Who We Are
River Church is a community of believers passionate about being a welcoming family of God’s children, who passionately pursue His presence in worship, and who intentionally pray for miracles and healings.
We are eager to reach out to the community around us as we partner with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to bring the Good News of God’s loving presence so that His Kingdom becomes the Kingdom of this world.
Meet the team
Julie Ioakeim, Pastor of Slough River Church.
Julie officially became a born again Christian in 1991, although she began searching for her faith in 1984 after praying for her pregnancy when told she had lost the baby. After refusing to give up and Julie’s prayer was miraculously answered and the baby was born healthy a few months later.
At the time she was living abroad and found it was difficult to find out more about Christianity other than finding an English King James version of a Bible. She felt the Lord telling her to be baptised, but again didn’t know where to go, so it was a number of years later when she returned to the UK that she finally knocked on a church door midweek and asked to be baptised.
What followed was a number of miracle healings, baptism in the Holy Spirit and a passion for Christ that continues today.
Costas Ioakeim became born again in 1993 after coming from a Greek Orthodox background. He quickly felt the need to attend Bible College and graduated in 1996. After being baptised in the Holy Spirit it became evident that Costas had been given a Prophetic ministry in which he walks today, along with a love of worship music. Julie and Costas have been married for forty two years and have three children together.
Mary Porter, A born again Christian since the early ‘70s, Mary has taught Bible lessons to various groups including Missionettes, the girls groups, from the A/G church in Indiana, her home state, as well as adult Sunday School classes in various churches. She joined the Joyce Meyer organization in St Louis, Missouri, in February of 1999, and was appointed to the Windsor Office in December of that year. After 4-5 month intensive training she came to England in April 2000 to open and manage the operation, and left that position in 2005 to pursue other visions. Since that time, Mary has been involved in several home Bible Study groups, and from 2009 when she joined River Church, has been a frequent speaker in Slough services, and has been in the Leadership group since 2016, and appointed to the Board of Trustees of the River Church group from 2019. Mary’s heart and passion is to take the Word of God from the pages of the Bible, and make it relevant to Kingdom living today.
Dorothy Basham, has had a personal relationship with Jesus since the late ‘80’s, grew up in Windsor and moved to Slough after marrying Chris in 1990. She has been a member of Slough church since 2013, on the leadership team and preaching since 2018.
She runs our Little Gems toddler group on Tuesday mornings, and leads the Sunday school team, having a heart to teach children about Jesus and His love for them.
She believes in a personal relationship with Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus to have a well-balanced life.