who we are
We were married in November 1990 after God brought us together first as great friends. The Lord has been good to us, through thick and thin, good and bad. He is always faithful.
D is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, a position he has held since 1989. I have been a bookkeeper for 33 plus years, working in various industries but always staying long at one place (or at least as long as we've lived in one place!). My two children are grown now, and after several career moves, we live a quiet and fulfilling life in Texas, where D now works in the Southern Region office of the NWS and I work for a property management company.
All that is well and good, but the real story is how the Lord has worked in our lives over the years to grow us spiritually and lead us in the directions He planned for us. After praying for ten years for D to be able to get out of shift work, God made the way - He moved us east across the country to his d's town, where his work in web design and graphics did not go unnoticed and could be utilized at the regional and national level. This blessing opened new gateways for us to grow in the Lord because, for the first time in many years, D could count on being at church every Sunday.
For nine years we were active at a local church and watching God work to help us grow in Him. The first years we were active in the praise choir among other ministries; later D was commissioned as a Deacon (a servant ministry), where he served until 2007. D also served for many years as webmaster of the church web site, a job that eventually got too big for a volunteer, and so it was relinquished to a professional, and God again began to move...
God gave D a desire to serve in missions, perhaps born out of his love for travel. "China" would be nice, he thought, "someplace exotic". But the Lord had other plans...a mission trip to Mérida, Mexico was being planned by a church missions club for summer, 2001. D thought, "Mexico!?! Everybody goes to Mexico!" As He had done many times in the past, God spoke clearly - be faithful in the little things first....
So, off D went to Mérida. The miracles that happened there, the sweet people who responded to the gospel message and the friendships cultivated at Calvary Chapel, Mérida, all worked together to cement D's love for the mission field in the Yucátan.
D was captivated and eager to serve the Lord in this way, and he soon began to lead the mission teams to Mérida, making four more trips in three years. All the while, D prayed that I would somehow come to share his excitement. As we aged and began to plan for retirement in a few years, we were dreaming in two very opposite directions...I wanted to travel and see the country, and D wanted to work with the Hispanics. So he prayed. And prayed and prayed. He knew God would not be leading us in two different directions.
God is always right on time...in early 2004 Harvest Church began a Hispanic, bilingual Bible Study Class on Sunday mornings, and D just had to be a part of it; no matter that he didn't know a lick of Spanish. I wanted to be in the same Sunday morning class as D and so I decided to go along, and I got excited about a new challenge before me - to learn the language of our new friends. God used my love of language (I had been an English major in college) to draw me in. And there He firmly planted us on the next road He has laid before us.
In January 2005, we took a trip together to Mérida so that I could see this beautiful city and meet D's many friends. I was smitten. It wasn't long before our hearts were drawn together on the retirement plan issue, and D was shocked when he overheard me tell a friend that we might semi-retire in Mérida in a few years and work with the church there, perhaps teaching ESL (English as a Second Language).
In summer 2005, we both went on the annual mission trip to Mérida. What a blessing it was! (See the pictures of this wonderful trip, where our team of seven worked with children.)
In the years that followed, we have lead missions teams once per year to Mérida, Each trip had a different direction - sometimes working primarily with children, other time concentrating on the village mission churches, working with a rest home and the poorer side of town, or just helping the church in whatever way was needed for the week. We have gone as servants and evangelist.
Since God has led us to WoTM, the trips are decidedly more evangelistic in nature, and we gone more as teachers/trainers - helping the equip the church body to spread the Gospel the way Jesus did.
And so, dear friends, we now look forward to what God has in store for us next. There is much to be done, many things for the Lord to work out in the years before we can get to Mérida on a more regular basis, if that is indeed His will for us. We remain open to His plan.
One thing I know for sure...if you'd told us years ago that we would end up as missionaries in Mexico someday; we never would have believed you! But with God...all things are possible! We truly believe that if God has a plan for you, and you are willing to seek His will above your own, He will mold your heart and shape your feet to fit perfectly on the path He has chosen for you!
t
