FY2026
Annual Report
WOMEN FLOURISHING
CHURCHES MULTIPLYING
LIVES TRANSFORMED
Your partnership made this year possible.
800+ Women Served
50+ Leaders Equipped
20+ Countries Reached
Dear Parakaleo Partner,
Churches don't flourish by accident. God builds them through ordinary, faithful people: pastors and leaders, volunteers and spouses, ministry partners whose names may never appear on a website. Women are among those people. They are vital partners who carry unique pressures, often without intentional community or support.
That's the space Parakaleo was called to enter, and the space you step into as a partner. Together, we help women grow in gospel resilience so the church can flourish.
We're delighted to celebrate this past year's fruit with you. By God's grace, you made it possible to:
Offer 900 experiences for gospel learning and community
Raise up leaders in new places, from New York to Moscow
Welcome a partnership manager who now stewards relationships with 46 church planting networks
We couldn't have done it without you.
When a woman is strengthened in Christ, the church grows strong. Thanks to your generosity, prayers, and partnership, new churches around the world are being shaped by resilient, gospel-grounded women.
With gratitude,
Denine Blevins
Executive Director
A year of faithful
growth and deep impact.
Building gospel-based resilience in women around the world.
OUR AIM
Thriving women
Flourishing churches
Transformed communities
OUR APPROACH
We come alongside women in church planting movements with the gospel to encourage, equip, and connect them for lasting impact
Parakaleo Communities
Through our Parakaleo Leadership Community (PLC), trained leaders receive ongoing encouragement, fellowship, and resources as they partner with church planting networks to support women in their own communities. Together with our Central Operations team, which offers virtual programs worldwide, we come alongside women wherever they serve.
WORLDWIDE PARAKALEO LEADERS
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Asia Pacific
Learning Experience Engagements: 17
Alongside Group Participants: 380 -
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Europe & East Asia
Learning Experience Engagements: 0
Alongside Group Participants: 12 -
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Latin America
Learning Experience Engagements: 109
Alongside Group Participants: 166 -
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North America
Learning Experience Engagements: 22
Alongside Group Participants: 104 -
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Central Office
Learning Experience Engagements: 76
Alongside Group Participants: 4
Antonea’s Story
STRENGTHENED IN WEAKNESS
After a decade in ministry, Antonea discovered that the strength her church needed from her had to begin with her own weakness before God.
When Antonea Bastian hit the 10-year mark in church planting ministry near Dallas, Texas, she expected the milestone to feel like an accomplishment. Instead, she felt the weight of a decade spent behind the scenes: relationally poured out, operationally exhausted, and now facing a newly surfacing chronic illness that would require surgery. Single, with family in another state, Antonea knew something had to give. "I knew I was deeply called to ministry, and I felt renewed in that," she recalls. "But I also knew this was not sustainable. I was so grateful to extend the gospel to others…but I had forgotten how to receive it.”
That same year, Antonea joined Parakaleo. Her Alongside Group leaders walked with her through the rawest stretch of that season, and their steady kindness taught her that safety could actually be honored, not just offered. Through her modules, she recognized a dissonance she'd carried for years: as someone whose job was to hand the gospel to others, she had quietly forgotten how to receive it herself. "I didn't know what to even ask to be renewed," she says. Naming that as a gospel issue gave her permission to be on the receiving end for once. "I'm not Jesus," she explains. "I've learned how to actually ask for help and let others hold what I can't."
That freedom soon showed up in the ordinary friction of church-plant life. Not long after, in a conflict she once would have held onto for months, Antonea recognized old wounds resurfacing under new pressure — and naming it in the moment kept it from taking root. "I've been able to have more resilience to relational messiness in the church again," she says.
Today, Antonea leads a team of women's ministry leaders, freely offering others the same safe space she once wasn't sure she'd find. "Before Parakaleo, I measured success by outcome and by visible things," she says. "Today, I see success as honest connection to God in my everyday life and ministry."
Antonea's story is a picture of what gospel resilience makes possible — leaders who no longer have to hide their struggles. Thanks to donor support, women like Antonea are being restored to friendship with God, freed to lead with nothing to lose, and nothing to prove.
“I no longer feel alone. I have women walking with me, and I see how God is using my story to encourage others.”
-Antonea
Rooted in community. Growing together.
Parakaleo is guided and governed by our central office staff and board of directors.
Our FY2026 Staff
Denine Blevins
Executive Director
Smita Donthemsetty
Program Director
until June 2026
Angie Woodall
Operations Manager
Sarah Kemp
Program Coordinator
until October 2025
Our FY2026 Board
Shauna Froelich
Board Chair
Chris Zurbach
Treasurer
Lauren Brown
Secretary
Chris McNerney
Board Member
Chris Torchia
Board Member
Providing faithful governance, accountability, and wisdom.
FY2026 FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP
Generosity that strengthens
women in church planting.
We are grateful for the many individuals, churches, and partners who entrust their resources to Parakaleo. Here’s a look at the FY2026 financial picture and how your generosity made an impact.
Investing in What’s Ahead
A NOTE ON OUR FINANCIAL PICTURE
In FY2026, expenses exceeded revenue by $103,443.25. This shortfall was covered through previously accumulated reserves, allowing us to continue investing in the programs, people, and partnerships that strengthen women in church planting.
We remain committed to faithful stewardship and long-term sustainability as we pursue the work God has called us to do.
WHERE OUR SUPPORT COMES FROM
Total Revenue
$219,910.00
HOW YOUR GENEROSITY FUELS OUR MISSION
Total Expenses
$323,254.00
Assets & Liabilities
Why They Give
MARILYNN & RILEY BUTLER
For Marilynn and Riley Butler, supporting Parakaleo began with a concern: women serving on church-planting teams need care, too, but they often don't receive it.
"No church plant would ever be successful without the support of women," Riley says. Yet he has seen how easily women's needs are overlooked when their work is treated as simply "helping." That can leave a woman isolated, with nowhere to process her concerns without feeling she is compromising the church’s mission. Parakaleo, Marilynn says, "gives women a soft place to land and be real."
Marilynn sees a deeper need beneath the individual stories: a system in need of repair. "Women have a different perspective on how things should work," she says. "They're often the ones building the relational culture of the church, yet their contribution is treated as less important." Parakaleo is helping to change that, one relationship at a time.
Asked what they hope their generosity will change, Riley says, "I would like to see the church repent of overlooking women." Marilynn agrees. “The wife is often the one whispering advice to her husband. Parakaleo brings her voice to the table.”
The Butlers give because they believe the church is stronger when women are known, cared for, and heard. Every gift to Parakaleo helps bring more of those voices to the table and gives more women a place to land as they serve.
LOOKING AHEAD… ALONGSIDE HER
Women who spend their lives giving need a place to receive.
That conviction is shaping our next step. In 2027, we will launch 8 new Alongside Groups: four in the United States and four around the world. In each one, a woman in church planting will find gospel-centered support, genuine community, and the reassurance that she is not carrying this work alone.
We don't yet know all their names. One may be a planter's wife in her first year. Another may be a ministry leader far from home, quietly wondering who is caring for her. We're praying for each of them now, and we're grateful to walk toward them with you.
Bring the hope of the gospel to more women.
Join us in caring for women who help build the church, so the church they build is healthy and whole.