The World Evangelical Alliance expresses its gratitude for the service of Rev. Ray Swatkowski who retired from his active involvement in the WEA at the end of last month and will assume a senior pastor role at a multi-site church in Illinois. Dr. Joanna Bartovic, CPA, who has served in the WEA finance department for many years, is assuming the CFO role.
“We are very grateful to Ray for his faithful service over the past four and a half years. We will miss his gift to assure good governance and trustworthy numbers and contracts to the last details. We pray that God would reward him for all he has done for WEA and bless his new ministry at the place that is at the heart of what the WEA is all about: a local church!” said Bishop Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, Secretary General of the WEA.
Former Secretary General Bishop Efraim Tendero, who now serves as WEA Global Ambassador, also expressed his appreciation, commenting: “Ray came in as Deputy Secretary General of Operations when we needed it most. With his mild manners and high standard of excellence, he effectively managed the personnel, finances, legal matters, communication, funds-development and membership of the WEA. He organized timely reports and outcome based annual plans to the International Council and made sure we had good fiscal management in the conduct of the recent WEA General Assembly, which ended with a modest surplus.”
Dr. Joanna Bartovic who has assumed the CFO role as of January 1 has served in WEA’s finance department for the past twelve years, most recently as Director of Finance. A Certified Public Accountant, she has studied accounting in her home country of South Africa, earning a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting Sciences from the University of Pretoria. After completing her studies, she came to faith in Jesus Christ and served as a missionary traveling Africa, spending time in Europe as well as Latin America, and ultimately settling in the United States. With a passion for mission and using her financial insights to serve Christian ministries, she completed a Doctor of Ministry focusing on equipping churches and emerging Christian non-profits with the necessary knowledge to navigate finances.
“For more than a decade Joanna has been on the other end of the line whenever I dealt with financial matters within the WEA, starting in my earlier role in the theology department,” Schirrmacher said, and added: “Since I assumed the Secretary General role two years ago, she has been a close ally to me and Dr. Peirong Lin, our Deputy Secretary General for Operations, watching over our budget and auditing. We happily entrust our finances to a CFO we know well, as we have seen her diligent and trustworthy work ensuring the good governance of funds entrusted to us by Evangelical Alliances and donors.”
Upon her appointment, Bartovic said: “I thank God for the blessing of serving in the WEA and am very humbled to be in this role. It is an absolute privilege, and constant source of encouragement, to work alongside many respected Evangelical leaders. I continue to pray and trust in the Lord to provide all wisdom and grace needed to carry out the work.”
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