Gretchen and Thomas Reynolds
Email: Gretchen and Thomas Reynolds

Thomas and Gretchen Reynolds were appointed in June 2004 to be teachers with
the Amity Foundation in China.

After graduating with a B. A. in architecture from the University of California at Berkeley, Thomas returned to his hometown of Glendale, California, to teach art and sculpture. Seven years later, he moved back to the San Francisco Bay area and taught math to middle school students in Oakland, where he met Gretchen. Thomas began teaching ESL to adults in 2001 in order to prepare himself for teaching English overseas.

Gretchen also holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley—hers is in integrated biology. She has spent her career teaching, most recently as an ESL teacher of adults in the Oakland Unified School District. She speaks both Spanish and Cambodian with her students and has a gift for building bridges across cultures. She and her students addressed some of the problems facing Latino and Cambodian mothers who want to learn English and help their children succeed in school.

Letters from
Gretchen and Thomas Reynolds

• August 2006
• May 2006
• April 2006
• February 2005

Gretchen first gained experience working in Asia when she served in Cambodia with InnerChange, the program of Church Resource Ministries that focuses on working with the poor. She spent eight months working with the 20-member staff of a non-governmental organization that helped girls leave the life of prostitution.

"I learned to have a more realistic view of missionary life there," writes Gretchen of her time in Cambodia. "I used to have romanticized images of missionaries as 'superhero' Christians, people who had formed a perfect relationship with Jesus. But after being in community with other missionaries, I found that they were just normal people like me. I went to Cambodia to teach English, but I ended up learning more than I taught." Thomas also spent two months in Cambodia exploring ancient ruins, encouraging Gretchen, and learning Khmer.

Thomas was a youth leader in Presbyterian churches in Berkeley, Moraga, and Glendale for ten years. Gretchen is ordained to the office of elder. The Reynolds are active members of New Hope Covenant Church in Oakland, California, where they led Bible studies with Cambodian immigrants. Although they do not lead Bible studies in China—part of their agreement with the Amity Foundation and the Chinese government—they hope to demonstrate the love of Jesus and honor Him in their daily lives.

Birthdays:
Thomas - October 30
Gretchen - May 24