Our Staff

The church staff maintain offices at the Dubai Evangelical Church Centre from Mon-Fri, 9am - 5pm.

Our staff are employees of the church, responsible for implementing the elders' vision for ministry. Some of the staff are elders.  The staff fill various roles, from counselling to administration to planning the children's curriculum - in an effort to enhance the collective ministry of ECCD.

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John Folmar

Our Senior Pastor, John has pastored ECCD since 2005 after moving here from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. He is married to Keri and they have three children.  Graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003.

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Richard Ngwisha

Our Associate Pastor, Richard joined the ECCD staff in 2008 and oversees counseling and home groups. From Zambia, Richard was once an elder of Evangel Baptist Church in Lusaka.  He is married to Catherine and the father of one daughter and two sons in university. 

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John Welkner

Our Associate Pastor, John joined the ECCD staff in 2006 and oversees the adult education hour (Foundations) as well as the Pastoral Internship program. He is married to Lisa and they have three sons and a daughter. John graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 2000 and is currently a student at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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Ben Woodward

Our Associate Pastor, Ben is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben came to us from Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky (USA), where he served as an elder. Ben joined the staff in 2016 and now oversees administration. Ben is married to Sarah and is the father of two sons and two daughters.

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Hannah Howerton

Hannah is originally from Scotland and moved to Dubai in 2014 to work at the DXB airport. She became our Children's Ministry Coordinator in 2020 after many years of serving as a volunteer with Fort SAND. She is married to Brinton and they have one son and one daughter.

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Jonathan Lim

Jonny came to faith as a 17-year-old through the ECCD youth ministry. Now, more than a decade later, he serves as the Director of our youth group and coordinates our music ministry. Jonny is married to Anna and is the father of three children. He graduated from BIOLA University in 2013 and is currently a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

 

 

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Jeiel Natunay

At ECCD since she was 10 years old, Jeiel now serves the church as administrative secretary.  She is originally from the Philippines and she graduated from Middlesex University in Dubai, where she studied journalism and media.

 

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Lina Niyubahwe

Our women’s ministry assistant, Lina was recruited from Redeemer Church of Dubai (by her now-husband Julien). Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Lina comes from Burundi. She studied communications engineering at the University of Science & Technology in Beijing. She and Julien have one son.

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Issam Saddy

Born and brought up in Lebanon, Issam currently serves ECCD as our Pastoral Assistant. He moved to Dubai in August 2020 with his wife Sandra and they have one daughter.