The Team
Tara Saunders — Fearless Leader
Tara has been married to her best friend Michael since 1999. They have been attending Cedarview for the past 11 years where Tara serves on the Missions Committee and is involved with the Discipleship Explored classes, Club 1-2-3 and the Nursery.
This is Tara’s third missions trip. In 2005, Tara and Michael were part of the team that traveled to Zambia to install the computer lab at the Agape School. Their second missions trip took them to Siberia in 2007.
After spending 12 years in various marketing positions with software development firms, Tara made a career change and joined the Teen Challenge GTA Women’s Centre in King City as their Development Director this February.
In her spare time, Tara likes to spent time cooking and baking and chasing her two golden retrievers.
John Walker — Co-Leader
John is married to his lovely wife Marilyn and both of them are involved with Cedarview life. John sits on the board at Cedarview and is responsible for the missions portfolio. He has traveled on numerous missions trips to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and Siberia – all driven by his desire to see many come to Christ.
This is John’s third missions trip to the Village of Hope in Kitwe and he was a part of the team that installed the original computer lab in 2005. He was particularly impressed with the Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor software during his last visit.
John and Marilyn are the proud parents of two sons, two daughter-in-laws and loving grandparents to five beautiful grandchildren. In between spending time as a doting grandfather and his passion for missions, John can be found on the golf course with Marilyn.
John is thrilled to once again be using the gifts God has given him to bring glory to Him.
Bruce Michael — Tech Guru
Bruce has been attending Cedarview since he moved to Newmarket in 1982. He has been delightfully married to Carol for 38 years, and has been blessed three children, Jennifer (married to Sean), Scott (married to another Jennifer) and Emily, and two wonderful grandchildren, Sierra and Wesley. Bruce has served on the church Board of Deacons for fifteen years and has been the Treasurer and Secretary for the church board. Bruce is an actuary by profession, and has had an interest in computers since 1979 when he built his first computer – a KIM-1 which had an outstanding 1k of onboard memory, and used a calculator like keypad to enter instructions in hexadecimal code. Building computers has been a hobby and part-time profession since then.
This is Bruce’s second missionary trip. He went to Nicaragua in January 2008 with Living Water International to help dig a well for a community without a clean dependable water source. Bruce says: “I was so impacted on my trip to Nicaragua by the joy of the people who had so little. I felt that the Lord was calling me to continue to use my talents and time to share the joy of the Lord and offer a helping hand to those in need.”
Candace Ramirez — Tech Guru
Candace just celebrated her 8th anniversary to her high school sweetheart Fernando. Their precious heavenly gift is Josiah and he is in Gr. 2 this year. She has been attending Cedarview for roughly 11 years and this is her first mission trip. She has been granted the privilege of serving in children’s ministry for many years, currently teaching the ever enlightening Cedarview 4 year olds in room 201.
Although Candace is most definitely a tech geek at heart, she has only been certifiably so for the past 4 years. Currently working as an IT Business Analyst for the Toronto Star, she actively provides insight for technology projects from an Infrastructure perspective. She is looking forward to putting any “Chic” talents she has to good use and serving her Creator with the gifts He has provided.
Andy Smith — Tech Guru
Andy has two children (Rachael [13] & Joshua [10]) with his wife Sandra. Together they have been attending Cedarview Community Church since 1991 and were married in Cedarview’s sanctuary in 1993.
Andy is a Information Technology and web professional with over 12 years experience building web sites and applications within the post-secondary school environment. He currently manages the web sites at Tyndale University College & Seminary. He also has worked as a volunteer youth worker for over 15 years and also teaches seminars on Internet Safety. Andy really enjoys tech stuff and almost any gadget — he is glad that his “geekyness” can be put to good use on this mission trip!
P.S. Andy’s daughter Rachael has also been to Africa this year on a mission trip! Check out her story…
