Byron Wheaton

  Chair, Canada 

Byron was appointed to the BethanyKids Canada board in 2007. He is the Pastor of Discipleship at Bay Park Baptist Church in Kingston ON and Adjunct Professor of Old Testament at Emmanuel Bible College in Kitchener, ON. From January 1994 to August 1998 he was a Lecturer at Singapore Bible College with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada International Ministries Board. Before that he was Professor of Biblical Studies at the Seminary of the East in Dresher, PA. From December 1978 to August 1989 he was the Pastor at Hespeler Baptist Church in Cambridge, ON. He has also served as a part time lecturer in Old Testament at Heritage Seminary and Bible College, Cambridge, ON, Tyndale Seminary in Toronto ON and at Toronto Baptist Seminary in Toronto, ON. Byron has a longstanding interest in and experience of foreign missions as well as concern for the church to demonstrate justice and mercy in our world. Byron earned his Ph.D. at Westminster Theological Seminary, M.A. from Wilfrid Laurier University, M. Th. from Westminster Theological Seminary, M. A.R. from Westminster Theological Seminary and B.A. from the University of Western Ontario. Byron is married to Jacqueline. You may contact him at 613-389-9142 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Ivan Stewart
Chair of the Joint Board

Dr. G. Ivan Stewart was appointed to the Board of Directors ofBethanyKids at its inauguration in September, 2001, and currently serves as the Chair of the Joint Management Committee comprised of members from the BethanyKids Boards of Directors in the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom. The JMC is the chief decision-making body forBethanyKids.

Dr. Stewart lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada where he is the Medical Director for Providence Manor Home for the Aged; Consulting Palliative Care Physician for the Palliative Care Medicine Group of the South-Eastern Ontario Health Sciences Centre (Kingston); Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Queen’s University (Kingston); a member of the Attending Staff of the Combined Departments of Family Medicine at the Kingston General Hospital and Hotel Dieu Hospital; and a member of the Attending Staff at St. Mary’s of the Lake Hospital (Kingston). He is a member of the Palliative Care Association of Ontario and the College of Physicians of Canada.

Dr. Stewart received the Dorothy Ley Award for Excellence in Palliative Care in 2001.

Dr. Stewart has served on the Boards of Directors for Navigators of Canada and the Ontario Theological Seminary. He is a member of Bay Park Baptist Church in Kingston.

Dr. Stewart and his wife, Kitty, have been married for 41 years.

Dan Poenaru

Dan Poenaru is a pediatric surgeon working at BethanyKids at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya. Following medical school studies in Toronto, Canada, he trained in general surgery at McGill University, then in pediatric surgery at the Universite de Montreal. He has also earned a Masters in Health Professions Education through the University of Illinois in Chicago. He has practiced academic surgery for 10 years in Kingston, Canada, and since 2003 has been in clinical and academic practice in Kenya.

His current roles include clinical director of BethanyKids at Kijabe Hospital, consultant pediatric surgeon at Kijabe Hospital, and program director of East Africa’s first fellowship training program in pediatric surgery. He is adjunct professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Queen’s University, Canada, senior lecturer in Surgery at the University of Nairobi, and honorary professor of Surgery at Aga Khan University, Nairobi.

His areas of interest are chronic surgical disabilities in African children, the nature and provision of pediatric surgery in developing countries, faith issues in clinical practice, as well as surgical education.

Dan is married to Dita who is a nursing clinician and educator, and the Poenarus have two teenage boys finishing high school in Kenya.

David Bonham 

David was appointed to the BethanyKids board in 2005. He served as Vice-Principal (Finance) Queen's University at Kingston ten years in the 1970's and 1980's. He is Professor emeritus, Faculty of Law and School of Business, Queen's University. From 1978 to 2009 he was partner, then counsel, in the law firm Cunningham Swan Carty Little and Bonham in Kingston, Ontario. David has served on numerous boards, including Providence Continuing Care Centre, Hotel Dieu Hospital, Hospice Kingston, First Baptist Church and the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation. He received the John Orr Award from Queen’s University in 1999 and the Award of Outstanding Merit from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 1992. David received his B.Comm, B.A. and J.D. from the University of Saskatchewan and his LL.M. from Harvard University. David is married to Heather Bonham. You can contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Gerald Locklin

Gerry was appointed first to the US board as a member and then became the first Chairman for BethanyKids Canada. Presently he acts as communications/media adviser and graphic designer to BethanyKids.
   Gerry has been married to Dona since 1974, has two grown children, Heather and Graham and lives in Kingston Ontario, Canada.
   He recently left his work as Art Director at the Royal Military Collage of Canada after 35 years and continues to teach at the local community college as a Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). In addition he has directed a company called Gerald Locklin & Assoc. specializing in visual arts, publishing and commercial photography. For many years he has published Canada’s only peer reviewed journal on metallurgical research. As comes with age, Gerry has had a couple of health scares over the last years. He survived a rather nasty pancreatic tumor and 3 years ago a heart triple bypass, which has been the driving force behind his slowing down and reassessing his priorities.   Gerry is thankful for the opportunity to assist BethanyKids and looks forward to devoting more of his time to the organization in the years ahead. You may email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Joy Wee

Joy is one of the founding members of BethanyKids in Canada and has been involved since 2003. She is a specialist in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and is Associate Professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.  She has also served on the Canadian Physiatrists Research and Development Foundation board.  A clinical focus is neurorehabilitation, and she has directed neurorehabilitation teams throughout her career.  She has been awarded two "Paper of the Year" awards from the Canadian Association of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.  She has degrees in neurophysiology, medicine, and rehabilitation sciences, with a focus on disability in the community.  She completed her training at McGill University (B.Sc(Hons)), The University of British Columbia (M.D.), Queen's University (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, M.Sc.), and Simon Fraser University (Physicians' Executive Management Program).  Her efforts are to maximize abilities and participation of persons with disability, and foster their full inclusion in society.  The JMC appointed her Board Advisor on Rehabilitation in 2009.  You may contact her at   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  . 

Peter Agwa

Peter was appointed to the BethanyKids board in 2007. He is a staff member of the Navigators of Canada. Before that he was Associate Staff of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada and a Surgeon and Lecturer at Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya. Peter is a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) and LMCC. Peter served on the board of Testimony Faith Homes in Eldoret, Kenya. Peter received his M.B.ChB. and M.Med in Surgery from the University of Nairobi. Peter is married to Lydia Agwa. You can contact Peter by phone at 905 827 3744 (home) or 647 998 2670 (cell) or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .