OUR
STORY
“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.”
- John Keith Falconer
We met in college. It was the complete opposite of love at first sight. We started hanging out with the same friends, then hanging out together, then liked each other, then dated, and then broke up. After college we both went our separate ways, and if you would have asked us, we both would have said it was a God thing. And it was. We both had some growing up to do- we learned how to follow God in our separate lives.
In the summer of 2006, it all started again. It’s funny now writing this to think that as we were living out God’s purpose for our lives, we reconnected on the mission field in Peru. Our journey together would start afresh telling people about Jesus, and we would someday move our whole family to the other side of the world. Both of us knew that we were called to share the love of Jesus around the world.
Through the years, we’ve learned that following God is an adventure. We spent the first 7 years of marriage living in Metro Detroit area, serving in our home church as Youth Pastors, Worship Leaders, and Associate Pastors. In 2011, God placed on our hearts that we needed to get ready to move. Two years later we moved to Ohio. We eventually accepted a position to Pastor a new campus of Community of Faith, starting in Eaton, OH. We served there as campus Pastors for 7 years. While in Ohio, God grew our family through adoption. In several years we went from a family of 2 to a family of 5.
In 2016, God started placing some new things in our heart related to the world. We had been actively involved in short term missions for years, but we knew God was asking us to immerse into the culture of full time missions work. For several years, we sought direction in what our next step should be. In 2022, our family sold our home, most of our possessions, and boarded a plane to Thailand.
Since moving here, our family has been serving with Life Impact Thailand. This is an amazing organization that rescues children who have been trafficked. The children who have been rescued then live on the Promised Land; a 40 acre secure facility where they live in family style homes with parents trained in raising kids who've experienced hardships.
JEFF
BIO
// Origin: Royal Oak, MI
// Never have I ever:
Willingly finished my vegetables
// 3 Words Describe Me:
Loud. Fun. Paradox.
// Favorite Food: Everything
// Random accomplishment:
I eat the spicy food served in Thailand
Missionary was not the booth I visited on career day in high school. In fact I don’t even believe there was a missionary booth. Growing up in the church I attended, I did not hear terms like ministry, missionary or even calling. So in sixth grade, when I though being a youth pastor looked like a cool job, I had no idea that I was following God’s plan for my life. Looking back, it’s crazy to realize how God directed and used each step of my journey to prepare me for this place. From high school, to college, to Bible school, to meeting Elizabeth and then getting my first taste of the mission field. I did not have one big moment where God said, “you’re a missionary.” I have had this journey in which God has nudged me in the right direction, and through it all He has been positioning and preparing me to be a missionary.
Having had the opportunity to travel to 17 countries outside of the US, I am stilled shocked and heartbroken by the world I see. On the outskirts of Bangkok, I sat down with an 80 year old woman. She had never heard the name of Jesus before. When I mentioned it, she assumed he was an American popstar. Tragically, she had lived for 80 years with the belief that she was worthless, and that the goal was to be reincarnated as something better than a woman.It breaks something within me to know that every day men, women, and children are being bought, sold, and abused around the world. People who are made in the image of God are being treated as property and used for unthinkable acts.
I know that I was made to make a difference. I know that only Jesus can change the heart and change a life. A good friend of mine once said something, and I think it sums up who I am. I was made for church in the wild.
– Jeff
ELIZABETH
BIO
// Origin: Emporia, KS
// Never have I ever:
Bungee jumped
// 3 Words Describe Me:
Devoted. Creative. Passionate.
// Favorite Food: Pizza!
// Random accomplishment:
Angel food cake from scratch
I remember hearing from numerous friends before I ever stepped foot in Thailand how much I would love it. And the very first time my feet stepped on the soil to help with missions work, I did. It was an instant love for the people and the land. The Thai people are quiet and shy, but somehow also warm, inviting and curious. Each time I went to Thailand, I fell more in love with the country. But it wasn’t until my last trip to Thailand, that I saw myself living there. Something happened while I was there. God put pieces of my past, and my present together and showed me a future of working with and helping these precious people.
While on that trip, I heard about the 10/40 window. I had not heard a lot of people talk about this since I was a little girl. My mom had taken me when I was about 10 years old to a meeting with some missionaries. I remember it being in the Ramada Inn, which had one of the nicer meeting places in our home town. I remember seeing pictures of people walking through the jungles, to go share the gospel with the local tribes; how this group was translating the Bible into the languages of the natives. They also mentioned the 10/40 window. I think I wept nearly the whole presentation. And I knew then that I would do something, someday, to help reach these people.
Somehow sitting there in Thailand listening to them share about this once again, I was reminded of that time long ago. I had forgotten about it even happening until that moment. It was this culmination of God saying that this was part of my journey. I was created for this.
– Elizabeth