FY2026
Annual Report
WOMEN FLOURISHING.
CHURCHES MULTIPLYING
LIVES TRANSFORMED
Your partnership made this year possible.
Together, we are equipping and walking alongside women in church planting movements around the world.
[####] Women Served [##] Leaders Equipped
[##] Countries Reached [##] Groups & Modules
Dear friends,
Women supporting church-planting teams around the world often serve without peer support, gospel-rooted formation, or organizational recognition.
When a woman is isolated and unsupported, she can't sustain what she's called to — and neither can the church plant.
When a woman is strengthened in Christ, the church is made strong.
Parakaleo exists because someone once walked with us. We've spent years building the kind of peer relationships and gospel formation every woman in this role needs.
[EDIT] Three ways we strengthen women:
Leadership cohort
Program enrollments
Partnership pipeline
With gratitude,
[insert signature]
Denine Blevins
Executive Director
A year of faithful
growth and deep impact.
Building gospel-based resilience in women around the world.
OUR VISION
Thriving women.
Flourishing churches.
Transformed communities.
OUR MISSION
We come alongside women in church planting movements with the gospel to encourage, equip, and connect them for lasting impact
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ASIA PACIFIC
WOMEN SERVED
COUNTRIES
GROUPS
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LATIN AMERICA
WOMEN SERVED
COUNTRIES
GROUPS
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UNITED STATES
WOMEN SERVED
COUNTRIES
GROUPS
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EUROPE
WOMEN SERVED
COUNTRIES
GROUPS
Antonea’s Story
STRENGTHENED IN WEAKNESS
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."
That same year, Antonea joined Parakaleo. Her Alongside Group leaders walked with her through the rawest stretch of that season — meeting her right at her diagnosis and again a week after surgery — 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
From our central office to leaders serving women around the world, Parakaleo is strengthened by people who faithfully come alongside others.
Our Staff
Denine Blevins
Executive Director
Smita Dothemsetty
Program Director
Angie Woodall
Operations Manager
Sarah Kemp
Program Coordinator
Our Board
Shauna Froelich
Board Chair
Chris McNerney
Board Member
Chris Zurbach
Treasurer
Chris Torchia
Board Member
Lauren Brown
Secretary
Providing faithful governance, accountability, and wisdom.
Local Leaders. Global Impact
Through our Parakaleo Leadership Community (PLC), trained leaders receive continued encouragement, fellowship, and resources as they serve women in their own cultures and communities.
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.
WHERE OUR SUPPORT COMES FROM
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.
Total Revenue
$219,908.58
HOW YOUR GENEROSITY FUELS OUR MISSION
Total Expenses
$323,351.83
Assets & Liabilities
A Voice at the Table
MARILYNN & RILEY BUTLER
Why they give
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.
Marilynn agrees. The wife is often the one whispering advice to her husband. Parakaleo brings her voice to the table.
The work continues.
Three strategic priorities for the year ahead.
PARTNER WITH US
Help more women experience the hope of the gospel.
Your partnership makes this work possible. Together, we can see more women flourish, more churches multiply, and more communities transformed.