary education and get professional training in graphic, web and motion designs. His passion has always been web design and video editing, but other people have found him gifted in teaching and knowing how to relay on to others what he knows.

In 2012 he started serving as a missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Nigeria, where he occupied different leadership positions. There, he found and got married to his wife, Lorreta. The Lord blessed them with twin boys and a lovely girl. Today Issa and his family live in Cameroon, where they serve with the Academy of the Nations; a ministry they also pioneer. Issa’s dream is to reach the unreached with the message of the gospel using media. That is why he created Go Africa Media, a ministry that trains other people on how to use technology to produce media content to churches. Issa’s hope is to use Relay’s platform to transform and touch more lives across Africa and beyond. Issa has been employed since 1st August 2018.

Distribution Team

Djamina Maguey

Marketing & PR
dm(at)relaytrust.org

Born in Cameroon into a Muslim family, I am the last of five children. After the death of my father, my brothers supervised and guided me until I obtained my baccalaureate in literary series and my registration at the University of Yaoundé 1 in Anthropology. It was from level 1 that I discovered a passion for cultural facts as well as the traditions that surround me and those elsewhere…

Discovering new traditions and finding similarities in the ways of understanding life and religion are my passion and also my challenge. My entourage qualifies me as a good communicator, unifier and good negotiator. My goal is to understand socio-cultures as good as possible, in order to use the best method to send them the message that Relay Trust wishes to convey.

Lorreta Zock

Training Facilitator
lz(at)relaytrust.org

Lorreta’s dream is essentially developing young people to their highest potential and getting them ready for the next phrase of their life. Lorreta is a trained communicator and social activist. She advocate for the education of young girls in her involvement with organizations like WOWWI and YWAM. She is a training facilitator with Relay Trust today and has already impacted several youth across Africa.

Jens Silkjær

Project Consultant
js(at)relaytrust.org

Jens lives in Denmark and is married to Maria. Together they have three children. He is a trained agricultural company leader and together with his wife he has a dog kennel with doodle puppies. Jens has a great passion for Africa and is the agricultural and innovative consultant in Farming4Life, an agricultural project he started with his wife in 2010. Through his engagement with Farming4Life he has many years of experience with development projects. Jens has been employed in Relay Trust since 1st August 2019 as their part time Project Consultant.

Lydia Achan

Project Coordinator, Uganda
la(at)relaytrust.org

Lydia, married to Mr. Richard with three children. She is a graduate of Development Studies from Uganda Christian University (UCU). While at UCU, Lydia was a Sunday School Teacher and worked at the University Library as part of her study scholarship. She attained a certificate in Project planning, Monitoring and Evaluation from Uganda Management Institute and Certificate in Church Based Development Work from Diakon College Denmark. And a certificate in financial sustainability strategies from Mango UK. Lydia is so passionate about community work with over ten years working experience in community development work through Farming for Life Uganda where she has been a Team Leader, Coordinator and Project Administrator working with over ten staff and lead farmers to transform lives. She is a trainer in community livelihood with immense experience in project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of rural community initiatives. Lydia is a co-founder and Director of Global Children Uganda, a Community Based Organization dealing with disadvantaged children, youth welfare and livelihood. Lydia has also been a Centre Guide/Volunteer at Child Development Centre (CDC) at Victory Outreach Ministries. A Field Assistant with African Population and Health Research Centre Nairobi, and had Student Internship training with Lira District NGO Forum and War Child Holland where her focus was on child welfare. Lydia has just been recruited by Relay Trust to start work on 1st April 2021 as a Coordinator for Uganda.

Victoria Awori Ogwal

Training Facilitator

Awori Victoria Ogwal is 36years old Ugandan a mother, gospel artist, an Entrepreneur, Human Rights Activist. She has been working in the areas of finance and Administrator for the past 8years in Farming for life. She has conducted training on Cooperatives, SACCO for farmers and Village savings and loan schemes (VSLAs). She has also trained in Togo and team from Congo on MANGO Management accounting.

She holds a Master and Bachelors in Business Administration, postgraduate diploma in project planning and management, certificate International Course of Church Based Development Work from Diakonia College in Denmark.

She is passionate about the youth and women in development process, spreading the love and message of salvation through Gospel music.

Victoria is employed as a Finance and VSLA facilitator with Relay Trust Uganda from May 2021.

Gloria Angom

Training Facilitator, Uganda

ANGOM GLORIA, is a born of 27/NOV/1990. She is married with three sons.

She holds a degree in Business Administration from Uganda Christian University Uganda. She attained a certificate on International Course of Church Based Development Work from Diakonia College in Denmark. From this course, she gained a theological understanding on how to serve, love and care for people.

She has five-year experience working with Global Children Uganda. She started as a volunteer and later facilitated as the Administrative Assistant and field officer. Working in the areas of daily operation of the organization. Routine working and counseling, mentorship including praying with them during follow-ups and home visits.

Her passion is to see that vulnerable community (neighbor) is given an equal opportunity to transform their lives.

She has been part of the loving your neighbor online group course. Gloria is employed as a community facilitator with Relay Trust Uganda from May 2021.

Abdul Rahim Sillah

Relay Trust's Coordinator for Sierra Leone
ars(at)relaytrust.org

Sillah holds a HD in Data processing & Information Technology from the Njala University Freetown Campus. After leaving college Sillah started working in the mining sector (a company which had one of the largest iron ore deposit in Africa) under the Procurement & Logistics department for over six (6) years. Sillah is experience in Supply Chain activities and Administrative duties. He is an Anglican and holds a senior position in his parish as the Vicar’s Warden and coordinates its administration and assists in other church voluntarily activities. Because of developing skills in information, organizing, and liability, coming up as a youth, Sillah serves in the positions of General secretary, Financial Secretary and as Youth representative to the parochial church council at the parish of St Thomas Kroo. Sillah is married to Emma H Sillah and together they have 4 children (2 girls & 2 boys). Sillah lives at the western part of Freetown. When he was out of official job, Sillah assisted his wife in her small-scale business, especially when she was out to neighbouring African countries to do wholesale purchase on stocks. Sillah has been employed as Relay Trust’s Coordinator for Sierra Leone since 01.02.2020

The Well Team

Tim Strauss

Project Manager

Tim served 30 years with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), starting out as a pilot/mechanic in Lesotho, Africa.  After 6 years in Africa he filled in a manager role for a little over a year in Albania where he experienced firsthand the significant impact that MAF’s communications technology services had to  build unity and energize cooperative Gospel outreach across denominations and organizations throughout the country.

He spent the next 16 years in Kazakhstan followed by 4 years in Turkey where he led MAF’s work in Central Asia including the process of developing and implementing new technologies for missions.  For the last 20 years his leadership roles have included building and leading teams to accomplish mission and strategic planning, identify organizational culture issues, and impact lives in a varied range of circumstances and settings.  His mission experience covers 13 countries and multiple languages.  The large portion of that experience has been focused on some of the most unreached countries in the world, working closely with a wide variety of denominations, nationalities, mission organizations and staff of all ages.

In April of 2020 Tim transitioned from MAF to take the Executive Director role with Kolo Group.  Due to MAF’s decision to focus on aviation only, it was decided to move the technology services MAF had been providing in the Eurasia region under Kolo Group where we can combine 30+ years of field experience with Kolo’s business and technology development expertise to help mission organizations use technology effectively to exponentially increase their ministry impact.

Brian Ward

Instructional designer and curriculum developer
bw(at)relaytrust.org

Brian feels humbled and blessed that God continues to use Brian’s passion for good training and technology and his many years of experience to bring training for life and ministry to Christian leaders who need it most. Brian found his professional home in the University at the intersection of teaching and technology .while studying for a post-masters degree (Ed.S.) in Educational Technology from Virginia Tech, Brian worked there as an Educational Technologist and Instructional Designer that trained faculty, created online courses/degrees, and built eLearning software.

From there Brian moved to the University of Virginia’s College at Wise where he served as faculty and Chief Information Officer, responsible for all administrative and academic technologies, both on campus and online. In 2006, Brian and Christy Ward left the world of academia to join Mission Aviation Fellowship in MAF’s Learning Technologies division where Brian became the Manager of the eLearning Team. MAF-LT targeted the needs of isolated Christians, partnering with local ministries and churches to provide these leaders with culturally and educationally appropriate biblical training and resources. While Brian served from MAF’s headquarters in Nampa, Idaho, USA, his involvement in ministry was worldwide with projects on all continents (except Antarctica!) such as online seminaries for the Middle East to digital libraries for mobile phones, delivering training to those who cannot read or write. In 2015, the Ward family moved to Papua New Guinea (PNG), a rugged and remote place where many people do not read … including pastors and ministry leaders. The Wards addressed this need by guiding a MAF team of national staff to develop culturally appropriate ministry training and resources, many of which could be listened to on mobile phones or solar-powered audio players. The Wards mentored church and ministry leaders, encouraging them and providing consulting and training to strengthen their skills and organizations. In 2019 the Wards returned to Nampa, Idaho, and many children went off to university. As MAF closed the Learning Technology division, Brian needed to find a new ministry to serve with and God brought him together with Relay Trust. Christy continues to have a heart for sharing the Gospel and does so mostly while she homeschools the three Ward children still at home. Together with them she provides hospitality to traveling missionaries and ministry to international refugees. The common thread in the stories of Brian and Christy is how much they benefited from people in church and college ministry organizations who took the time to disciple them and show them how to live for God, as singles, a married couple, and as young parents. These examples inspired Brian and Christy to want to disciple others and to dedicate their lives to bringing training in the Christian life to those who do not have it. This thread started as they attended secondary school together and was in college that Brian and Christy’s relationship grew, and they were married soon after Brian started graduate school. Brian has been employed as full time instructional designer and curriculum developper in Relay Trust since 2019.

Different programmers

Lead Programmer

Relay Trust is using different programmers to solve different parts of the software and hardware development. The programmers are called in to solve specific tasks and normally work on short term contracts.

Lars Gunnarsson

Programmer and IT-specialist
lg(at)relaytrust.org

Lars was born in Sweden and finished his education as an engineer in 1984. He moved to Switzerland the same year, the home-country of his wife. The following years he worked in the area of computer technology at an international company in Switzerland. In 1990 he moved to Swaziland with his wife and two children. During their time in Swaziland another two children were born. In Swaziland he worked with TWR Africa (Trans World Radio), which is a worldwide Christian media ministry operating in more than 230 languages.

After nine years in Swaziland they moved back to Europe and settled in the outskirts of Vienna, Austria. Lars continued his work for TWR from Austria, but since 2016 his involvement was reduced to part time, offering him more time to get involved with mobile technology and cooperating with other Christian ministries. Lars has been employed by Relay Trust since 01.09.2017