I was born in 1957 and grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My two younger brothers and I grew up in a Christian home and were in church every time the doors were open. On a stormy night when I was eight and afraid of the thunder and lightening, my dad helped me pray a profession of faith.
I thought I was a Christian, but I grew up with many doubts. I went forward every summer at Bible camp or at Vacation Bible School. People always told me that I had already been saved and didn’t have to get saved again, that I was calling God a liar.
My dad was the director for Child Evangelism Fellowship in upper Michigan, and mom had 5-Day Clubs every year in our home. I got involved in CEF as a teenager, and for 3 summers, I taught 5-Day Clubs in many surrounding communities. I led many children to Christ during these clubs.
At Bible College in 1979, at age 22, I had doubts after a message on Hell. I prayed, “Lord, if I’m not saved please save me!” I would study the Bible for classes in college, but it was just a textbook and other then that, I never looked at it. I was still not reading my Bible or praying. I was never close to the Lord, yet I thought I was a Christian.
In June 1980, after a year and a half of Bible College, Joe and I got married. We went to church regularly, yet I still never read my Bible or prayed. I knew I should, but if I did it at all, it was a duty and I never got anything from it. In April 1981, our first son was born and we were teaching him Bible verses by the time he was three. I looked like a Christian and acted like one but occasionally still had doubts.
In 1996, I went forward in an evangelistic meeting and our pastor sent me to a back room with one of the ladies in our church. I prayed to rededicate my life to God that night, but I still didn’t have peace.
A few weeks and a lot of conviction later, I talked to our pastor and he suggested that I read through 1 John prayerfully. I didn’t do it that day but finally I just couldn’t stand it anymore. On August 31st, when I was having a terrible time getting to sleep I finally got out of bed and prayed. “Lord, I just don’t know what’s wrong with me,” and I read 1 John. After a few hours of reading, I got into bed and I yielded myself to Him. “Lord, I know that you are the only way to heaven and without you I am lost.” I repented and finally saw myself as God saw me, and I trusted Him. I knew all the right verses and knew all about Jesus in my head but I had never trusted Him in my heart. I finally had peace and was able to fall asleep immediately.
The next morning was Sunday and as we were getting ready for church, I told Joe. “I got saved last night!” He was very surprised because he hadn’t known all the conviction I had been going through for so long. I got baptized two weeks later. If I had died before August 31st 1996, I would have gone to Hell thinking that I was a Christian. I was religious but lost.
In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in they name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
1 John 5:11-13 “And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
We knew as a couple that God wanted us in His work somewhere. We searched for it diligently for many years until we finally realized we should just wait on the Lord and be content where He had us for the time being. Once we yielded to being content just working in our church and in Awana in Florida, it didn’t take long and we were led to His perfect will. In 2001 we went as a family to a mission’s conference at my parents’ church an hour from our house. We had told the Lord that we would wait until He sent someone to us and we would stop trying to push doors open. At the missions conference one night Joe stood up and asked the congregation to pray for us as we were thinking of going with his brother Bruce to Chili to work with his family. After the service a man from Source of Light Ministries came up to Joe and Bruce and said, “I think you need to come to SLM in Georgia and check it out!” We went a couple weeks later with Joe’s brother and his wife to talk to the administrator. Dave asked Bruce questions and then he turned to Joe and asked what do you want to do at Source of Light? His answer was that we would be willing to do anything because we were very interested in the Bible Studies and how they could disciple the life of a Christian or bring someone to saving knowledge. He said, “What do you think of Canada? We need someone there to open a branch office for us so that Canadians can get the lessons over the border easier and cheaper.” We agreed and they gave us CANADA. All of it!! In August of 2001, Joe and I went to Source of Light Ministries International in Madison, GA to become Associate Missionaries and to learn all there was to learn about SLM. We had classes for a week while our boys stayed with Joe’s mom at our home in Florida. In the weeks to follow as we traveled on deputation, we met an associate pastor from Edmonton and for our first couple years of deputation we thought God wanted us in Edmonton, AB. Then Pastor Steve Trahms called us and said, “There’s a Mission in Saskatoon that does the same thing that you will be doing. Why don’t you call them?” So, Joe called Western Tract Mission during his normal calling hours on Wednesday and talked to Arnold Stobbe. Arnold said, “Why are you going to Edmonton when we have all you need right here?” Also, we got a letter from a supporter questioning if Edmonton was the correct area since our support was coming in so slowly (for the last 6 months it had stayed the same). Not bad, mind you, but not growing either! So that is how the Lord showed us that we needed to be in Saskatoon and not Edmonton. Once we changed the area we were headed for, our support started climbing and in 6 months we had all the support that was needed to leave for Saskatoon! This was January of 2005! People thought we were crazy to move to Saskatchewan in January!! But God took care of us and all went very well.
Joe sends out lessons all over Canada. There are many churches all throughout Canada that use the lessons for discipleship of their people and of people outside their churches. He orders the lessons from SLM and then ships them from here to the churches to save them from the big charges at the border.
I work in the office as Director of Bible Correspondence. That’s just a big title for supervisor of the 7 volunteer graders/correctors. I open the mail for the week and get it all ready for the graders when they come in on Tuesday and Wednesdays. We get an average of 100 lessons a week. Nothing like they were getting at SLM when I worked there in the correspondence department, which was 1000 lessons a day. They only have 7 or 8 graders also but they go in every day from 8 am. to 3 pm. I also have over 100 students of my own, who send in lessons to be graded.
WTM was 70 yrs old in 2011 so that was the first year we put together a calendar. All the verses for each month were on faithfulness as we praise God for His faithfulness in all those years of service.
Beginning in 2013, both WTM and SLM had a calendar. The SLM calendar is $10 to help with the cost of printing.