Elder Team
Pastor Eddie DeJesus is madly in love with his wife Norma which is his greatest calling to God. His greatest joy and number one priority is to honor God as a husband and a dad. Eddie and Norma will be celebrating 32 years of marriage.
Eddie was a soldier and a NYC police officer by trade but a pastor by heart. After joining the Army at 17 years of age, he was honorably discharged as a sergeant after completing two enlistment contracts in the United States Army & Reserves. Later, after serving almost 15 yrs of service with the NYC Police Department, he took early retirement to pursue his passion as a pastor.
We exist to glorify God by loving people into a personal relationship with Jesus and by demonstrating the love of Christ across racial, cultural, economic and gender barriers (Gal. 3:28).
Eddie has 15 years of training and experience as a grassroots small group coach and pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Metropolitan District of NYC. He has planted Churches in NYC and here in southwest Florida. Eddie served as associate pastor at New Life Fellowship in Elmhurst Queens NY under Peter Scazzero for 5 years. He served as the founder/senior pastor of New Life Community Church in College Point Queens NY for 5 years and former Executive Director of New Life Association of Churches for 3 years (a church planting movement in NYC and overseas). In 2000, Eddie was appointed to be the official chaplain of the New York Mets for the 2000 and 2001 baseball season by Baseball Chapel and the NY Mets ball club.
Eddie’s constant hunger and drive for more of God’s presence has led him to serve and use his gifts as a field staff missionary with Church Resource Ministries, coaching church leaders, pastors and church planters on cell and small group development.
In late 2004, after thirteen years of pastoral ministry, missions, church planting and evangelism, God called Eddie and Norma to the Southeastern District of Florida and planted another home cell/small group church from “The First Alliance Church of Port Charlotte” – a new church that focuses on loving people into the Kingdom of God in today’s society and in new and creative ways. In 3 ½ years New Hope Community Church of North Port has grown to almost 300 people gathering weekly on Saturday nights and Sunday morning and in December 2008 purchased the 4 acre property of The First Presbyterian Church on Biscayne Drive off of US 41 as New Hope’s permanent facility for continued ministry and outreach.
We are Mike and Kati Saxton and we want to personally welcome you to New Hope West Campus!
Our hope and prayers are that you will join us in finding life-transforming encounters with the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Mike is a USAF veteran and a retired police officer. He grew up in the Venice area and graduated from Venice High School. Kati has lived in the area for several years and is originally from Maryland. Between the two of us, we have eight children and twin grandsons. Both of us have been involved in church planting for several years. Kati was an executive director for a now flourishing church in Port Charlotte and taught youth for 10 years prior to that. Mike has been a children’s church leader, a staff intern, and an elder for New Hope Community Church for five plus years.
Our heart is to serve the community of Venice in a way that brings glory and honor to Jesus. We hope and pray you decide to come and check us out! We are a small, but growing church and look forward to meeting each and every one of you. If you want to be part of something new in the Venice area and have a heart to serve, please consider joining our team. We have availability to serve in every aspect of the church. For questions, concerns, or further information, please call us at (941)276-9447 or email at [email protected]. Or please click HERE to see our post of Facebook.
Campus Minister Archie Ruiz was Born in Yauco, Puerto Rico. At age 16 he moved to Fort Myers and graduated from Riverdale High school in 1992. His journey begins with a lot of ups and downs. In 1993 he went back to Puerto Rico and married Ivonne Ruiz.
Around this time he bacame a truck driver. In 1994 their first child was born, Martyvonne Ruiz. Also in 1994, they moved to Connecticut and stayed for one year. They didn’t like the cold weather and decided to move to Miami, Florida. Archie became a professional truck driver in the states in 1998 and also had his second child, Arqui Andres Ruiz.
After years of driving, in 2005 they decided to move to North Port, Florida. Praise Jesus, in 2007 Archie decided to accept Jesus and the family became members at Peace Christian Fellowship with Pastor Tom and Jean Renno. Archie served as evangelism leader but God had put a burden on his heart to give back to the Spanish speaking people and went serve at Iglesia Cristiana El Shaddai in 2009. Archie attended bible educational school in Fort Myers, Florida in 2017 at Mizpa college.
Since 2018, Pastor Archie has served as a minister at Iglesia Nueva Esperanza. He also became a City of North Port employee at Public Works. Our mission is to reach out to the people, equip them and send them into the mission field outside their front door to the ends of the earth. In the process of restoration, God has shown us His mercy, unconditional Love for people of the City of North Port and beyond!
Elder Nigel Dyce
Elder Mark Rohr
Assistant Minister @ Biscayne Campus
Pamela Rohr
