Ray & Bobbi have been members of Grace Church for 25 years, with Ray serving on the Elder Board and on staff as the Pastor of Outreach and Shepherding for over 21 years. They also served together in our Biblical Counseling, Special Needs & FLOCK ministries. Together they served in Iraqi Kurdistan for six months reaching out to the Kurdish people.

As Global Outreach Pastor, Ray was involved in equipping & sending Global Workers. His position on staff also afforded Ray (and Bobbi) the opportunity to lead evangelistic teams to serve alongside our workers in several countries. Ray taught systematic theology in Armenia twice per year for 20 years.

Ray retired from Grace Church in April 2020, but through an old friend, the Lord called Ray to serve again in Global Outreach. In October, Ray began serving as the Vice President for Church Planting with the To Every Tribe missions agency, located in Los Fresnos, Texas. Ray will be working with current field staff and new trainees to plant churches among unreached peoples.

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Grace Church has had a longstanding relationship with Steve and Heather Lestonwhich began in 1989 when Steve began attending. At Grace Church, Steve served as the Youth Pastor, College Pastor, director of the training program called Ministry Preparation Course (MPC) and Local Outreach Coordinator. He met his wife Heather in 1991 when they served together in the youth ministry. They were married at Grace in 1994. In 1997 Grace Church sent Steve, Heather and their daughter Anna to Alaska to work in a church in the Southeast panhandle. From 2003 to 2016, Steve left Alaska and became the teaching pastor at our sister church, Kishwaukee Bible Church (KBC - a church he helped plant in the early 90's). Out of KBC, a mission to the First Nations peoples in Northwest Ontario began. This is what led Steve to develop a relationship with To Every Tribe.

In the summer of 2016, Steve Leston responded to God's call to take a new role: Director of the Center for Pioneer Church Planting (CPCP). The CPCP is To Every Tribe’s training center through which missionaries are trained to do pioneering work–to take the Good News of Jesus to places without a gospel presence. In 2018 Steve became president/ CEO of the ministry. Steve’s life and ministry are driven by a desire to help people understand the Scriptures and experience the deep and life-changing transformation that comes from the Word of God so that they would participate in the mission of extending the church to the ends of the earth. Grace Church became Steve's sending church in the Spring 2021. Steve and Heather have four adult children, Anna, Amber, Alyssa and Anderw.

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