God, by His grace gave both of us the opportunity of being raised under the teaching of God’s Word and of hearing and understanding the message of the Gospel at a young age. Though we grew up in very different contexts it is obvious that God was preparing us for a life of service in missions. I was raised as a Missionary Kid (MK) in Brazil and saw people groups firsthand who not only lived in remote areas but who had very limited access to the Gospel because of linguistic and cultural barriers. Lisa was raised in the USA in a local church that promoted and supported foreign missions in such a way that by the time she was in junior high she had committed her life to being a missionary.
The Lord brought us together as a couple while attending Bible School and based on our desire to be involved in seeing churches established among unreached people groups we decided to continue on in missionary training with New Tribes Mission (NTM). We have had the privilege of serving the Lord as members of NTM for 25 years now.
We moved to Brazil in 1988 with our daughters Nicole and Megan with the idea of eventually joining a church planting team. God had another plan in mind. Instead of joining a church planting team ourselves, we spent the next 10 years with a team that trained Brazilians for cross cultural ministry among unreached people groups in Brazil and other countries.
We returned to the USA in 1998 with our daughters and our son, Nathan and in 2000 we were invited to join our US Missionary Training Center where we currently serve. Some of our responsibilities the past 10 years have included:
- Teaching principles and techniques of culture and language acquisition
- Overseeing and developing parts of the course
- Mentoring and discipleship of student couples
- Coordinating the training center staff – Personnel Director
- Coordinating a program for our campus youth – encouragement and discipleship of Missionary Kids
We have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the team here at the Training Center. We feel blessed to have been a part of so many great young people getting out into the harvest fields. We are also thankful for the context our three kids have had the privilege to grow up in. Now that all three are out of the house we have been given an opportunity to move overseas again. Instead of Brazil we plan to move to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. We are going to be part of the support team that allows the church planting teams to reside in remote areas. We are excited about partnering with the Mozambique Church in expanding the reach of the Gospel in that country.