Mike and kOOKIE Taylor
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Mike’s passion is helping students see the call of God on their life for the Gospel. Mike has been an innovator in Student Ministry for over 30 years. Throughout his ministry, he has used his spiritual gifts to preach and teach students through his personal mission statement: “We exist to Reach unbelieving and uncommitted students to Grow and deepen them in their faith and to Send them out to impact their world for Jesus Christ.” Mike’s ability to lead has given him the reputation as one of the top youth pastors in the country. He has served as President of the Metro Youth Pastors Association on two occasions and has been a featured speaker with the Song of Solomon conferences, youth camps, and various student events. Mike and his wife, Kookie currently live in the United Kingdom in Stockton-on-Tees. They have four children: Thad, Shelby, Hannah, and Hayden.
Mike currently serves as the Centre Director for Tees Valley Youth For Christ and as the Pastor of The Vine Church Teesside. Mike and Kookie have lived in the Northeast of England since September 2011.
Executive Director / Board Member since 2011 || Arkansas/TeessideOur Team
Kim Ladd
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Kim Ladd has served as the Relationship Manager for UK-USA Ministries since 2012. In her role, she is the interface with donors and Volunteer Youth Workers as well as the liaison between ministry partners Tees Valley Youth for Christ and Greater Europe Mission.
Prior to feeling the Lord ask her to “walk away [from Corporate America] and use your skills for Me,” Kim’s career was in recruiting/project management. She previously held a position with Zale Corporation, Inet Technologies, Mercer and PayFlex Systems.
Kim lives in McKinney, TX with her husband, Greg, where they are active in their church in Richardson. After many years of serving as Directors of the Honeymooners Life Group, they now are mentors to young married couples. Kim graduated summa cum laude from The University of Texas at Dallas with a degree in Business Administration.
Relationship Manager || Dallas
Rebecca Patterson
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Rebecca grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior at the age of 7. She graduated with honors from The University of Alabama (ROLL TIDE!) with a BS in Child and Family Development and Elementary Education. It was there she met and married the love of her life, Jim Patterson, in 1974. They were blessed with 39.5 years of marriage before his promotion to heaven in 2014. Before children, she taught second grade and Kindergarten and was then blessed to be the “Domestic Engineer” for The Patterson household.
Rebecca has three married children, also claiming their spouses as her own, and 10 amazing grandchildren. Her favorite title is “Granna”.
Regardless in which state she has lived, serving in their local church has taken top priority. This was usually in the student ministry areas of each church.
Since 1983, Rebecca has served at Champion Forest Baptist in Houston, Texas. Currently she is teaching young adults and serves on the Missions Committee. Prior to this, she and Jim served in student ministry until 2012. Together they mentored and taught young adult life groups. She has also served on varying other committees at the church.
She has been associated with UK-USA Ministries since its inception; calling The Taylors “family” for years!
Rebeca has volunteered at the local schools in her district through the years. She served as a member of the Patient Family Advisory Committee at MD Anderson for numerous years.
Relationship Manager / Board Member since 2024 || Houston
HANNAH Taylor
UK Director || Teesside, England
WEATHERLY MAY
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Ms. Weatherly May joined UK-USA Ministries in July 2024 to assist with logistic after participating in a short-term trip to Middlesbrough, UK. She saw how hard the team was working and wanted to help and stay involved in the ministry after returning home. Weatherly is a member of Biltmore Church in Asheville, NC. A retired US Air Force healthcare executive with over 25 years of experience in military health care, she has a Masters in Health Administration from Baylor University (Army-Baylor Program). Since retirement in 2022, Weatherly has volunteered in the Biltmore Church Missions office and participated in multiple trips to support a church plant in London, UK. She loves the British people! Weatherly is married to Rick May and has one step-son, a daughter-in-law and two fabulous grandchildren.
Logistics Manager || North CarolinaMike
Taylor
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Mike’s passion is helping students see the call of God on their life for the Gospel. Mike has been an innovator in Student Ministry for over 30 years. Throughout his ministry, he has used his spiritual gifts to preach and teach students through his personal mission statement: “We exist to Reach unbelieving and uncommitted students to Grow and deepen them in their faith and to Send them out to impact their world for Jesus Christ.” Mike’s ability to lead has given him the reputation as one of the top youth pastors in the country. He has served as President of the Metro Youth Pastors Association on two occasions and has been a featured speaker with the Song of Solomon conferences, youth camps, and various student events. Mike and his wife, Kookie currently live in the United Kingdom in Stockton-on-Tees. They have four children: Thad, Shelby, Hannah, and Hayden.
Mike currently serves as the Centre Director for Tees Valley Youth For Christ and as the Pastor of The Vine Church Teesside. Mike and Kookie have lived in the Northeast of England since September 2011.
Executive Director/Board Member since 2011Our board
John
Wills
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Serving The Heights Baptist Church for the last 10+ years as Executive Pastor for an amazing group of staff/people called The Heights. I serve as chief operating officer and work directly with our Sr. Pastor to carry out the vision God has given him for our church. I teach and invest in Honeymooners, develop our staff to their full potential, and work with/love neighbors and international students at the University of Texas Dallas. I work closely with a non-profit called Jordan Seven to help alleviate the Water Crisis in 3rd world countries in Africa. I fell in love with England in 2000 and saw the potential for the Gospel and students there that makes my heart beat faster to this day. John was one of the founding members of UK-USA Ministries in 2006.
I have been married to my favorite wife, Kelly, for 36 years. We have two great kids and 3 amazing grandkids. I was a Student Minister for over 20 years at 3 great churches. Psalm 19 echoes in my soul and keeps me fervent for a world God loves and sent his son to die for. I believe God has a crush on us that he never gets over. I am still here to give people great pictures of a God who loves them.
You can follow John on X: @johnswills and on Instagram: @jnkwills
Board Member Since 2006
Victor
Moran
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Victor Moran serves as Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer of Moran Enterprises, Inc., a diversified holding company with target investments in real estate, energy and the private security industries. He has over 35 years of U.S. and international experience in the private and public sectors.
Born and raised as a child in the State of Oregon in the U.S Pacific Northwest, Victor’s parents committed their lives to missions and ministry serving in the State of Texas on the border of the United States and the Republic of Mexico. Victor committed his life to Christ at a young age and has been blessed to serve in leadership roles of numerous nonprofit and for profit organizations since his college years.
Victor has served as Chairman and CEO of Vil-Mor International, Inc., CRV Resources Holdings, Inc., Moran Gas Management Corp., Siempre Energy LLC and as a member of the Board of Swift Energy International Inc., East Texas Baptist University, the Spring Independent School District and the UBA Center for Counseling. He has served on the advisory boards of Texas A&M University Mays Business School – Master of Science in Marketing and the Executive MBA program, as well as, the Advisory Board of the South Texas College of Law Corporate Compliance Center and the Advisory Board of Arts and Humanities at the University of Houston – Downtown.
Victor Moran earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and history from the University of Texas-Pan American, a Juris Doctor degree from South Texas College of Law, a Master of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University and did graduate work at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Christian Education. He holds the Certificate of Director Education from the National Association of Corporate Directors Institute.
You can follow Victor on X: @victorrmoran2
Board Member Since 2015
Kathryn
Belmont
Board Member since 2025-
Kathryn has been the Youth Pastor at All Saints’ Church, Preston-on-Tees, in the United Kingdom for 15 years. She is passionate about ‘helping young people become life-long followers of Jesus’ and is dedicated to the discipleship of the Christian young people who are part of her church, as well as outreach to the many young people in Teesside who do not yet know Jesus. She is blessed to have her husband, John, serving on her team.Kathryn currently serves as the Chair of the Board at Tees Valley Youth for Christ, whose vision is ‘we’re about seeing young people’s lives changed by Jesus’. Tees Valley Youth for Christ are honoured to partner with UK-USA Ministries as well as Greater Europe Mission to enable youth ministry to happen in UK churches who would not otherwise be able to resource it themselves. Together they hope to see many young people in the UK choose to live in relationship with Jesus.
Kathryn is also hugely passionate about global mission and has been blessed to lead 8 mission trips to Tijuana, Mexico with groups of young people, as well as mission trips to Malawi, and Bonton, Texas.
Alongside youth ministry Kathryn enjoys spending time with her family, and will soon be an Aunty for the first time! She loves travelling, her Cocker Spaniel Ruby, playing the piano, the theatre and live music amongst many other things!
Greg
Ladd
Board Member since 2011
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Greg is a 30-year veteran of the high-tech industry. For the past 12 years, Greg has been working with a group of Venture Capital and Private Equity investment firms to build out commercial operations for their portfolio of start-up software companies. Greg holds a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Management Information Systems from the University of Tulsa.
He is also a Board Director of Greater Europe Mission (GEM) and remains significantly involved with the UK-USA and GEM alignment strategy.
After many years of serving as Directors of the Honeymooners Adult Bible Fellowship at their home church in Richardson, TX, Greg and his wife, Kim, now serve as mentors to young married couples and emerging business leaders.
John
Stewart
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John is a 20-year educator. Starting of as a PE teacher and coach, and progressing to senior leadership positions, that have mainly had a focus on very vulnerable students. He worked in a faith based school and after partnering with Champion Forest Baptist Church, Houston and a few hops across the pond to attend Church High School Summer camps was baptized in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009. He has worked across a number of schools in the North East of England. He is currently a Deputy Head teacher at a large secondary school that has significant deprivation. John holds a Bachelor of Sports Science and a Masters in Education.
He has worked for UK-USA Ministries for a short time has been a board member for 4 years.
Personal Interests and Community Activities include: all forms of sport and exercise, as well as travelling and visiting new places both at home and abroad. In addition he has been a trustee for around 8 years at one of our partners in England – Tees Valley Youth for Christ.
Board Member since 2020
Shawn
Smith
John
Rhodes
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John’s background is as an educator, retiring as Vice Principal of The King’s Academy, Middlesbrough in 2015. He is currently chair of GEM UK, chair of York YFC and on the board of UK-USA Ministries. He leads services and preaches once a month at his local Anglican Church as well as preaching at various churches in the area.
John has been married to Claudine for 46 years and they have two sons, Greg and Anthony and two grandchildren, Eva and Zach.
John is a huge sports fan, especially football ( soccer ) and plays walking football 3 times a week.
Board Member Since 2006
CARL
HEFTON
Board Member since 2019
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Carl
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Shawn serves as the Vice President of Mobilization for Cross Theological Seminary in Northwest Arkansas. He has served in churches for the past 34 years as a student pastor, campus pastor, executive pastor, and senior pastor. Shawn is married to Tracey and they have one son. Shawn enjoys doing triathlons, reading, and music. He has served on the board of UK/USA since 2015.
Board Member since 2015