I appreciate you praying for us and wanted to share with you a little about what God has done in my life so that you can know me better.
My dad was a youth pastor when I was young. I have two younger brothers, Jason and Jordan. I love my family so much. My parents did a great job raising us and teaching us about the Bible. As a young girl, I accepted Christ as my Savior. I remember feeling like I was a good Christian. Looking back, I can see how this really affected the way that I perceived my standing towards God. I used to trust in my own efforts to please God. When I failed and sinned horribly, I felt ashamed and wondered if God still accepted me. I would pray over and over to make sure that I really was saved. But this was not the right way of thinking.
God has been so good to me. I am so thankful that over the years He continued to reveal to me exactly what it means to be secure as His child. God first had to humble me to show me that I was helpless and deserving physical and spiritual death. When I was in junior high, my parents told us we were moving from our home in Iowa to Maryland. My parents had planned what I thought was a vacation to Maryland. It was not until we were on the flight to Maryland that I was told that were actually going to be moving to Maryland in a few months and would be visiting with a lot of people from the new church where my dad would be working. This really shocked me! At thirteen years old, I thought I had my social life all planned out! Now I was thinking about moving and having to make all new friends. I felt like my world was upside down and I was angry at my parents and God for doing this. I spent the next year really struggling with God. At the end of that year, I knew that I was desperately in need of turning back towards God. I was living in a new city (and a youth pastor’s daughter), and I just didn’t know who would mentor and help me. I had heard of an organization called Royal Servants that led youth discipleship trainings during the summers. I asked my parents if I could apply and go with them to Southeast Asia for the summer and they agreed.
The discipleship training with Royal Servants reviewed truths of God’s word and my relationship with God became even more personal to me. I have been reconciled to God- not through anything of my own doing, but through what Christ has done. My sins of past, present and future are forgiven on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice. I am so thankful for the security that I have on the basis of what Christ has done for me. To this day I continue to thank God for his kindness he has lavished out on me.
My heart was torn out as I spent time with the people in Southeast Asia. I worked at an orphanage and loved the kids (and got lice from them!). We also spent time traveling to surrounding villages and sharing the Jesus Film. I had never thought much about unreached people groups before and I was moved with compassion as I looked around me to see hut after hut of people who had never heard the gospel before. I prayed and asked God how he would use me to share the gospel with others. I was only fourteen, but knew God was calling me to serve Him overseas. I came home determined to share Christ on my own high school. My friends Laura and I began meeting each morning before class to pray for our school.
After high school, God led me to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I was not sure exactly what I would major in when I first arrived, but I was excited about taking their Bible classes. I loved studying languages and decided to major in linguistics in order to develop the skills to become a Bible translator.
I spent one summer in Papua New Guinea living with a Bible translator on a very remote island. We had roll call twice a week by radio to let the main Wycliffe station know that we were still alive! I was one of her only visitors during the ten years that she had lived on the island. I was burdened to pray for her as she worked on Bible translation in such a lonely location. During that time, I believed that God was calling me to further the work of Bible translation by encouraging missionaries living in remote locations.
When I came home, God led me to pray regularly for my translator friend and her needs, often waking me up in the night with the need to pray. I began praying about about the possibility of working in a literacy role. Literacy specialists often move from village to village working with Bible translators in order to help develop reading programs for the illiterate. I thought this would be a great way to use my linguistic skills as well as visit these missionaries who live alone almost all of the time. After Moody, I took graduate classes for literacy specialists.
Mike and I married in September 2005. God has blessed me with a great husband. I am so thankful for the way he seeks God's direction and has a humble heart. Thank you so much for praying for us. Sometimes it is hard to have such an unknown road ahead, but I am so thankful that God is the one leading us on it! Even in the times that I struggle through the unknowns, God has been so evident!
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