MISSION WORK IN A FARAWAY LAND

Sometimes I’m amazed I ended up as a missionary with a wife and three kids in Southeast Asia. But we both felt a calling to bring the Gospel to some remote places of the world.

I was raised in a Christian home and my family had some financial hardships. So my goal was to make as much money as possible and gain financial security. I worked hard in high school to earn a scholarship and wound up at Vanderbilt, majoring in economics and engineering. While at Vandy, I felt my first big nudge from the Lord. I worked with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), a ministry on 148 different campuses that reaches students for Christ and equips them to serve. I loved it and after graduation, I did an internship with RUF at Furman University.

After meeting and marrying my wife, we ended up in Charlotte with me enrolling at the Reformed Theological Seminary. I took part in some lunches where students eat pizza and hear about life in the mission field from visiting missionaries. This fascinated me, and so my wife and I attended a Global Missions Conference where students are exposed to different missionary opportunities. We both felt a strong calling to serve as missionaries in Southeast Asia.

It’s one thing to go to a different part of the world when you’re on your own. But when you have a wife and a 10-month-old daughter, it’s a different game. Some friends thought we’d be overwhelmed to head to the other side of the world with a young family. But we both strongly felt God leading us there.

The area we’re in is about 60% Muslim, with the other 40% mostly Buddhist and Hindu. For the past 5 ½ years, I’ve been the college pastor at our partner church. We have 20 students in our college ministry and I conduct Bible studies and meet one-on-one with them. It’s my job to plant the seeds and let Jesus bring them to bloom. It’s quite exhilarating when I see a student accept Jesus into their heart. We are deeply entrenched in the community and have had two sons born while we’ve been abroad.

It excites me to help spread the word about Jesus. In the Bible, we are commanded to take the Gospel to the far ends of the earth. I am thrilled our family is part of this Great Commission.