Bremer-Bennett Appointed Co-Director of World Renew

Carol Bremer-Bennett has been appointed as the next director of World Renew-U.S. The appointment by the Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church is subject to ratification by Synod 2015.

Bremer-Bennett, who currently serves as superintendent of Rehoboth Christian School in Rehoboth, New Mexico, will take the place of long-time director Andrew Ryskamp, who retires this summer. She will work alongside World Renew-Canada director Ida Kaastra-Mutoigo.

Bremer-Bennett was nominated by the board of World Renew-U.S. on the unanimous recommendation of a search committee, which described her as a servant leader who works well with people of many different backgrounds and has a deep passion for justice.

It noted that “She has worked for two decades in a North American context where she has had to reflect on – and address in practical ways – the root causes of injustice and poverty.”

In an interview with the Board of Trustees, Bremer-Bennett described her life as a series of adoptions, starting with her adoption as a baby into a family in west Michigan.

After graduating from Calvin College she moved to Rehoboth to explore her Navajo heritage, but found she didn’t fit and didn’t know the culture, she said. A CRC Navajo leader then “adopted” her as his sister.

She also has been adopted as a “beloved daughter” into the family of God.

She and her husband have six children, three Navajo and three Ethiopian, of whom five are adopted. “The world has come together in my little home,” she noted.

She described herself as someone who is always learning and who has learned to rely on God and to “live in a lot of different worlds at once.”

“I’m not a superhero,” she said. “I just need to make myself available.”

Bremer-Bennett has an M.A. in educational leadership from Western New Mexico University in Gallup. She has served on the Calvin College Board of Trustees and as a deacon. She and her family are members of Bethany CRC in Gallup, N.M.

World Renew is the development, advocacy and disaster response arm of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

See also: coverage from The Banner and from World Renew.