Tom Becker

Tom Becker is the Senior Pastor of Cary Alliance Church in Cary, North Carolina. Prior to serving at Cary Alliance Church, he and his wife Miriam served in Russia for 20 years with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. His great joy in ministry is coming alongside brothers and sisters in Christ who live out their faith every day in the home and public sphere as well as in the difficult places in life: the sickbed, the prayer closet, and moments of trial and testing.

Tom holds a Master’s degree in theological studies from Wheaton College Graduate School and a Master of Divinity in Academic Ministries from Columbia International University. Tom and Miriam have four children: three are grown and pursuing life and careers of their own, and their youngest daughter still brings youth and energy to the home. Tom loves to cook and to roast coffee, and enjoys hunting, fishing, bike-riding and camping, while delighting in sharing these interests with his family and friends.

In addition to serving on the Board of Directors at Freedom to Lead, Tom also works as an FTL Program Facilitator in French-Speaking West Africa, specifically in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Togo, and Congo.

Janet R. Blakely, Ph.D.

Janet grew up in a loving Catholic family of six living in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. At age 25 she surrendered her life to Christ. Janet holds a B.A. in Humanities from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in Television Production from CBN University (now Regent University). During a research summer in France after graduation she became involved with International Media Ministries (IMM) in Brussels, Belgium. IMM is the media arm of The Assemblies of God World Missions. She received her Assemblies of God minister’s license in 1989 and continued on the field as IMM’s Training Coordinator in Europe. Sensing a call to mobilize others for missions, Janet received a Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication from Regent University.

During a year in the U.S. serving as a Missionary-in-Residence at Valley Forge University, Janet met Daniel Blakely. The two were married in 2002 and Janet resigned after sixteen years in foreign missions. In 2006, she was appointed Academic Dean of Central Bible College-Detroit Extension. She served in this capacity until the college merged with Evangel University in 2012.

Janet was ordained by the Assemblies of God Michigan District in 2011. She traveled extensively in her career as a missionary throughout Europe, South Asia, and Russia. She accompanied her husband, who has served on the international board of TWR since 2003, on many international trips. She is currently working as a free-lance editor, primarily editing books written by ministerial colleagues.

Lorna A. Buckland, Chair Emeritus

Following several years of ministry in the inner city of London, Lorna co-founded Claybury International with her husband Colin in 1993 and served as Executive Director. Lorna was engaged full-time providing services for Claybury International in the UK and around the world for many years. Following the death of Colin, Lorna continued for some time working with Claybury but has since been busy serving on three non-profit boards. Lorna has four adult children who are busy expanding the Buckland clan.

Douglas H. Gent – Vice Chair

Doug is a retired attorney with over 30 years experience practicing real estate law, estate planning and administration, nonprofit law, business law, and elder law. He is a trained Christian conciliator and has worked with Peacemaker Ministries for almost 20 years. He is a graduate of the National Litigation Academy of the Alliance Defense Fund focusing on First Amendment and related issues. Doug is married with two sons. He currently serves on the boards of several nonprofit ministries.

George Philip

George was born and raised in southern India. He pastored a multilingual church in Pune before joining Trans World Radio (TWR) as a State Coordinator in Kerala. In this assignment he produced Bible study programs in the Malayalam language for radio broadcast, was actively involved in fundraising, and developed other leaders for ministry. In 1997 he was appointed National Director of TWR-India, and in 2010 became CEO of TWR-India to lead a team of 200+ associates. He was responsible for overseeing radio programs in 140 Indian languages, and developed an innovative strategy called Radio Homes (home churches) that has impacted millions of unreached people throughout South Asia. George retired from TWR in 2021, but continues in an active ministry role with regular preaching and teaching opportunities. George and his wife Lizzi currently live in Kerala, India, and have two grown children.

Bob Sackmann

Bob leads an IBM team of IT consultants, software engineers, business analysts, finance and business control experts, process integration leads, technical operations personnel, and project managers to replace IBM’s aging infrastructure with SAP enterprise software solutions. As a senior manager, Bob has functional responsibility for a staff of over 125 people with locations in Germany, Denmark, Scotland, South Asia, China, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S. He spends a lot of time coaching, enabling, and encouraging team members to pursue excellence with a growth mindset in all they do. Bob and Barb have been members of The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) in Cary, NC since 1994. Bob has a passion for discipling men to follow Christ, and led the Men’s Ministry in the South Atlantic District of the C&MA for fifteen years. Bob is also a member of Toastmasters. Bob and his wife Barb have three adult, married children and five grandchildren.

Felix Widmer – Chair

Together with Siny his wife, Felix has been working with TWR for almost 40 years, starting in Swaziland as a studio-technician, and, ending in February 2015 as International Director the European Region, including Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. As a Jesus lover, Felix is living in Switzerland and continues to have a deep interest in developing mass media content as conversation and not just as monologue. He tries to practice this first with his wife, his two children, seven grandchildren, and with Freedom to Lead.