Bruce Sonnenberg
Graduating from Vanguard University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion, Bruce Sonnenberg spent the next 10 years serving as pastor of the Sky Valley Desert Retreat and Renewal Center, near Palm Springs, California.
Moving to Orange County in 1982, Bruce and Joni and their family then founded The Village Church of Irvine in the heart of Southern California where Bruce served as Senior Pastor until June of 2007.
Throughout his years in ministry, Bruce has served on numerous Christian and service organizations such as Youth for Christ of the Desert (1976-78), Families Forward of Irvine (1984-86), and the Orange County Rescue Mission (1982-92). Presently, Bruce serves on the board of Vietnamese Outreach International, Hampton, Virginia; is Fifth District Commissioner on the Housing & Community Services Commission of Orange County; and is a board member of Children’s AIDS Fund based in Washington DC.
As Founder and President of He Intends Victory, Bruce began with a support group of three hurting people in 1990. Today, in over 20 countries of the world and touching many people through radio, television, speaking opportunities, orphanages, homes for those with HIV and providing care and encouragement, He Intends Victory is dedicated to educating the world community and the Church on how to effectively share hope to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Bruce has attended the International Conferences on AIDS in Berlin, Yokohama, Bangkok, Toronto and Mexico City (2008); has co-hosted The 700 Club’s one hour TV special, “Living With AIDS“; has contributed and been interviewed by major magazines and the media: had been a plenary speaker at both of the first “national Christian conferences” on HIV/AIDS in Russia and Malaysia and has spoken before and on behalf of the National AIDS Committee of Vietnam, the Malaysian AIDS Council in Kuala Lumpur and to both the secular and Christian communities in Indonesia, Belize, the Philippines, Cambodia, Venezuela and served in over 40 other countries. In 2001, 2006, and 2008 Bruce was a delegate to the United Nations High Level Review on HIV/AIDS in New York City. Bruce also has spoken at all three HIV Conferences with “Purpose Driven” author Rick Warren of Saddleback Church. As Dr. Warren has stated publicly,
“Bruce is a real pioneer for the Church in HIV/AIDS, one of the first to be on the front lines of this huge need.”
Bruce and Joni live in Lake Forest, California and are blessed with four grown children and eight grandchildren.
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Joan Yorba-Gray
Joan is a woman of deep faith in God. That faith was severely tested in 1988 when Joan not only found out that her very ill husband had AIDS but that she had been infected by him and was now HIV+. “I feared my children would become orphans. I felt such grief and pain for the trauma that had entered their lives. I struggled with my mortality.” But the Lord still had a life ahead for Joan and she knew it. He loved her.
In 1991, Joan, who holds a Masters of Social Work and who was a licensed therapist, met Galen Gray, now a Professor of Spanish at Vanguard University. They were married in 1994 joining not only their hearts but also their last names.
Today they oversee the Hispanic area of the ministry of He Intends Victory. It was through their diligent and hard work that the book, He Intends Victory, by author Dan Wooding, was published in Spanish at the beginning of 2001.
Joan and Galen live in Costa Mesa, California.
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Jennifer Veary
Jennifer Veary has been serving with He Intends Victory since 1994. After she graduated from Marquette University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Jennifer worked in numerous areas of Critical Care. Eventually, Jennifer moved to Southern California working both at Cedars Sinai Hospital and UCLA Medical Center. In 1991, Jennifer received a phone call from an old boy friend who, having just tested positive for HIV, encouraged her to be tested. Jennifer also tested positive. Her closest friend, a committed Christian, encouraged Jennifer to know that God loved her, and to get involved with a church for support. Jennifer asked Jesus for His help and gave her life to the Lord that all of this might be used for His Glory. She is now ordained as a licensed minister with a Masters Degree in Biblical Counseling,
Today, Jennifer is an international AIDS Educator with He Intends Victory. In 1997 Jennifer was married to Rusty Veary of Huntington Beach, California. Together they have a powerful testimony: Jennifer, sharing how God has used HIV in her life to bring her to a relationship with Him; and Rusty, sharing the love and compassion of Jesus, marrying someone with HIV (he is HIV negative) and dispelling many myths and fears about the virus.
Speaking at colleges, universities, seminaries, and schools around the United States, Jennifer continues to share Jesus as the hope for those facing HIV. From Willow Creek Church to Golden Gate Baptist Seminary to Cypress College, she educates the church and the youth about this virus. She challenges people to overcome their fears providing factual information about the virus, and to reach out with love and compassion for those who are infected.
Jennifer also travels around the world providing HIV/AIDS education. From Singapore to South Africa, from to Belize to Russia, she boldly shares what Jesus has done in her life. In Australia, Taiwan, England, and Indonesia Jennifer has “put a face on HIV” to help reduce the stigma surrounding this disease.
Together Jennifer and Rusty have traveled throughout Southeast Asia, and lived in both Vietnam and Malaysia, helping to develop the chapters of He Intends Victory in these countries.
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Kathi Winter
As founder and sole owner of Global Incentives, Inc. in Huntington Beach, California, Kathi Winter brings 32 years of international business experience to her role as an HIV educator and He Intends Victory Board Member. Having traveled around the world 72 times in her early career and later through her company, planned and implemented incentive programs through the US, Canada, Europe, and the Pacific Region, she is totally at ease with peoples whose culture is different from her own. Over a 10-year period, she arranged educational exchanges to China for more than 6,000 people. All of this experience served her well when she became involved in HIV education in 1996, after her own diagnosis as HIV Positive.
During her initial diagnosis, she was also a brand new Christian, and had many fears about God and church. She felt abandoned by some friends, family and her first church who asked her not to discuss the disease with other members. So lost and alone, seeking refuge for a Christian support group, in 1998 she found He Intends Victory. Even today she declares, “This organization saved my life and my soul.” In 2004, Kathi began speaking at events for He Intends Victory and she joined the board officially in 2006. She proclaims that this is the ONLY Christian support group world wide that brings our HIV brothers and sisters together in a forum for open conversation and the loving support of God. “It’s just a total Godly directed organization. And I am so grateful for H.I.V.
Kathi expanded her efforts in this field by making presentations to schools and churches through the Red Cross and AIDS Service Foundation. In 2005, she began an association with Saddleback Church, whose Pastor, Rick Warren, was a leader in the effort to break the silence about HIV/AIDS that existed for so long in churches. Kathy co-led the first support group for Saddleback for a year, and through He Intends Victory, she has helped to pioneer the encouraging of churches at home and abroad to open their hearts and minds to the, still, taboo subject.
Since 1998, when Kathi co-founded Outreach to Africa, a 501-C3 California nonprofit corporation, she helped to create special projects, by implementing a major HIV Education Conference in Uganda, Rwebisengo in 2006 along the boarder of Congo in a large village. . Throughout the years, Kathi has traveled to Africa more than 15 times and plans to return yearly. Her personal story has been told in Dan Wooding’s book, He Intends Victory. Her letters home describing the heart-wrenching day-to-day activities and conditions in the places where she has worked would fill another book.
In 2008, Kathi led a small humanitarian team to Uganda and Congo to teach HIV education to over 750 church leaders and pastors over a three day long seminar. The results were very favorable as many people came to the Lord. H.I.V. has over 18 support groups in Fort Portal, Uganda and a newly forming association with church leaders in Goma Congo.
Kathi’s mission is: Through education to spread the truth about HIV/AIDS, so that people worldwide can gain a better understanding about avoiding and living with the disease. She describes HIV as a disease of brokenness of the heart, spirit, mind, and body, and she believes that Christianity demands that we that we let Jesus heal the whole person.
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Sharon Hylton Filsinger
AIDS Widow and Board member of He Intends Victory. I work 3 days a week in the HIV Office with Pastor Bruce. Have traveled all over the world sharing the love of Jesus Christ with those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
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Dan Davis
Dan Davis joined He Intends Victory (HIV) as the Ministry Coordinator in 1998. Mr. Davis is currently holds the position of Director of Ministry. He is a national certified speaker on HIV/AIDS through the American Red Cross. He is responsible for the coordination of HIV exhibits at “Love Won Out” conferences sponsored by Focus on the Family. Mr. Davis has traveled extensively throughout the United States, England, Malaysia and Africa, sharing the hope of Jesus Christ through the ministry of He Intends Victory.
In Phoenix where he currently lives, he has worked with a local ministry called Compassion in Action. A ministry to those infected by HIV/AIDS
Dan was diagnosed with AIDS in 1994. His wife, Cathy, and he have celebrated 35years of marriage. They are the proud parents of three children and three grandchildren.
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