Ministry Support Team

Volunteer Coordinator

Deborah lives in Minnesota, with her husband, Mark, and is a member of Bloomington Living Hope. They became interested in Costa Maya Ministries when their church started financially supporting them as a mission.

Deborah has traveled to Mahahual many times. After her second trip in April 2016, she became the first Volunteer Coordinator for Costa Maya Ministries. This position includes assisting volunteers as they prepare to travel to Mexico to work at the mission, and maintaining a wish list of ministry needs. This list contains items which could be donated and carried to Mexico by volunteers and/or monetary donations for the purchase of much needed items.

Communications Coordinator

Charissa lives in Arkansas with her husband, Ross, and her four sons: Graham, Cal, Henry & Harry (twins!). She formerly served as a high school teacher, but now is able to stay at home raising her four boys. She has a passion for missions and has had a few opportunities to travel to different states and countries to do mission work. She is very thankful to be a part of the Costa Maya Ministries Team!

As Communications Coordinator she is responsible for keeping our social media and website up-to-date with the latest ministry news, creating various materials to be used in presentations and events, communicating with our donors and supporters, and managing the newsletter.

Mission Advancement

Pastor Kleist joined our staff of volunteers in 2019 after serving our synod (WELS) as a Christian Giving Counselor specializing in Christian Estate Planning. He is experienced in helping Christians with tax-wise giving and the use of charitable giving tools such as Qualified Charitable Distributions from IRAs, charitable annuities, beneficiary designations and more. He welcomes your gift-planning questions!

Dennis began his ministry in missions as a home missionary in SW Florida, and later served on the WELS Board for Home Missions. He then served Jerusalem Lutheran in the ethnically diverse Chicago suburb of Morton Grove for 20 years until accepting a call to the WELS Ministry of Christian Giving and relocating to Appleton, WI, to serve the Northern Wisconsin District as a counselor.

Pastor Kleist and his wife Kerri have 7 adult children and 12 grandsons. They attend Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Appleton.  He says, “I’m privileged to serve with Costa Maya Ministries to help bring the saving Gospel to a remote area of Mexico. What personal joy and satisfaction God gives when we see how God can use us, our prayers, gifts and mutual encouragement to spread his Word and be used by Jesus to bring souls to heaven!”