Staff and Board
It’s true. With God’s Little Ones is a family affair.
We know by name many of the children and widows we serve.
We cherish our international partners, our extended family.
While Melissa and Cindy are “Schaser kids”, all of our board members relate easily.
We all share a deep concern for children and a conviction that we can—and do—make a difference.
Rudy Schaser (Executive Director)
Dorothy and I served in the Philippines 1965-77. In Cotabato we saw the need to be sensitive towards the followers of other faiths. We also came to realize that people have a hard time listening to a religious message if they are sick or hungry. The Filipino and international members of Grace Lutheran Church in Manila taught us acceptance and compassion and cooperation. While serving as instructor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Baguio City, I learned that faith is caught not taught, that giving ourselves away for others trumps giving the right answers.
Our family sank roots in the Deep South, where I served as pastor at St. John Lutheran Church, Hattiesburg, MS (1978-91) and Atonement Lutheran Church, Metairie, LA (1991-93).
As Manager of International Volunteer Services at Lutheran Hour Ministries, St. Louis, MO (1993-2004), we helped form and implement projects serving children, teachers, and women in 16 different countries. We also helped set up volunteer service projects in 17 different countries.
In December 2004, I retired from LHM at the age of 65. WGLO was up and running in January 2005.
Melissa Huse (President)
Melissa was born and grew up in the Philippines, where her blond hair and blue eyes earned her the nickname of “princess.”
She and husband, Jeff are new “empty-nesters” as sons Tyler and Brock are away in college.
A pediatric speech therapist, Melissa has gained over 25 years' experience in serving children of all abilities, and from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
She is a speech-language pathologist and owner of Kid Partners - Creative Kids Therapy. She also teaches children’s yoga as a way to help kids of all abilities realize their own strength, inner peace, and confidence.
Melissa demonstrates an infectious optimism, a non-stop energy, and an amazing creativity.
She enjoys staying updated and involved in WGLO, and enjoys being a member of the Service Team at church.
Cindy Edes (Vice President)
After traveling around the world, after working and playing with kids from Mexico to New Zealand to Peru to India to Laos to Tanzania to Ecuador to . . ., Cindy has settled outside Portland, Oregon, working as a self-employed occupational therapist.
Cindy now gets to enjoy both ends of the life span, gleaning stories and pointers from her geriatric patients in rehab as well as learning more about Alaska native culture and life working for bush Alaska school districts.
Cindy is the only Board Member who has visited all of the current and former WGLO project sites: Uganda, Cambodia, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Poland, and Slovakia.
In her free time, Cindy enjoys exploring the outdoors and other countries with husband Jeff.
Cindy's "Life-Is-Good" contagion has infected just about everyone she meets, plays, or works with.
Dorothy Schaser (Secretary and Treasurer)
Dorothy grew up on a Missouri farm, where she polished her gifts of adaptability, tenacity, and a deep love for the natural world.
She’s equipped and encouraged young and old with her extensive practical and educational skills. She’s skillfully taught: business education, computer training, and corporate software training in varied educational settings from Kansas City to Mississippi, New Orleans to St. Louis. She’s observed, “My career was just preparation for this retirement ministry.”
She’s donned many a WGLO cap. Everything from layout and printing of correspondence and newsletters, to accounting and reports, to making travel arrangements, to rallying the troops.
She’s created sewing projects that provide needed items and supplies for children and women “there,” while providing service opportunities for girls and women “here.” Most recently, she’s left her fingerprints on various RippleSacks and face mask efforts.
She and Rudy are founding partners of the “Dor-Rud Travel & Life-long Commitment Co.”
Jeff Edes (Board Member)
Jeff grew up in rural Montana and earned a degree in Aeronautical Science at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana.
He started out flying gliders in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and currently flies high as a captain with Southwest Airlines.
Jeff and Cindy, have hiked their way through Bhutan, Nepal, Argentina, Ecuador, and Vietnam and passionately enjoy the cultural and natural beauty of the world.
For some time now, Jeff has shown a genuine interest in WGLO aspirations and activities and has visited project sites in all three principal areas of WGLO ministry.
Jeff and Cindy recently helped energize a women’s self-help group in Balluay, Philippines, by bringing in equipment and training to roast and grind their own robusta coffee.
We’ve been enriched by Jeff’s ability to look closely, listen carefully, and think clearly.
Many of the professional-looking photos on this website are Jeff’s as he has a very sharp eye and excellent photography skills.
Cliff Hellmers (Board Member)
Cliff is a retired Lutheran pastor living in Birmingham, Alabama where he served The Lutheran Church of Vestavia Hills for 32 of his 36 years of pastoral ministry.
During his tenure there he was able to help the congregation expand its ministry to children by leading teams of volunteers to Poland, Slovakia, Russia, and Latvia.
In 2005 he began his service on the WGLO Board of Directors and at the same time guided the congregation in redirecting its foreign ministry efforts to Nicaragua and Uganda.
Shortly after his retirement in 2008 the congregation began its own international ministry called Project HOPE with Cliff as coordinator. He continues to lead teams to Nicaragua, Uganda and Kenya.
Cliff is married to Dee, a retired second grade teacher. They have two sons and one granddaughter.
For decades, we've valued Cliff as a seasoned, insightful partner and friend.
Joel Kurz (Board Member)
Joel was born in Tennessee, sprouted up in the Philippines, resided all over the U.S., and has visited Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Joel is well-traveled, in both body and spirit.
He has served as an inner-city volunteer, worked as a nurse’s aide for the severely mentally disabled, and spent six years caring for his father while he succumbed to ALS and dementia.
Ordained in 1997, Joel has served as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Warrensburg, Missouri, since July 2007.
Joel's poems, essays, and articles have been published in several journals. One of his momographs won a Concordia Historical Institute award.
He's been catalytic in forming a community garden project and has helped create an area-wide program serving the homeless of the Warrensburg region.
Bright and energetic, Joel has felt a pull towards those on the margins of church and society--the easily dismissed and overlooked.
Joel's brother Nathan has observed, "Joel is a deep well."
Cheryl Newsome (Board Member)
Cheryl was born in Fremont, OH, and currently lives in Swansea, Illinois. We can safely say that she’s been all over the place geographically, academically, and in terms of work history.
Cheryl is married to Dick Newsome (ahem, we helped tie the knot in July 1983 in Hattiesburg, MS). They delight in their children, Avalon and Cheyenne and the amazing women they have become.
Says Cheryl: “I am concerned about the homeless and hungry, both here and elsewhere. I am much more interested in justice than rules. I like bringing people and organizations together to provide good outcomes for all involved.”
Cheryl‘s great organizational skills have been put to use in acquiring, sorting, and packing many suitcases with crochet and embroidery thread, fabric, yarn, and much more.
Treena Sturgeon (Board Member)
A University of Missouri graduate, Treena worked four years as an ICU nurse in Columbia, MO, before shifting gears and studying medicine at Des Moines University in Iowa.
An osteopathic physician, Treena specializes in internal medicine and provides primary care to adults in the St. Louis area.
Treena’s world is broad and inclusive. She‘s helped treat the aches and pains of Buddhist monks in Cambodia, touched the poorest of the poor in Uganda, delighted in young and old in Madagascar, paid close attention to the ailing elderly in Nepal, and lovingly looked after adolescentes y abuelas in Honduras.
While keeping close ties with friends and family back home, Treena enjoys far-ranging interests. She’ s run marathons throughout the U.S., raced up the steps of the Eiffel Tower, and hung off the edge of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
Treena’s gifts of easy adaptability and keen vision have been proven assets to WGLO ministries.
Suzie Everingham (Board Member)
Since 2004, Suzie has served as deacon at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Manchester, MO.
She’s earned a Master’s degree in Pastoral Studies, four units CPE, and is ecclesiastically endorsed as chaplain in the ELCA.
Focusing on the service efforts of the congregation, Suzie coordinates the massive Feed My Starving Children program at Good Shepherd (last year, 987,000 meals were packaged) and functions as staff advisor for Good Shepherd’s Service Team, coordinating with 25 agencies throughout the St. Louis area and around the world.
She and retired police officer husband, Charlie, have a gorgeous farm in Richland, visited by many a Good Shepherd young person.