Like many newly married couples we started out with notions about what our life would be like together. As the eldest daughter of a mission-oriented family, Angie dreamed of China or Africa or Amsterdam. Her experience of working with children on a garbage dump in the Philippines grew in her heart a deep need to share the love of Christ with those who had never heard of Him, with those in deepest need of His love and grace.
Growing up in the Wesleyan Church, I fell away, finding myself in the City Mission with little to show for my hard work. After a serious car accident I was brought face to face with Jesus. He rescued me from a life headed into darkness, I began attending church regularly and even led the young adult ministry there. This is where Angie & I met. This is partially our story, but it is mostly His story.
As a couple, getting back from a trip to Nicaragua, our passions for the needy became a dream deferred. We were expecting our first child. Losing that child to miscarriage was hard, but our God is faithful and in March of 2004 William was born and in 2005 our daughter Katherine came along. Parenting was now our focus.
Quickly, this adventure became more than we bargained for when in October 2006, our William was diagnosed with leukemia. This brought out fear in our hearts and was a very difficult time for our family. But again, God was faithful. William has fully completed treatment and at the start of 2015 will be off treatment for a full 5 years and graduate to the status of a “survivor”. Glory to God!
In January 2015, our family will board a plane and travel to Kona, Hawaii to begin our training with the University of the Nations. From there we will travel to Israel and India for 3 months to practice first-hand all we have learned. We are SO EXCITED about the way God has strengthened us through trials and has restored us to foreign missions in HIS perfect timing!
Last year on our 15 year wedding anniversary, Angie and I visited Hawaii and the campus there in Kona, where Angie had attended a Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS) with her family as a teenager. God met us during this anniversary trip in a powerful way and we found ourselves foregoing trips to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, so we could visit the Ycampus there and pray and worship with other missionaries from around the world. There was no doubt in our hearts then that God was calling us “to the nations” and we were ready to obey!
Please pray with and for our family during the beginning of this adventure as we step out boldly to follow this call of God on our lives.
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