
General Secretary - Gordon Showell-Rogers
Gordon Showell-Rogers did his first schooling in Malta, lived in Malaysia as a child, became a Christian in Vienna, and was the General Secretary of the Austrian IFES movement for some years. His love of cultural diversity has been reinforced by working with international students from all over the world for many years. He and his wife Jane have two adult 'children'.
Gordon has been the EEA's General Secretary since April 1999. The EEA's vision is 'Transforming Europe and Eurasia by reflecting the Kingdom of God together'.
Gordon's vision for the EEA includes a burden to see visionary and representative national Alliances with the capacity to create non-partisan space for relationship building, a neutral platform for common action, and a representative voice for evangelicalism.
Executive Assistant - Ramona Ramsahadeo
Ramona joined the EEA team in August 2002. She comes from a graphic design background and worked for herself for a number of years. Although her work-life has primarily been within the secular environment, she has had close associations with both the African & Caribbean Evangelical Alliance and the UK Evangelical Alliance. In her role with the EEA, she manages the day-to-day running of the office, organises the EEA's European meetings and assists the General Secretary.
Socio-Political Representative - Julia Doxat-Purser
Since January 1994, the EEA's Brussels and socio-political representative has been Julia Doxat-Purser. In March 2002 EEA expanded its socio-political team so that more could be achieved. A new Brussels representative was appointed and Julia is now focussing on the pan-European work.
The Future:
There are wonderful opportunities ahead. The EEA's expectations for the next few years include the following:
• Prayer for society and politics, for the EU and for Europe as a whole, will be a priority for many more Christians.
• Effective political monitoring and advocacy will happen more and more at national and European levels on a huge range of issues.
• There will be many think tanks and specialist socio-political networks which strengthen their members, help new ministries to develop and work together to talk to politicians.
• Those who want training in political advocacy or social action will have access to quality resources.
• Many more Christians will be involved in politics, law and the secular media, with an understanding of a biblical worldview and a Christian support network behind them.
• And, with God's help, the salt and light will be making an increasing difference.
Brussels Manager - Christel Ngnambi
Christel Ngnambi started as the EEA Brussels Manager in September 2007. He is a political Science graduate
with a deep interest in developing a Christian mind and applying Christian thinking to public policy.
His personal public policy interests include migration.
Political Adviser - Martyn Eden
Martyn joined the EEA in
2006 to work part-time, on a voluntary basis,
as an adviser on political issues and policies.
He brings to this role 44 years of experience
as a Christian involved in politics in a
variety of ways. He studied and then taught
politics in higher education for 18 years.
For 9 years he was the Dean of the London
Institute for Contemporary Christianity,
seeking to integrate his politics and his
Christian faith in order to teach others
to do the same. Then for 14 years he served
as the Director of Public Affairs for the
U.K. Evangelical Alliance. Since 2004 he
has held a similar role with the Cambridge
based ‘think tank', the Relationships Foundation.
He now combines this role with advising
the EEA and undertaking research for Christian
members of the British Parliament.
Advising the EEA on politics
involves two principal activities: supporting
colleagues in Brussels who seek to influence
the EU institutions; and preparing papers
on current policy issues. So far these have
included a paper on Children's rights and
another on our responsibility for creation
care. Martyn works closely with Julia Doxat-Purser
and Christel Ngnambi.
Martyn is married to Janet
and they have two married daughters and
four grandchildren. When he escapes from
all these responsibilities he is usually
found on his boat, which he also uses in
a youth evangelism project for which he
is the Chaplain.
Associate - Derek Copley
My name is Derek Copley
and I live on the South coast of England.
My wife Nancey has recently retired from
lecturing at a local college, where she
was responsible for training teachers at
post-graduate level. We have one daughter
Sara (33), who is married to Jason (also
33). They live in North Carolina , USA .
They have two children Reece (5) and Ben
(2). They worship in a Baptist Church, where
they are Prayer Coordinators and Home Group
leaders. Jason is responsible for personal
evangelism training.
I was principal of a Bible
College in the UK for 27 years, until 1997,
training people for missionary service.
My original background was in science. I
offer my gifts and experience to churches
around Europe and the rest of the world
as a Consultant, specialising in the Silk
Road region. I have a particular love for
Europe and the EEA, having attended the
General Assembly meetings since 1983. In
1995 I became more heavily involved, when
I was elected as President. In 1997, when
Stuart McAllister left the EEA as the General
Secretary, I did some of the work of General
Secretary for 2 years, until the present
General Secretary was appointed. After that
I became Consultant to the EEA.
My commitment to the EEA is:
• To be a sounding board to the General Secretary on any issues he would like to discuss with me.
• To encourage and assist in the formation of new EAs in Europe and the Silk Road.
• To speak on the Bible and various topics at conferences and national EA gatherings.
• To run leadership training courses for church leaders. To be a resource for those EAs who would like some input.
• To represent the EEA on the International Council of the World Evangelical Alliance, together with Rudolf Westerheide, from Germany.
Associate Youth Consultant Team - Jussi Miettinen, Colin & Melissa Piper
Jussi Miettinen is from Finland. He is a Lutheran pastor and has been active in the youth work scene for over 20 years. He is interested in leadership development, networking and, of course, youth work!
Jussi works for the Finnish Evangelical Alliance (MESK) and for the Finnish Lutheran Mission (FLM). Some of his responsibilities include: leading the Finnish youth network, Chairing of the Urban Dream process (in Helsinki), he is also a team leader of the inter-denominational group, E4 and a member of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Youth Commission.
Jussi enjoys traveling, good food, sport, Finnish sauna ("in winter we can make a hole in the ice and jump into it!!!") and movies. He is married with two young daughters.
Colin & Melissa Piper have a passion to empower and train emerging leaders to reach young people with the gospel of Christ. Together they head up a ministry called International Christian Youthworks (ICY) which links and serves like-minded Evangelical youth ministries around the world.
Colin, a Brit, has been involved in full time youth ministry for almost 25 years and now spends most of his time advising, encouraging and supporting youth ministry around the globe. He is also a speaker and author of a number of books. Melissa is an Aussie but with a big heart for Europe! Formerly a political lobbyist in Canberra, she has now been involved in youth work for over 10 years and has a particular burden to see youth ministry thriving throughout Europe. Colin and Melissa live in England and love to travel and watch sport whenever they can!
Contact email for youth related information: melissa@icy.org.uk |