Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.
Reverend Tana McDonald
Reverend Tana McDonald was born in Redding, California. She boasts an extended family of over 300 individuals that live there still. She is happily married to Reverend Don Lee, also a United Methodist pastor, who serves the thriving congregation at Sierra Pines UMC in Grass Valley, California. They own a home in Grass Valley and have lived there for several years.They also own a family home in Redding.
Tana is a lover of children. Over the years, she and Don helped to raise eight wonderful young people - five boys and three girls. Tana and Don claim six grandchildren from these rich and fruitful relationships.
Tana’s educational road followed multiple pathways. She holds three undergraduate degrees: Business Administration, Liberal Arts, and Psychology and two Master Degrees: a 3-year MA in Pastoral Care and Counseling and a 3-year Master of Divinity from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
On the professional front, Tana successfully ran businesses for over thirty years, as well as served in various leadership positions in the United Methodist Church. Her call into deeper religious service came initially out of the community of the UMC in Redding. Serving as the senior chaplain at Redding Medical Center for two years sealed the lifetime vow of service to the glad and gleeful and the suffering and afflicted of God's great creation.
Pastor Tana’s emphasis in ministry is empowering, encouraging, and equipping leaders to listen to and to respond to their own unique call from God. She is social justice-oriented and mission and ministry-centered. She maintains strong inter-faith connections with clergy and laity.
Mission work includes Africa University in Zimbabwe in 1998 and multiple trips to Palestine/Israel, beginning in 1970. In 2007/2008, Tana led another VIM trip to Palestine and assessed Bethlehem, Palestine for the General Board of Global Ministries to create an official Volunteer in Mission site.
Certified Lay Minister
Thomas "Tom" Sartwell
Tom Sartwell born in Alameda County, California. The first church that he ever attended was the First Methodist in Alameda. As a child and as a youth, he was fascinated by God and religion. He explored Judahism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, as well as many other facets of Christianity. He found parts of every faith system ringing true to him. Although he never left Jesus, he developed a great respect for the faiths of other people.
Tom attended UC Davis for a brief time, before transferring to Merritt Junior College in Oakland. In the end, Tom chose a life path other than college. Over the years, Tom gained experience in a plethora of jobs - some of the most interesting being that of a teacher, a bouncer, a store manager, a concrete finisher, and a electrician's assistant - before becoming the west coast regional operations manager for an international construction rental company.
Tom has said that he argued with God for many years about calling him to ministry, but that God was more persuasive than any of Tom's arguments. He arrived to serve our Taylorsville congregation in June 2008.
Tom is the proud father of one son, Thomas, and two grandchildren. One of Tom's passions in life is social justice. He dreams about and strives for a world that is fair to all.