About the Speakers

Come join us for this powerful story of tremendous loss, inspiring loyalty, and redemptive liberty.  Rev. Jonna Fantz and Rev. Renee Franzen will be sharing the story of these refugees come home exploring what we as women might need to hear in our own seasons of loss and disappointment.  Ruth offers a life-giving call on our lives that feeds a life-changing love far beyond our own small stories.  Come away to rest and discover your own story passionately redeemed.

Jonna Fantz, pastor, poet and people lover, has a hunger to see life change through encounters with the living Christ. She brings all her passion to bear as she teaches, preaches, and leads ministry encouraging people to experience God through his Word, through community engagement, and through devotional deep dives. She loves to listen intentionally to God and others as she participates in the transforming work that Jesus Christ is doing in people’s lives and in the world.  She cares deeply about the church living into its calling to live in faithful witness to the true nature of God and human community.

My professional background in social work, marriage and family therapy and ministry all come out of the one call placed on my life from Isaiah 61 years ago. I am Ordained with the Evangelical Covenant Church of America, with a focus in Spiritual Formation. Former Lead Pastor, I currently pastor part time while serving as a Spiritual Director and Supervisor to Direction students as well as speaker and retreat leader. I love preaching and teaching the Word of God, and watching as God binds up the broken hearted, releases captives of darkness and of prison, and bestows a crown of beauty in replacement for despair. It is my greatest joy to help people learn to hear the voice of God in their own lives. Our God is a healer of body, hearts, memories and Spirits. I am a wife of over 44 years, the mother of 3, and grandmother of two.