“I never set out to become a crisis response person,” says Barb. In fact, if you had asked her younger self what her career in missions would look like, she would have told you she was heading to Africa and staying there. But as God often does, He took Barb’s faithful “yes” and slowly unfolded a story far bigger than she could have imagined. 

After graduating from Grace College in 1982, Barb wasted no time paying off her student loans, then quickly deploying with Encompass in 1985. After spending her first 18 months in France acquiring the language, she finally arrived in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR) in 1987. 

Barb’s first decade in Africa was spent among the Bayaka Pygmies, an unreached and deeply marginalized people group. Living with them during the dry season and returning to Bangui during the rainy season, she helped teach them how to read, planted churches among them, and even started a Bible institute. “When you teach the gospel, churches just naturally happen,” she said. Those Bayaka churches ended up being pastored by young men who started out as her translators in the early days as she taught community Bible classes. The messages they translated from Sango to Aka evidently penetrated their hearts as each of them eventually became pastors. “I often say that some of the best things I did as a missionary were accidents,” she laughs.  

But in 2003, the CAR suffered a devastating war that left communities shattered. She recalls, “Everyone was just saying, ‘There are orphans everywhere—we need help with these orphans.’” So, Barb shifted her focus to where the need was. She started a program called Project Hope & Charité where donors could sponsor African orphans. In time, God eventually added a new program for orphan care called Hand in Hand Orphan Schools. This proved to be more sustainable since it was more organic, being operated by local churches. Today, Hand in Hand continues to thrive across the CAR, with 42 schools serving orphans through the care of the local church. 

In 2014, another brutal war struck the CAR, and Encompass leaders asked Barb to help mobilize support for the affected churches. After months of working on this short-term response, Barb agreed to step into a newly-forming role. In January 2015, she officially became Encompass World Partners’ Director of Crisis Response—a role she would faithfully serve in for the next 10 years. 

From the beginning, Barb was clear about one thing: Encompass would not simply “do relief.” Her vision for crisis response was deeply theological and profoundly pastoral. “We didn’t want to just do what the Red Cross does, for example,” she explains. “We wanted to care for the whole person—physical, emotional, and spiritual—through the local church.” Food distribution was paired with prayer through local believers and churches. Emergency shelters became places for spiritual healing. Physical aid was never separated from personal relationships. 

Over the years, that vision played out across the globe. She remembers pastors in the Philippines reinforcing their church buildings to serve as typhoon shelters. She remembers standing in Bocaranga, CAR, watching impoverished believers welcome displaced families with open hands and open hearts. She remembers sitting with survivors whose trauma ran so deep they hadn’t slept in years. “Only the church can meet the needs of the whole person,” Barb says. “The UN or the Red Cross won’t touch spiritual needs. But the church can—and we must.” 

After a successful decade of leading Encompass’s crisis response efforts, Barb pivoted to a new role in mid-2025. She now serves as Encompass’s Africa Area Specialist in Innovative Training, where she provides trauma care and discipleship for Africans scarred by war and suffering. “This is the work I’ve been longing to do,” she says, as it combines her heart for Africa with her passion for wholistic care. 

We’re so thankful for the extraordinary woman that God made Barb to be. She’s consistently followed God’s leading whether that be into the Pygmy forest, into warzones, or into entirely new ministry roles she never imagined herself being in. God has blessed the work of her hands to bring wholistic restoration to thousands of people, and may He continue doing so for thousands more.