Rosanna grew up in Pennsylvania and is married to her husband, Nelson. She has a Bachelor’s of Nursing from Columbia University in New York and Masters in Intercultural Studies Missiology from Wheaton Graduate School. She served as a missionary nurse educator with the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Gabon Africa from 1980 to 1998. In Gabon, Rosanna served at the Bongolo Hospital and later led the Primary Health Care ministry using Community Health Evangelism. Since completing her doctorate degree in Nursing Practice at Case Western Reserve University in 2002, she has taught nursing research in the School of Nursing at Malone University, Canton, OH. She led the non-profit organization, Research For Health Inc. from 2005 to 2018 and has been a part of numerous U.S. and international research studies. Rosanna and Nelson live in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and Lehigh Acres, Fla. They enjoy golf and biking.

President and Chairman of the Board – Bongolo Friends

Glenn is a former businessman, small business owner, contractor, inventor, and pastor.

He retired in 2021 from serving as Mission Pastor at the 2,500-member Allegheny Center Alliance Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., 12 years.

Glenn founded and is President and Chairman of the Board of the Christian Immigration Advocacy Center, a successful not-for-profit law firm that provides very low cost or free legal services to the refugee and immigrant community in Pennsylvania and surrounding states.

He is also a leader of the annual national “Converge” Missions conference, involved in the annual planning of this event.

Glenn is an author of various articles and has presented seminars on missionary preparation and mentoring, collaborated on the writing and publication of the Missions Engagement Assessment Tool, and served as a mission driver in the WPA District of the C&MA as well as at the national level.

He has served missionaries and missions endeavors in 46 countries, many cities and traveled to more than 20 countries.

Glenn sits on the Oversight Committee for Bongolo Hospital in Gabon, West Africa.

Dr. David Thompson earned his MD degree in 1973 from the University of Pittsburgh and completed five years of general surgery training in San Diego and Los Angeles. He married his wife Rebecca in 1973, and from 1977 to 2012, they served at Bongolo Hospital while raising their family. In 1996, he founded the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) and began a program to train and disciple African surgeons. Since then, the PAACS program at Bongolo Hospital has graduated 19 surgeons, and PAACS has expanded to 11 other Christian hospitals in Africa. In 2012, Dr. Thompson and his wife moved to Harpur Memorial Hospital in Egypt’s Nile delta, where he opened another PAACS program while his wife launched a nursing school in the region. In 2018, the Thompsons retired and currently live in Redding, California. Dr. Thompson continues to serve as the Board Chairman for Bongolo Hospital’s Oversight Committee and visits the hospital each year. He has authored five books: On Call, The Hand on My Scalpel, Beyond the Mist, Christian Mercy, and Training God’s Surgeons for Africa. The Thompsons have three grown children and six grandchildren.

Dr. Bill Wilson was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa. After earning a BS in Biology from Virginia Tech, he enrolled at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia on a medical scholarship from the United States Air Force. After receiving his MD, Dr. Wilson completed a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital with Brown University, and then served four years in the Air Force as a general internist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. After finishing his military service obligation, he returned to Hahnemann for fellowship training in gastroenterology. For the next 30 years Dr. Wilson was a partner at Dayton Gastroenterology and on staff at Miami Valley Hospital. There he assisted on numerous committees, served a term as Chief of Staff and served on the hospital Board of Directors. He and his wife, Marly, have had a long-standing commitment to Christian education. Their three children attended Dayton Christian School, where Dr. Wilson also served on Board of Directors. He and Marly have attended Fairhaven Church, part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, for 40 years. Throughout the years, he has been involved as a small group leader, marriage ministry counselor, men’s ministry leader, and member of the Elders and Governing boards. Dr. Wilson grew up in a missions minded church in Pittsburgh, but his interest in medical missions was sparked following a 1995 family trip to Nepal to visit missionaries. A few years later, he and his wife attended a “Perspectives” course, which led to a commitment to short-term medical missions. Two early trips to Mozambique, four medical trips to Guatemala and two trips to Equador led him to answering a call to teach physician-trainees at Bongolo Hospital in Gabon, West Africa. Since 2009, Dr. Wilson has made 12 separate trips to teach endoscopic skills to young African physicians. His work at Bongolo Hospital has been some of the most meaningful of his life as he has helped to train and mentor young African physicians to deliver first-world medicine to a healthcare-deprived continent. His vision is to see the mission of Bongolo Hospital continued for years to come and to witness transformational change of a continent for Christ through the hospital’s healing and sending ministry. He believes Bongolo Friends is the means God will use to reach that goal.