It all started in 1993 when Angela and Jeff decided to attended Cedarville College, now University. Jeff majored in electrical engineering and Angela majored in nursing. We met our freshmen year, but did not start dating until our Junior year and were married in the fall of 1997. Our time at Cedarville was very challenging and rewarding. It was at Cedarville where the Lord laid missions on both of our hearts. We knew that we would be involved in missions somehow in the future, but did not know the who or where.
We lived in Racine, Wisconsin and attended Calvary Memorial Church since our marriage. We enjoyed getting involved in the different ministries of the church. Angela was involved in AWANA and the nursery while Jeff was involved with the missions committee and also the audio/video committee. We worked for various companies throughout this time and gained valuable experience working for each company.
In 2003 we felt the Lord leading us to begin actively looking at missions. We set up an appointment with our pastor to share with him what we felt the Lord leading us to do. At the meeting he was disappointed as he was looking to approach us about getting involved in missions. For us it was confirmation that the Lord was desiring to have us serve Him in a foreign location. We talked with our pastor for a while and decided we would approach Africa Inland Mission (AIM) about there need for missionaries and see how the Lord would lead. After much prayer we were accepted to be missionaries in December of 2003 with an appointment to Kijabe, Kenya where Jeff was going to be the station technical manager and Angela would a part time guesthouse manager. We began the long process of raising monthly support as AIM is a faith based organization. The Lord provided our monthly support in about 12 months time and on July 4th, 2005 we were headed to Kenya.
On July 6, 2005 we began our mission time in Kenya by getting acquainted with the country, people and language. We spent the first 3 months of our time living with a Kenyan family learning more and more about the culture every day. It was a very challenging time and we learned many different things about ourselves, but also the culture. In early October we moved to Kijabe to start our time working at the guesthouse and as station technical manager. We spent the first several months working just at the guesthouse so we could get our house settled and continue learning the language and culture. Several months later Jeff began his work as the station technical manager. After a time of both of us working we found out that the guesthouse was not a part time job, but a full time job. So we had 2 full time jobs and 2 small kids to raise. We felt the Lord asking us to focus our resources and time on the guesthouse and were allowed to do so. The reason for the guesthouse being so busy was due to the fact that the hospital was in a growing phase and more and more people were coming for care. As more patients came more caregivers came needing a place to stay. What an opportunity to share the love of Christ with people who had never heard.
In August of 2011 the Lord closed the door on one ministry and opened it up for another ministry. We intended to return to the guesthouse and continue ministering with the many friends we had made, but the Lord changed our ministry to be that of dorm parents and computer network assistant at Rift Valley Academy. We did not see the change coming, but the Lord was gracious and merciful to us during the transition. We have loved every minute of work of our time here at RVA and look forward to what the Lord has in store for us. What a unique opportunity to help spread the Word to the rest of the world by helping MK’s grow up away from there parents. We have the privilege of having 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students in our house. In 2011 we had 4 4th graders and 2 3rd graders staying in our house for the year. So far in 2012 we have 1 2nd grader, 1 3rd grader and 1 4th grader. The parents of these kids are serving in Burundi, Uganda, a country up north, islands in the Indian Ocean, South Sudan, northern Kenya and central Kenya. We are so privileged to have the opportunity to help raise these kids as there parents serve the Lord elsewhere.
