Our Team - GraceTeens

High School Ministry

High School Girls

Eliana "Eli" Prates

Eliana "Eli" Prates grew up near Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to the Bay with her husband Jo. She is an events coordinator at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation. Co-leading the HS bible study, Eli hopes to create a fun and welcoming environment where the teens can learn from God's word and encourage each other through stresses of schoolwork. Eliana loves to foster the creativity of the Grace community, and you may have seen her outside of GraceTeens facilitating arts activities at church retreats. In her free time, she enjoys painting, making jewelry, and making collages.

Irena Gao

Irena started attending Grace in 2023, and she is currently a computer science PhD student. She's passionate about helping the teens know and love Jesus personally, especially in preparation for college. Irena first moved to the Bay in 2018 for her undergraduate studies at Stanford, where she was a part of Christian Union, an undergraduate Christian fellowship. Her favorite ways to spend her free time include long coffee chats, hiking, and rock climbing.

Heather McBirney

Heather McBirney grew up in the Bay Area and started attending Grace in 2022. She began serving with GraceTeens middle schoolers on Sundays and is now grateful for the opportunity to co-lead the high school girls' Bible study, helping students grow in their faith and commitment to God's Word. She is passionate about discipleship and believes that the Bible can truly speak into students' lives. Outside of GraceTeens, she is pursuing a graduate degree in nursing, co-leads a Grace Community Group, and serves as an Awana leader for elementary school girls. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and has a goal of visiting all the national parks and all seven continents.

High School Boys

Jonatas "Jo" Prates

Jonatas "Jo" Prates grew up in Curitiba, Brazil, and moved to the US to attend college in Atlanta. He has been attending Grace since mid 2022, when he moved to the Bay Area to work at Stanford. This year, he began his PhD in Health Policy studies at Stanford. He hopes to be a professor someday, but teens rest assured, he does not like pop quizzes either. Jo is very excited to co-lead the HS bible study at GraceTeens, where he hopes to foster an engaging environment where teens can learn from God's word and its applications to daily high school life. Outside of GraceTeens, Jo attends the Lees' CG in Sunnyvale. In his free time indoors, he likes to read, cook, and play video games. He loves to be near the ocean, and has recently taken up surfing.

Middle School Ministry

Middle School Girls

Cynthia Mahoney

Cynthia Mahoney has been volunteering with GraceTeens since 2021 when she and her husband, Mike, began attending Grace. She started leading the middle school girls Bible study last year and is excited to continue doing so! She has loved getting to know the gals and thinks they are kind, thoughtful, so much fun, and wonderful in all of the ways God has made them (and is growing them in Christlikeness). As a teenager, she fell in love with Jesus as God revealed Himself and His saving grace through His Word, the care of youth group leaders, and friendship with her sisters and brothers in Christ. She feels deeply grateful that now she has the privilege of coming alongside parents in encouraging the teens to know and experience the love of God and to love Him and others in return. Outside of GT, she enjoys being a part of the Keene + Issi community group, singing in the choir, and ushering. She delights in spending time with family and friends and playing volleyball and board games!

Kristin Chen

Kristin Chen grew up in the Bay Area, and has been attending Grace since 2023. She has always loved getting to work with youth of all ages, and feels privileged to get to be a small part of the GraceTeens girls' lives as they explore the Word of God and experience His love for them. Outside of GraceTeens, she teaches middle school science and enjoys reading, game nights with friends, and all types of crafts like sewing, crochet, and watercolors.

Middle School Boys

Daniel Chen

Daniel Chen has been attending Grace since 2019. Daniel is a Bay Area native and a double graduate of the best university in California, Cal Berkeley. He has volunteered with the middle school boys' Bible study for the past two years. As a convert to Christianity during his high-school years, Daniel has experienced firsthand the life-changing nature of intergenerational discipleship and positive peer relationships. He hopes that GraceTeens is a place where kids can come with their hard questions and to occasionally get roasted in good fun.

Michael Mahoney

Michael Mahoney has been volunteering with Grace Teens on and off for the past 3 years, since he and his wife Cynthia have been a part of the church. For the most part, that has looked like getting to know the teens in Sunday Bible study times together, playing ping pong with them, and answering some of their hard and fun questions. He's excited to be a part of the Middle School teens' spiritual journey, as he believes God's Spirit will work equally powerfully in any believer, including these teens, and he can't wait to see what He does in and through them. If you ever catch him out in the world, feel free to ask him about entrepreneurship, coffee, and what you've felt excited about recently!

Paul Aluri

Paul Aluri is looking forward to his third year helping lead the middle school boys Bible study. He remembers middle school Sunday School as an especially formative time for his faith and hopes to provide the same encouragement and guidance that his leaders once did for him. He was born in South Carolina where he spent most of his life, moving to the Bay Area eight years ago to work as a software engineer. Paul met his wife Kelly at Grace, and this summer they welcomed their first child, Chloe, into the world. He and his family have felt so loved and blessed by the Grace community over the years. In his (now limited) free time, you might find him playing soccer, automating his smart home, learning about ancient/medieval history, or eating Indian food.

Ranger Turner

Ranger Turner moved to the Bay Area from Northern Virginia in 2022. While a student, Ranger would help with his church's summer VBS and plan ministry volleyball and game nights. Since joining Grace, he has sought to be involved, planning retreat art classes and coordinating group outings. During the Mark study, Ranger hopes to share the joys of finding fun, historical significances in Scripture and seeing how they guide the Church. When he's not attending choir practice or spending time with friends, Ranger can often be found tinkering with 3D design software or teaching himself something new.

Sunday Gatherings

Elijah Kim

Elijah started attending Grace in 2021. He currently studies electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford. He is passionate about discipleship and the transformative power of the Gospel. Elijah is originally from LA, and loves hiking, exploring new places, and building things like rockets and motorized couches.

Music

Maggie Wang

Maggie Wang grew up in Michigan and moved to the Bay Area for grad school in 2021. She's been attending Grace for three years and started volunteering with GraceTeens this past summer. Maggie has had so much fun leading the teens in worship and is excited to continue making musical worship part of the GraceTeens large groups! She hopes that the teens will find joy in worshipping together and that those with musical interests might be encouraged to give serving on the worship team a try. Outside of GraceTeens, Maggie also serves with GraceKids and has led the worship team for the Stanford IVGrad Christian fellowship. In her free time, Maggie enjoys climbing, running, and discovering new Trader Joe's snacks.

Youth Ministry Director

Bruno Morato Faria

Bruno has been at Grace since 2020, when he moved from Brazil to start graduate school at Stanford. He has great love and affection for the church and its community, serving in multiple capacities as an usher, in GraceKids, and in GraceTeens. He is thankful for the way God works to keep Grace faithful to Him and His word, and is excited to contribute his passion for teaching and discipling to the church and our families. Bruno is a physician by training, and has an MBA and a master of legal studies from Stanford. He likes to play tennis, run, hike, read, and will be glad to host you for a fondue dinner. Please reach out to talk any of these things!

Contact: [email protected]