The Oakhurst Evangelical Free Church strives to reach beyond our local church in order to do our part in fulfilling the Great Commission. We praise God for the privilege of supporting missionaries, thereby assisting in proclaiming the Gospel of Christ throughout the world. Our goal is to assist in winning people to the Lord, equipping them in the faith, and assist in establishing churches in every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Acts 14:21-23, Rev. 5:9).
We prayerfully and financially participate in the worldwide program of missionary endeavor through sending and supporting missionaries involved in evangelism, church planting and biblical instruction.
We strive to keep our congregation current with our missionary families’ activities and needs. We love and pray for them and interact with them by sending encouraging letters and e-mail communications. Additionally, we meet real needs such as housing and transportation needs when they are on furlough. We count it a privilege to support them, pray for them, communicate with them, and assist them as they are about God’s work.
Please use the following pages to become familiar with our beloved missionaries and join us in praying for them and their vital ministries.
Latest Posts from Missions Committee
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Meet Our Missionaries
Other organizations we are working with

Helping Hands
Helping Hands Pregnancy and Parenting Center is a local non-profit Christ-centered ministry offering life-affirming alternatives to abortion with compassionate support and practical education. Helping Hands was founded in 1998 serving the Oakhurst community. In 2014 an additional center was opened in the neighboring community of Mariposa. Helping Hands fulfills its mission by offering: confidential pregnancy tests and options counseling, child-birth classes, “Earn While You Learn” parenting classes where parents earn “Baby Bucks” for attending class and doing homework. Baby Bucks are spent at the “Baby Boutique” to purchase diapers, clothing and other necessities for their children. Helping Hands also offers, “Sexual Risk Avoidance” education and post-abortion recovery support and Bible study. All of their services are free.
Helping Hands is a lifeline for women and men of all ages, helping them through difficult times and ministering to them in the name of Jesus.
Click on graphic above for Phone number, Address and link to Website.
24 Hour Hotline: (800) 359-4357

Gleaning for the Hungry
Although Gleanings started producing food in the summer 1982, God was planting seeds for this ministry well before. In March 1975, Wally Wenge was appointed to YWAM’s International Council. During the installation ceremony, three YWAM members prophetically prayed the Lord would give Wally a “Joseph” ministry. God added clarification to the prophecy and a heart for the needy in 1981 when Wally and his wife, Norma, were with Cambodian refugees in Thailand. Later that year, while spending Christmas with family in California, God revealed to Wally that the tons of California cull fruit thrown away annually could be used as “gleanings for the needy of the world”.
During the first summer of 1982, the Wenges and local volunteers were able to process about 15,000 pounds of donated cull fruit using donated equipment in a borrowed raisin dehydration facility in Yettem. Roughly 1,500 pounds of sun-dried peaches and nectarines produced that first year were used to feed the hungry in Guatemala after a hurricane and flood. Mercy Ships helped transport the dried fruit to Guatemala and it was distributed by YWAM missionaries. The next six years all of the dried fruit was shipped to Thailand to help feed the Cambodian refugees who had captured the Wenges’ hearts.
Through process improvements and focused volunteer recruiting from YWAM bases throughout the western U.S. and Canada, production increased rapidly in the early years. In the 1986 season, over 500,000 pounds of fresh peaches and nectarines were processed. In April 1987, just nine weeks before the start of the summer fruit season, Wally got some bad news…the borrowed Yettem facility was being lost to foreclosure. With only days to remove the fruit processing equipment, things looked pretty grim. But in the eleventh hour, God provided a permanent home for the ministry: a 10-acre former tomato-packing facility in Sultana. Even with a delayed start, roughly 40,000 pounds of dried fruit was produced that year.
In late fall of 1988, Wally learned that the YWAM Discipleship Training School in Fort St. John, British Columbia, had lost the lease on their facility. Seeing this as an opportunity to expand the ministry, Wally invited their staff to join Gleanings. They agreed, arriving in January 1989. Over 2 million pounds of fresh fruit was processed that summer. In 1991, Wally acted on an opportunity to purchase an 11.6-acre parcel adjacent to the existing facility, which allowed for expanded production and improved staff housing.
Although God clearly placed Wally as a mighty leader of this ministry, Gleanings continued to flourish even after Wally went home to be with the Lord in 1999. Len and Lois Nylin served as directors from 1999 through early 2004, and the ministry continued to develop and strengthen under their influence. Soup mix production began in 2000, with 160,000 8‑ounce servings produced in the inaugural season.
Wally & Norma Wenge 1993
God continued to grow the ministry with Rick & Lynn O’Dwyer as Directors from 2004 – 2012. Under their leadership, the ministry enlarged the office and soup plant, completed the dining hall and chapel, added RV spaces, and kicked off the building of a new 10-plex.
Fritz and Cindy Meier, current directors, are serving with excellence in building, improving, and caring for this ministry, since 2012. Under their direction, the beautiful new 10-plex building was finished, as well as a 2-bay fumigation tunnel, complete with a rain canopy. The fumigation bays greatly enhance our soup production process. The Meiers have increased short-term outreaches, including both staff and Gleanings’ volunteers in the trips. This has allowed a great opportunity for volunteers to participate in not just the start, but the completion of our mission, from production to delivery, and see first-hand the impact our product has on the world. A project to bring solar power to Gleanings was completed in 2018. The solar power significantly reduces our cost of operation for years to come.
Gleanings has also pioneered a ministry to “Backpackers”, opening our lives to international travelers who seek opportunities to volunteer.
This ministry continues to fulfill its vision to feed the hungry of the world, both physically and spiritually. In 2015, with the help of thousands of volunteers, over 53 million servings of soup was produced and shipped to more than 30 different nations. It is very difficult to quantify all that God does at, and through, Gleanings, but we know that millions of lives are touched by this ministry every year as our product goes out to sustain lives and spread the Gospel of Christ, to the glory of God.
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