Global Partners
Tom and Dee Yaccino, serving with Del Camino Connection (read their most recent monthly blog/newsletter here)
Tom and Dee Yaccino have partnered in transformational, cross-cultural ministry since the late eighties. Tom earned degrees in Cultural Geography and Spanish from Augustana College, and Dee earned a degree in Anthropology from Wheaton College. Both Tom and Dee have concentrations in Latin American Studies. After receiving Masters Degrees in Intercultural Studies with their emphasis on Community Development and Adult Non-formal education from Wheaton Graduate School, they served in rural Bolivia for 6 years and then moved to the Dominican Republic to lead the development of Willow’s international ministries focused on partnerships. Form 1995 until 2011, Tom and Dee have lived in the DR, shaping Willow Creek’s Global Connections Latin American strategy and raising their four children: Aisha, Alina, Alize, and Aaron.
Through the strategic partnerships developed in the DR, they participated in and supported a church-based network movement focused on the practice of integral mission called Red del Camino (RdC) for Integral Mission in Latin America and the Caribbean. These friends from diverse Latin missional communities of faith and those in North America shared the need for a connecting entity to help facilitate and catalyze purposeful relationships among those who believe deeply in the local church’s role and responsibility in God’s plan for the restoration of all things. Del Camino Connection was born to address that need.
Recently relocating to Chicago area, Tom continues his connecting work with regular trips back to their DR home and around Latin America. They also offer consulting and coaching services to churches that are passionate about partnering with the Global Church to leverage our shared spiritual, human, and financial resources in response to Jesus’ mission to make all things new. Dee is pursuing a PhD at Trinity University (thus the move to Chicago) to bring further scholarship to this integral mission movement.
