When I was a child I wasn't thinking
about growing up, I was just a kid so I
didn't really have any plans to be a
missionary or even know what I wanted to do.
I had no real venture of what I
was wanting to be, missions was
definitely not on part of my agenda.
There's always people at certain times
that have another influence on you, but
probably the largest influence would be
Ken and Lorraine Enright, that's who we
went out with.
We went out first time
just as a work team from our local
home church and we were out for two
months and it was hard work, I
mean we're out in the middle of the bush
and it was really a lot of work.
We were trying to rest and the Lord started
speaking to me about, could we be a
missionary, could we do the work that
we're seeing our other friends the Enright's doing.
Would it be possible for us to
to reach out this far
in life and to find ourselves doing it
and finally we said yes, or I said yes
that I would be willing to follow him
even to Zaire and that's where it
all started back in 1982.
Not everybody can say 'Ok, I'm gonna
leave that behind and go work with the
people in another country' and I really felt
like I was called
at that point to do something different.
We had the privilege
when we went to Zambia of actually
starting what is now known as the New
Life Center and it really has become a
resource center for this young
conference in Zambia.
I really enjoy working with the kids
and the youth and the women.
I have one lady, she's just
a great source of joy to me and
she's handicapped, she can't even walk
but what I recognised about her is she's
always smiling, no matter what people face,
the difficulties, the sicknesses, the
lack of food or water, they still have
joy and they still continue to trust in
things being better in the end,
in the long run.
To be able to develop those
relationships with them, to be able to
know that we love one another and that
we can work together
and that we are building something
that's eternal, it's not
just for while we're breathing air on
earth, but it's actually going to be what
God has for us throughout eternity.
We have so much ahead of us and that is the
one thing that I gained most
I believe, out of all of my years in service.
