Our adventure began in 1999 when together we committed ourselves to the Lord’s hands to be used in reaching the unreached. There are thousands upon thousands of souls who were living in darkness, whose lives and voices were not bringing Him the glory He deserves, and we felt a great responsibility for the knowledge we had of specific regions of the world where His Name had not yet been preached in Truth. The power for salvation is in the gospel, not in man’s wisdom or strategies, and certainly not in our own weaknesses of body and mind. We knew this was a job too large and impossible for us. Yet if God could be glorified in our weaknesses…
Individually, we committed ourselves to the Lord to be used full time for bringing others to Himself in whatever capacity He chose. These commitments led us to New Tribes Bible Institute in Jackson, Michigan, where we met and fell in love. Through much prayer, meditation on the Word and counsel, the Lord made it clear that He was leading us to continue the journey together. We then committed to serving the Lord and each other, and were married on June 13, 1998.
As we continued through the training, He led us to partner with like-minded friends who also had a desire to glorify God with their lives by reaching the unreached. We prayed for the Lord to lead us and our team to a people who did not know Him, who did not understand His Word, and who had no translation of the Bible in their own language. Dauntingly, there were many places to choose from. But in 2003, by His grace, He clearly directed us to a small tribal group called the Dinangat, located high up in the Finisterre Mountain Ranges in the Morobe Province. Ironically, the word “Finisterre” literally means, “The ends of the earth”, and the people we met told us they were the “forgotten people”. They knew of many places that had the Word of God in their own language, but they had given up hope that it would ever come to them. What a joy and a privilege it was to tell them that “No, the God of the Universe has not forgotten you!”