IFI Peoria is entering a new season…the founders are stepping back while new leaders are stepping forward. A ministry that was built on showing up to soccer games, dinner tables, and the margins of campus life is being prepared not just to survive the transition, but to grow through it.
IFI Peoria was founded by Jim and Paula Hanes, who had just returned from serving overseas in the fall of 2016, moving back to a city they already knew and their alma mater, Illinois Central College (ICC), just five minutes from their front door.
The early work looked less like ministry and more like belonging. Jim joined clubs, enrolled himself as a student, became an alumni member, and wandered the campus getting to know the right people. When the international student director mentioned that most international students played soccer, Jim and Paula started showing up to games. They congratulated players, introduced themselves to the coaches, and slowly became familiar faces. By spring 2021, when students returned after COVID, they already knew who Jim and Paula were.
“It was important to us to become part of the community at ICC,” Jim said.
The ministry grew from there– athletes and non-athletes, a partnership with Cru at nearby Bradley University, shared office space, and life groups. But through it all, one relationship quietly became the most important one Jim and Paula were building: their relationship with an international student from Tanzania, Neema.
They met Neema in the fall of 2018. She worked in the international student office and started coming to IFI events, brought friends, and expressed gratitude for their services. Once she got a car, she even started volunteering with IFI.
One day, one of Jim’s staff members realized their IFI leadership team all looked the same; there was no diversity, no international student representation… until Neema came to mind, and they offered her a position as a campus minister at the end of 2021.
“Neema wasn’t sure about her next career path, so I asked her to consider applying to be a full-time IFI staff member,” Jim said. “After talking with her family and praying, she said yes.”
Her unique perspective and giftings were exactly what IFI Peoria needed. She thought like an international student because she was one. She filled gaps the team didn’t know it had, from reaching students on the margins to offering social media instincts the rest of the team lacked. Jim and Paula began putting her in charge for weeks at a time when they traveled, training her steadily until she knew about eighty percent of what they knew.
Fast forward to 2025, and the Hanes’ sensed it was time to step toward retirement. Neema was their first and only choice to succeed them.
“I had a good conversation with Jim and Paula, but I told them I wasn’t ready at that time,” Neema said. “I still wanted to continue with IFI, though, but needed more preparation for the transition.”
After these initial retirement talks, Jim and Paula decided to take a sabbatical, but once they were back, it was their mission to leave IFI well. They were mentored by their old supervisor and previous IFI member, Estera, who taught them how to transfer a ministry sensibly. This included giving a year’s notice to IFI leaders and their location about the change, in addition to asking HR and others to help them with hiring someone who could assist Neema.
“And so began the transfer of leadership,” Jim said. “Paula and I were ready to leave, but we knew we needed to get some stuff done beforehand.”
Eventually, Betsy, someone the Hanes’ and Neema had known for years, was hired to join the IFI Peoria staff. What had taken nearly a decade to build, Jim and Paula began packaging into a transfer manual, something tailor-made for their location that others onboarding could learn from.
“God has been very faithful,” Jim said, “He has shown us the right people at the right time.”
Paula admits she isn’t too fond of transitions, but peace settled in over time.
“Even though we were at the pivotal start of it, it can still keep going because it’s God-led.” Paula said.
For Neema, the transition is still tender. She never imagined herself in full-time ministry, arriving in the US with a different path in mind and family expectations pulling another direction. However, Jim and Paula saw something in her before she saw it in herself.
“They were ready to receive me as I am,” Neema said. “They saw a gift in me and wanted to train me up.”
Losing the Hanes’ from daily ministry is a grief she’s still sitting with, but one she’s choosing to trust, knowing God has a plan for them, too.
One of Jim’s most intentional final acts has been his contact list. His own fundraising network held 250 names; Neema’s started at 30. Knowing that support-raising is exponentially harder for international staff, Jim handed her 97 of his own contacts.
“How do we transfer our privilege and our access to the next generation of leaders?” Jim asked.
It’s a question he’s already encouraging other IFI retirees to consider.
IFI Peoria’s next chapter is unwritten, but it’s already in good hands. Neema and Betsy carry with them nearly a decade of relationships, wisdom, and a contact list that represents something rare– a generation of leaders willing to pass on not just what they built, but the support that made it possible. Jim and Paula will step away knowing the ministry was never really theirs to keep; it was always meant to be given away.