Benjamin and Sarah (Stewart) Horton
Church: Faith Baptist Church, Salem,
OR Children: Sarita '97, Jesse '98, Walker
'00 Phone: (503) 851-1961
Email: OperationPhilippines@juno.com
Country: Philippines
Age Saved: Benjamin 5, Sarah 4
Ben: Ben was raised
in the Philippines as an MK. Watching his parents serve
faithfully at the mission
hospital, he developed a love for medicine: "I was able to
go along to medical clinics, clean equipment for dental work,
and even assist in surgeries."
Ben studied pre-med in college, intending
to become a doctor. "However, by the end of my junior year, God made it clear
that I wasn't going to medical school. I was very frustrated
and began to question Him." After graduation, Ben started
working in a medical equipment supply company and swiftly
moved to handling the store finances: "Suddenly, God showed
me talents I didn't know I had because my whole focus had
always been on medicine." Ben received an invitation from
his parents to return to the Philippines as a hospital administrator.
"I realized then that God did have a special plan for my life
and had been preparing me for this." Having recently returned
from two years on the field, Ben knows God is still preparing
his family for the future.
Sarah: Sarah, also
an MK, grew up in South Korea and dedicated her life to
missions at age 13. When she
started dating Ben, she visited him in the Philippines . "It
seemed the end of the earth. The bugs, the heat-I had such
a bad attitude, I was surprised his parents let me marry him.
He asked, 'Wouldn't it be great if we could go back as missionaries,'
and I said, 'No way, I'm never taking my kids there.'" However,
as a family, they returned as assistant missionaries to administrate
the hospital. "The first six months were as bad as I expected.
I was discouraged. I couldn't speak the language and didn't
have a love for the people. I felt like the worst missionary
ever. But God challenged me to talk to the Filipinos around
me and gave me a love for them. Before we left, they sang,
"God Will Take Care of You," and I wept. God had transformed
me."
John and Kisti (Miller) Huffman
Church: Johnston Chapel Baptist
Church, Princeton, WV
Children: Jamie '82, Mark '90, Allison '94,
Luke '96
Phone: (304) 384-7644
Email: n55bh@hotmail.com
Country: Open
Age Saved: John 27, Kisti 5
John: Planes fascinated
John as a kid. When he grew older, aviation seemed the
perfect job: good money,
a good career. He earned his pilot's certificates for student
through airline transport, including airframe and power plant
ratings, at a local flying service. "By my 20s, I had it made-I
had a truck, a car, a boat, a career-but none of these things
satisfied. After I met Kisti, she asked, 'Are you a Christian?'
'Sure,' I said. 'I'm a pretty good person.' Wrong answer!"
Later, after hearing a clear explanation of what it was to
have Christ as personal Savior, John accepted Christ. "It's
ironic. I used to work at the airport and see missionary pilots
come into the airport and make fun of them just because they
were Christians. And here I am now, waiting to serve the Lord
in missions." John will use his aviation skills to support
missionaries on the field.
Kisti: Raised by Baptist
church-planting parents, Kisti accepted Christ at age five.
God used difficult
circumstances to teach her that total fulfillment comes only
through a vital relationship with Him. As an adult, Kisti
has been drawn to missions through the influence of visiting
ABWE missionaries and through deep study of the Bible. "I
realize that God doesn't merely want me to be willing to go
anywhere, but that His will is for me to let Him be the desire
of my heart." Outreach to other women will be her missions
focus on the field.
Jabus John
Church: Temple Baptist Church, Omaha,
NE
Phone: (402) 558-1345
Email: jabus@indiatimes.com
Country: North America
Age Saved: 17
Born in India among many religions,
Jabus used to see Jesus as a good worker who gave his life
for downtrodden people: "He was a good person, so was I. Although not a Hindu, I was
a believer in good works." Jabus' parents encouraged him to
go to church, but his heart was not there. "I didn't want
to go into the depth of those questions. I wanted to spend
my life without religion." Then, Jabus was involved in a terrible
bus accident. "The scene was terrifying. People were dying,
bleeding, crying in pain. From the midst of this, I crawled
out safe. I was saved, both physically and spiritually, for
I decided to follow the true and living Christ."
Focused on evangelism to Hindus, Muslims,
and Buddhists, Jabus attended seminary in India and in
Ohio. He wants to
start a campus ministry among internationals at the University
of Nebraska. "Every year, many Indians migrate to the U.S.
They bring their priests, their gods and goddesses with
them,
and build their temples. In Omaha, thousands of Indians go
to bow down before idols in a Hindu temple. There is a
great
need to reach these people in this country and share the
good news with them."
Rebekah Knapp
Church: New South Daisy Baptist
Church, Soddy-Daisy, TN
Phone: (423) 875-5490
Country: Cape Town, South Africa
Age Saved: 16
Rebekah struggled as a young adult with
questions about salvation: "I had been pushing doubts out of my mind, though I did not
remember making a profession of faith. At 16, I attended a
youth convention, where I finally opened my heart to the Lord
and was saved." Rebekah chose her college, Tennessee Temple
University , based on her desire to pursue her gifts in music.
She started working on a music performance degree, but was
soon involved in missions through her friends, Student Missions
Fellowships, chapel, and annual missions conferences. After
a missions trip to Canada , she began to feel a call to missions:
"I kept asking, 'Lord, do I need to change my major?'" On
a trip to Eastern Europe, Rebekah discovered that her gifts
in teaching and music could be used as powerful evangelistic
tools, and she fully surrendered to career missions.
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Dean
and Julia (Kindall) Langley Church: Meridian First Baptist,
Meridian, ID
Children: Kristin '77, Carolyn '80, Joan
'82, Eric '85, Scott '85
Phone: (208) 888-7223
Email: langleyde@aol.com
Country: Ireland
Age Saved: Dean 17, Julia 17
Dean: Dean grew up
on a small family farm and, as a teenager, resisted attending
church until a friend
confronted him about his need for Christ. After graduating
from college, Dean began his career in public education,
marketing,
and management. During those years, he served in a small
local church and Bible study ministry. Several trips to
South America
and Western Europe gave him valuable short-term experience.
Dean traveled to the Republic of Ireland as a part of ABWE's
initial survey team in 2001. During his time there, God began
to burden his heart for the Irish people: "God is confirming
His call to this new ministry and as a result we are following
His leading to serve with ABWE."
Julia: Although raised
in a moral home, Julia didn't hear the gospel until she was teenaged: "I remember
going home from grade school desiring to know God, but not
knowing how to do it." Julia never had the opportunity to
attend Bible college, but her relationship with God has grown
through faithful study of His Word: "Not that I am personally
faithful or properly disciplined but God has always found
a way to get me involved in Bible studies through churches
and other organizations that have made me accountable to spend
time in His Book." She is confident, not in her ability,
but in the Lord she serves who will lead her and Dean in
their
future ministry.
Martin and Lisa (Maple) Lohrman
Church: First Baptist Church, Goshen,
IN
Children: John '89
Phone: (574) 533-3139
Email: church@fbcgoshen.org
Country: Costa Rica
Age Saved: Martin 11, Lisa 10
Marty: Marty grew up
on a farm in Central Indiana. His family attended a small
Baptist church every
Sunday, and he accepted Christ when he was 11. But his spiritual
growth struggled, and peer pressure ruled his life. After
high school, Marty met Lisa: "God brought her into my life
when I was headed down a path of destruction, and she helped
turn me around. A year after our son was born, we returned
to the church." Marty was baptized in 1991 to testify his
new commitment to Christ. Through discipleship training in
church, he began to grow. For the last year, Marty and Lisa
have served in Togo as assistant missionaries at the hospital.
"Working alongside two churches, we are helping nationals
build permanent structures. One building required an hour
and a half hike up a mountain. I've also discovered a passion
for film evangelism."
Lisa: In Sunday school,
Lisa first heard about heaven and hell: "For one whole week I wondered what
would happen if I died. I waited in agony for the next Sunday,
when I asked my teacher about Christ, and was saved." At the
beginning of Marty and Lisa's marriage, they only visited
church sporadically. After moving to Texas , the family began
attending a wonderful church where both Marty and Lisa committed
their lives to the Lord. Returning to Indiana, they settled
into First Baptist Church with hearts more fervent for Jesus:
"Each year it seems we are yearning to draw closer to the
Lord as He is drawing closer to us. The time spent serving
in Togo has been preparing us for career missions."
Kenny and Gina (Smith) Mead
Church: West Park Baptist Church Knoxville, TN
Children: Kalista '88, Kelsie '90, Kayla '01
Phone: (865) 539-0292
Email: kmead@west-park.org
Country: Open
Age Saved: Kenny 8, Gina 11
Kenny: When Kenny was
five, the Lord relocated his family to Tennessee , to a
house on a Baptist bus route.
A church representative knocked on their door and offered
to take the children to Sunday School. When his brothers
and
sisters came to Christ, Kenny also realized his need to accept
Christ, and eventually, his whole family became involved
in
church. As a teenager, Kenny had the opportunity to go on
several mission trips which opened his heart to missions.
Hearing Bill Commons speak stirred Kenny and Gina toward
fulltime
missions in 1992. However, the Lord made clear that it was
not yet time for them to go. Kenny began working with teenagers
and later served as a student pastor. Kenny cherished this
time: "God taught us so much by having us wait." Last November,
on a short-term missions trip, Kenny and Gina felt the Holy
Spirit confirm, "Now it is time!"
Gina: Gina grew up
in a Christian home, complacent to the call of the gospel
for several years. Lying
in bed struggling to catch her breath one night, Gina was
forced to confront the question of her ultimate destiny.
The
following day, she accepted Christ in the evening church
service. At a Tennessee Temple missions conference, Gina
knelt and
told the Lord that she would be a missionary if that is what
He wanted. On her first short-term trip, she was excited
that
she didn't want to return. "I didn't want to go back to college.
I wanted to stay on the field. But I was advised to go back
and finish my training. Now I am prepared for whatever God
has in store for me."
Jim and Terry (Wert) Miller
Church: First Baptist Church, Bellefonte,
PA
Children: Adam '89, Nathan '91,
Luke '95
Phone: (814) 625-2267
Email: millerhut@netzero.net Country:
Cape Town, South Africa Age Saved:
Jim 13, Terry 9
Jim: When he was 13,
Jim's
sister showed him his need for a Savior during Easter weekend.
In his 20s, he sought his own will, not God's, until he met
Terry. They became involved in their local church, where godly
men mentored Jim. When his church launched the Evangelism
Explosion program, Jim's pastor asked him to take part: "But
I couldn't see myself sharing the gospel door to door. My
pastor reminded me that Jesus said, 'Follow me, and I will make you
fishers of men.' I realized it was God's
work, rather than ours." After training at an Evangelism Explosion
clinic to become a lay teacher, Jim traveled to Ireland and
Ukraine where he trained national believers to share the gospel
with their own people. "We have a passion to train South African
believers to 'go and do likewise.'"
Terry: Terry had an
aunt who had a love and concern for her nieces and nephews;
she regularly wrote
to them and sent them gospel tracts. She planted seeds of
the truth in their hearts. When Terry was nine years old,
she sat down with a pile of gospel tracts and read through
them, praying the prayer at the end of one asking Jesus
to
be her Savior. At a missions conference at her home church
in 2001, Terry began to see how the Lord had been leading
her and her husband into missions and equipping them for
ministry: "I felt God tugging at my heart, and I went forward
and surrendered to Him."
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