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Our Story
How did two Oklahoma grown kids get where they are?
That's a great place to start! Karen and I grew up in Oklahoma and started dating in High School. You could say we were 'High School Sweethearts' but honestly, it didn't go so sweet the whole time. We were just dumb kids, but kids who were also learning about God and what it meant to follow Him. It was in High School that we actually began to grow in our faith, be mentored by some Godly adults, and learn the true Gospel message for ourselves. We started to take following Jesus seriously.
We both pursued going to college after High School. Josh went to Oral Roberts University and Karen went on to the University of Central Oklahoma. We both had scholarships to pay for school. Josh was pursuing a Worship Arts degree and Karen was playing Volleyball and pursuing a teaching degree. It was only one semester in when Josh was serving in the middle school group at church that he heard about Unreached People Groups through some New Tribes missionaries who happened to speak to the middle schoolers that Wednesday. Josh was floored with the information he was hearing, "I never knew there were people out there who have never heard of God and don't have the Bible ??" Being the passionate and intense person that he is, he decided to drop his scholarship and classes to pursue missions by 'going'.
Karen's story is a little different. It was before college that she went on a mission trip to Haiti with our church. On this trip she remembers looking around at all the Haitian believers and thinking, "God, I feel like you want me to do this whole missions thing, but these people are already believers? Aren't there people out there who have never heard of You?" She was eager to pursue missions but didn't know how to get involved and wanted to wait until after college anyway. It wasn't until a year later, I got a phone call from Josh telling me about these New Tribes Missionaries, that I learned about Unreached People Groups for the first time... and I too, was floored. "God, so it's true?! There are people who don't know you?" This information was pivotal. I knew that God wanted me to pursue this, but how?
Of course I researched my tail off, looking into all the organizations, all the different Bible Colleges, figuring out how I can pull off finishing my schooling, getting a job, and doing missions in between. As I grew closer to the Lord and got in His Word more often, I realized I couldn't have it all. I couldn't have both the American Dream and 'go'. Through His Word, God was showing me what He desires from all of us, to make disciples of all the nations. It stuck out like sore thumb throughout the entire Bible. God's heart is for us to do missions. What did that mean for me? I came to the conclusion that God was leading me to 'go' and I had to be all in. I can't just do a summer here and there, it was going to take a lifetime. That is when I started pursuing going to Ethnos360 Bible School (New Tribes at the time). It was a scary thought to think that I would be essentially giving up my security and comfort in having a reliable job and education, but I applied anyway.
That Spring semester, Josh was already on track to going to the Bible School but I was still weighing my options. I wanted to finish College but also found a way to stay involved. I applied for New Tribes' shot-term mission trip called "Interface" and could not wait until the summer to go! Months later, Josh had been praying about going on the same trip and felt that God was leading him to go as well. It was a miracle that we both raised all of our funds to go and went to Papua New Guinea that Summer of 2016. We spent 6 weeks being exposed to missions first-hand. We had classes all morning and interacted with the people learning language and culture in the afternoons. For six weeks, God opened our eyes to the work He was doing around the world . Through our time there we became thoroughly convinced through God's Word and getting a small taste of missionary life that this is what God wanted us to do, and maybe he wants us to do it together...
It took a big leap of faith and a deep trust in God to make the decision to drop our studies, scholarships, and hopes of American success and pursue going to the Bible School in Wisconsin to start our training as missionaries with Ethnos360. We had applied to the Bible School the year before, but didn't think we would be going so soon. After we got back home from our trip, we had 3 weeks of turnaround time before we arrived in the great city of Waukesha, Wisconsin. We came eager to learn and grow in God and start this amazing journey of reaching the least reached places of the word.
The rest is sort of history, in the making at least. We got engaged soon after we arrived at Bible School. Married after completing our first year. We stayed after we graduated to bring our son, Abel, into the world. Meanwhile we interned in the Mobilization Department and got some extra training ;) After that year, we moved to good ole Roach, Missouri to Ethnos360's training center to learn the practical hands-on parts of being a missionary. We brought our baby girl Zion into the world not long ago and are now members with Ethnos360, doing what our young, eager hearts desired to do all along - in line with God's will of course.
Looking back, we are in awe of the great faithfulness God has bestowed on our lives. He has given us so much grace, love, peace, healing, comfort, and security in ways that our own plans for our lives could never bring. Our story isn't perfect and the details are way messy. We have changed plans left and right, and even have wanted to quit multiple times, but God is so perfect, holy, and faithful. His ways are not our own and we are thankful that He is still writing our messy yet beautiful story to this day.
