I grew up in Northern Virginia and attended the University of Virginia (’08), where I became a follower of Jesus through campus ministry. While I had visited Blacknall many times since moving to Durham to pursue my MDiv at Duke (’11), I began regularly attending in 2021 and joined in 2022. In hindsight, I see threads of Blacknall’s ministry throughout my journey —from coming to hear John Perkins as a student, to volunteering with the food pantry at Iglesia Emanuel, and through the church’s support and prayers as I launched InterVarsity at NCCU and later as I served as InterVarsity’s National Director for Black Campus Ministries work. I am grateful for the ways God has provided a worshipping community, accountability, and discipleship. Of note, I’m an avid baker, lover of board games, biker of AT on beautiful mornings, and a Urologic Surgery Resident at UNC. My life, faith, ministry, and leadership have been transformed by the triune God and it’s out of this transformation that I hope to serve. I am excited about how our community might grow in prayer, live more missionally, and bear witness to God’s glory in Durham and beyond.
Melissa Hartemink
I began attending Blacknall in 2001 when my husband, Alex, and I moved to Durham. We quickly felt at home: The Blacknall community is an integral part of our life together, where we can know and be known, love and be loved, serve and be served. Through worship, fellowship, and service, I see and experience Christ at work in the body of believers. My gifts include teaching, hospitality, and administration, and my walk with Christ compels me to serve the church. After 24 years of membership, I have participated in many ways, including Durham partner ministries, children's ministries, small groups, women's ministries, two staff search committees, and our recent pastor nominating committee.
My favorite part of Sunday is being with you, God's people, praising the Lord through song, and partaking in communion where I am reminded each week of the Lord's deep love for me, for us; that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We are His beloved children, and in Him, we have new life. God's Word, as revealed through the Scriptures, and my relationship with Christ are central to how I see the world, my relationships, and my vocation.
I am an educator by training and have taught elementary students in a variety of settings in Massachusetts, Durham, and Kenya. I am mother to Abigail (21) and Andrew (19) and stayed home with them for 10 years before re-entering my career as an educator. I am humbled by and grateful for this opportunity.
Dan Kronstad
I am humbled to be considered to serve at Blacknall as elder for a second term. My wife, Tanya, and I have made Blacknall our church home for the past 15 years, along with our three sons (Erik – 20, Caleb – 18, James – 16). For the last 20 years, I’ve served with the ministry of International Students Inc. (ISI), currently as the Triangle Area Director. Tanya now also serves with ISI, as part of the international student conferencing team. Throughout the years, ISI (and hundreds of internationals students) have been blessed immensely through the Deep Common Journey partnership with Blacknall. A phrase often heard in our household and ministry captures well my heart and desire for Blacknall: “Building bridges of trust that can bear the weight of truth”. A passage of scripture that speaks to this, found in 2 Corinthians 5, has profoundly stirred within me a yearning to love Jesus and to love others in His name. The call from Jesus is to be an ambassador/minister of reconciliation to others. This has led to what has become a lifelong journey and vocation of being a bridge builder culturally and spiritually. If elected Elder for a second term, I believe the ways God has shaped me through this first term on session and as a cross-cultural worker will be useful in helping to lead Blacknall as we continue to be beacons for Christ in Durham and the world.
Mark Paulson
My wife, Anne, and I were married in Charlotte in August, 1985 and moved to this area and got involved at Blacknall a year later in August, 1986. This community has been foundational for my family and me – our children (Courtney and Nick) were baptized and grew up at Blacknall, and our daughter and her husband Francisco were married here in 2015. The past 39 years have been a rich spiritual journey marked by deep friendships for which I am very grateful.
I love the diversity of our Blacknall community and the involvement we have both locally and globally in living out and proclaiming the gospel. I’m grateful for the thoughtful and humble leadership that God has provided.
I am a sinner that has been redeemed through Jesus. Christ is my hope and my purpose. Through His sacrifice on the cross I am able to know the God who created me and who sustains me daily. Out of gratitude for His love, I strive to walk in obedience to Him and His will. I recognize that sanctification is a lifelong process marked by confession and forgiveness and I am grateful for the Lord's faithfulness toward and patience with me.
I think relationships to those both inside and outside of our community of faith are fundamental to our mission as a church - to glorify the Triune God, to make known the crucified and risen Christ, and to advance the Kingdom that God is building in us, in Durham, and around the world. As an elder, I hope to promote and nurture opportunities for relationship and to weave those opportunities into our collective ministry."
Katie Reeder-Hayes
I am originally from Alabama but moved to Durham for medical residency 21 years ago and as life has worked out, we remained and NC has become our family's home. I came to Blacknall with my husband, Mark, in 2004 and we have raised our five kids here: Ben (21) Samuel (18), Connor (14), Patrick (13), and Everett (10). I feel as though different aspects of Blacknall's community life have been most front-and-center for us in different seasons, but serving in the nursery, as a Sunday School teacher for pre-school and elementary kids, as a participant and leader in the women's retreat, and on the Health Advisory Team during the COVID pandemic, have been some of my most meaningful areas of connection, and the children’s and youth ministries have been fundamental to our life as a family. Even though my faith in Christ has been central throughout my life, my experience continues to change. In the upheaval in the medical community, in the area of social justice where I work, and in the larger culture for the past few years, I feel newly challenged to trust that God is sovereign even when I can't immediately see that in circumstances around me, and newly convinced that only He is really trustworthy to hold me and those I love together! I feel called to share this reassurance with others at Blacknall as an elder, as we all navigate times when we feel the world to be unsafe, uncertain, or changing too fast for us.