Elaine Fallesen, Family Ministry/Communications Director

Elaine with our Project 1:27-sponsored children in Malawi, Africa in 2014.

I’ve lived and breathed Climbing For Christ for so long now that I can’t remember what life was like before it came into being. Never in my wildest Mefloquine-induced dreams could I have imagined a decade ago where this “hobby” of my husband Gary would take us.

If you’d told me 10 years ago that through this unique Christ-centered ministry I would become close friends with fellow believers living in high-altitude regions of the world … and that I would raise money to build 10 churches in the poorest of countries … and that I’d fall in love with C4C-supported orphans in Malawi and Nepal … and that I’d travel TO those countries to share the Gospel with people whose languages I don’t speak … I’d have wondered if YOU had gotten into the Mefloquine.

(For the record, Mefloquine is a medicine we often have to take to keep from contracting malaria. It is known to produce intense dreams … or nightmares.)

I’m blessed to be on His staff at Climbing For Christ. The world has become a small place as C4C has connected God’s dots to 15 countries that need His Light to shine in them. And the milestones C4C has reached to date prove just how big and powerful our God is. He takes a little and makes a lot of miracles. I’m in! Are you?

Elaine's Bio

Date of birth: July 22, 1956. Residence: Hilton, NY, USA. Personal: Married to Gary Fallesen, mom to Jesse and Hayley Fallesen.

Position: Communications Director at the C4C home office on the shore of Lake Ontario. Church: Hope Lutheran, Greece, NY.

How long have you climbed? Since the early ‘90s when our kids were small and as a family we began discovering God’s beautiful outdoors. Type of climbing you do: Hiking, nothing hardcore. Highlight of climbing career: Reaching High Camp on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

Elaine sharing the Gospel with children in a village in Nepal in 2012.

How long have you been a Christian? All my life. Type of ministry you are blessed to serve in: Climbing For Christ: as vice president 2004 - 2014; as team member on C4C missions to Haiti (2008 and 2009), Tanzania (2011), Malawi (2011 and 2014), Nepal (2012) and Turkey (2014). Also, formerly involved in youth ministry at my home church from 1996-2012.

Favorite Scripture verse (and why): 2 Timothy 4:2-5: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”  These are the Lord’s marching orders for all of us to obey, and they’re very clear. We will put on the full armor of God and boldly GO where He is sending us.

Special “God moment” you'd like to share: This year (2014) I prayerfully invited family and friends to help me make the decision about whether I would go on one or two C4C missions. God quickly began answering me through their responses of financial support. Because of their generosity, I was fully funded to serve on Mission: Malawi in March, and am closing in on my financial goal for Mission: Ararat. I’m grateful, humbled and incredibly blessed by such outpouring from dear loved ones.

What does Climbing For Christ mean to you? This ministry is a unique blessing and calling that the Lord has placed in my life, my marriage, my family and my future. I am privileged to help fulfill His command to “GO” with the Good News into the highest, most remote places of the world.