Meet the BTBAB Team

BTBAB is run by a team of Directors, supported by coordinators and covered by a board of advisors known as Trustees. Together, we come from a diverse expression of God’s family but with a common desire to see people experience the love of God in a practical way in the developing world.

PATRONS & BOARD OF TRUSTEES

FEMI ONI

BTBAB PATRON

Born in England to Nigerian parents and having spent most of his life in 3 different cultures, Femi is what many psychologists today would call a Third Culture kid. His exposure to different cultures has been challenging but used by God in a way that now enables him to relate to almost any culture in the world.

An Orthoptist (vision therapist) by profession, he has served the poor with his skills for over 20 years in the developing world (including successfully setting up an internationally recognised community eye health course in the Amazon in Brazil in 2007). He was Director of Operations for BTBAB for 14 years, during which he led 14 short-term mission teams and pioneered the ToolBox training program for BTBAB. Thereafter, he served as the Chair of the organisation for an additional 5 years during which he developed initiatives such as Gap Year Internships and our mentoring program to raise future leaders for the organisation.

Femi has always felt that one of the greatest gift God has given him to the Body of Christ is discipleship. To this end, he (along with Maria) have set-up a discipleship training programme that is now accessible to the Body of Christ (www.disciplersworkshop.com )

Married to Maria (Cidinha), they are blessed with two children and together they make their home in England (in the UK) where they have pioneered a new operational base for BTBAB.

Femi is the founder of BTBAB. He stepped aside from the Board of Trustees in November 2019 and currently serves as the patron of the organisation tasked with advising on the good stewardship of the legacy of BTBAB.

shirley

SHIRLEY COOPER

Executive Director & Trustee for Developing People on the Field

My name is Shirley. I am from Lancashire (England) but I arrived in Liverpool in 1990 after spending two years in South Wales. I came to Liverpool to help establish a team who would encourage people to step out into short/long term mission. I then went out from 1993 till 1999 to North Africa. I returned home in 1999 to pursue a Masters in Primary Health Care (something of a miracle) and then took a break from missions for several years during which I invested in my local church. Then in 2013, I went on my first BTBAB mission (which God used to restore my full passion for missions) and I have never looked back since.

Since joining BTBAB in 2013, I have been part of 8 teams (4 of which I have led). I held the post of Director of the ACI for 2 years helping to identify and sponsor young people into education up to university level, in the developing world.

In 2018, the organisation began to experience a shift to developing people on the field (not just at home) and subsequently asked me to step in to champion this cause on the Board of Trustees.

I enjoy cycling and love reading...but most of all, I have a passion for people growing into their call.

YVONNE TWUM-BARIMA

BTBAB CHAIR & PRAYER ADVISOR

Originally from Ghana, Yvonne has lived in the UK since 1978. With over 20 years’ experience as a business and data analyst, Yvonne changed careers in 2021 and now works in the Business Continuity field. She is also fully involved in the life and ministry of her local church, St Saviours in Guildford.

Yvonne is drawn to prayer especially for nations and people groups, and as BTBAB's Chair and prayer advisor she has seen how God works in mysterious ways and how faithful He is no matter the circumstances or barriers in your way.

JULIE ESSEKU

TRUSTEE TREASURER

An accountant by trade working in the banking industry, Julie is the ideal person to be our treasurer on the Board of Trustees - a position she has held since 2011.

Brought up in a Christian home Julie is of Ghanaian descent but would also call Britain her home. She finds cultures fascinating and over the years has been involved in local community projects – most notably, teaching English to refugees coming into Britain.

Dan James

TRUSTEE OCT ADVISOR

Dan James is the OCT Advisor on the BTBAB Board of Trustees. Dan is a civil engineer and is married to the lovely Hannah who used to be part of the BTBAB team and is now part of Water From the Rock (WFTR) ministry. He was part of the BTBAB mission team that went to Guatemala in 2019, and so has some knowledge of our ministry. The aim of the Overseas Community Transformation (OCT) is to bring communities out of the hopelessness of poverty and experience the heart felt love of God. We look forward to Dan’s contribution to the future of OCT and we thank God for bringing him into our ministry.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ESTHER PRICE

National Director

Esther joined the BTBAB team in 2014 and held the post of Administrator for a numbers of years before being offered the opportunity for training into senior leadership. She accepted the challenge and subsequently was instrumental in helping to create an administrative structure for our new base. She is also the first fully trained worker on the field in the history of the organisation.

God called Esther to full-time mission in the 90s working with YWAM for 3 years. However, just as she was fully ready to do long term cross cultural work, God told her to go back to Hereford. After a long break away, God drew her back to missions and she went on her first trip with BTBAB to Peru in 2014. She has since been on a further 10 trips to Vietnam (x2), Peru (x2), Thailand (x3), India & the UK (x2).

Esther was in Thailand as a Field worker for BTBAB and returned in March 2020. She has since taken on the role of UK National Director.

COORDINATORS

Jenny McCurry

ACI COORDINATOR

Jenny first came across BTBAB in November 2017 during her inaugural mission trip to Thailand. Since that time, she has embarked on seven additional missions to India, Thailand once more, South Africa, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and most recently, Malawi.

A native of Hereford, Jenny has resided in Scotland for over three decades, surrounded by her two adult sons, a daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter. She entered retirement from her full-time career in April 2018 and, like many retirees, often ponders how she ever found time for work. Currently, she dedicates her time to volunteering with BTBAB, focusing on Administration and Sponsorship Development.

Colin Hosken

COLIN HOSKEN

Website Coordinator

Colin had worked quietly behind the scenes for 2 years, serving BTBAB in many ways - leading worship at the base, producing our new logo and updating our marketing materials. Without prompting Colin, he built our new website behind the scenes which went live in October 2018 and has been busy rebranding and reworking our marketing materials.

Colin is a father to Joshua, lives & works full time as a web & graphic designer in Gibraltar, a small British Peninsula at the southern most part of Spain.

Cathy Miller

Safeguarding & Pastoral Care Coordinator

After a few years leading the Children’s play dates, Cathy is now involved in Safeguarding and Pastoral care within BTBAB.
Having already had a small taster of mission work years earlier in Israel and Brazil, Cathy went on her first mission trip with BTBAB to Thailand in 2019.
Since then Cathy has been on another two outreaches with BTBAB in the UK and to Malawi in July 24. She is now looking forward to seeing where God will take her next!
Cathy lives in Hereford with her family and after working with children for many years she has recently retrained and works in a hospital as a Health Care Assistant.

Tina Falvey

Toolbox Coordinator

Tina is an addiction counsellor and psychotherapist. She has 3 grown-up children and 3 grandchildren and lives in Ireland.

Tina’s first mission trip was to the Philippines in 2018, and while there she discovered there was more to this than going on a trip. So she started a journey with BTBAB! Since then, she has been on a trip to Thailand in 2019 and led a team to Ethiopia in 2020 and Malawi in 2024. She went on a shared ACI and OCT trip in 2022 to South Africa and Ethiopia.

As the toolbox coordinator, I enjoyed getting to grips with BTBAB as an organisation and gaining knowledge about myself. I look forward to continuing to lead teams on short-term mission trips and to developing my role as OCT coordinator.