What two years can do...

It was almost exactly two years ago that we surrendered our lives to serve God as missionaries to Kenya. The past two years have been the busiest, scariest and the most incredible years of our lives. God has been so gracious to our family and has guided us through every step in getting to Kenya. There has been so many doors opened and prayers answered, it brings us to tears just thinking about it.


This past month has been especially exciting as we were officially appointed by ABWE (Association of Baptist for World Evangelism) to be missionaries to Mombasa, Kenya. This included a 9 day training in Harrisburg, PA. We were joined by our team, Matt and Melissa Guzman, Ryan and Jayme Kuenkel, and Shantelle Brutsman. Michael Paul and Alisa Leek will be attending next year after finishing his duty in the Marine Corps and Brittany Pelfrey will attend in two years, after completing nursing school.


The very next week, we were commissioned as missionaries by our sending church, Grace Baptist Church in Mason, Ohio. Our team was able to do our very first missions conference together at our sending church, which was an incredible blessing. Bruce O'Neil, president of Manna Worldwide, came in for the missions conference, which made our team so excited. We love Manna and have the greatest of respect for Bruce. It was a wonderful week and was concluded by a very special commissioning service, in which our entire church had the opportunity to pray over their missionaries. God really moved in our church and has touched the hearts of the congregation in a great way toward Kenya. We are so excited to see the wonderful things God will do in Mombasa, right here from Mason, Ohio.

Our family is taking another big step in our journey to get to Kenya. We will be moving into my (Steph's) parents basement at the beginning of May. This will allow us a lot more freedom financially to travel and raise the support needed to get to the people we love in Kenya. This burning desire to glorify God through ministering in Kenya is what fuels us to be steadfast and unwavering in our pursuits to get there! To quote the apostle Paul in his letter to Thessalonians,

I Thessalonians 4:13 "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us."