Connie L. DiLeo
"... I trusted Him to make a way."

Connie L. DiLeo is a missionary of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church assigned to the Dominican Republic. An ordained deacon with the Florida Annual Conference, Connie serves as Project Director and Chaplain of Community Partners (COPA) in Barahona, Dominican Republic. The agency is a joint project of churches in the United States and Great Britain.

Connie directs the operations of schools and clinics at the two project sites in Bombita and La Hoya. As COPA chaplain, Connie oversees the Christian education programs in the schools and leads in the spiritual development of COPA staff and workers. She also supervises the youth groups in the two communities and assists local church pastors in their ministries.

"The 800 children that attend the COPA schools are receiving a tremendous education, an education that would never be within their reach without this Community Partners School," Connie explains. "They receive a strong Christian education, medical care, and a snack each school day."

Reflecting on her call to mission service, Connie says she felt God showing her the future during a Volunteers in Mission trip in 1986. "I didn't know how my becoming a missionary would ever come to pass," she recalls, "but I trusted Him to make a way." Now that the call has become a reality, she observes that "we may not understand God's timing, but we need to always trust it."