Our Story

 

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Gerald

I grew up in Holland, MI, in a Christian home. My parents taught me the Bible and Jesus dying to pay for sins from before I can remember and as a result I had the faith of a little child and accepted Christ as my Savior. I always knew of missions growing up, but for me it was something that other people did. I was focused on getting a career to make money so I could be accepted by others. God changed my motivation and I was challenged with the fact that there were so many people who had never heard of my Savior. I changed my career path and I went to Ethnos360 Bible Institute in Jackson, MI fall of 2015.

Lizzy

I grew up in Lebanon, OH with my parents and three siblings. I was raised in church, and my father was our local missions Pastor for the last few years at our church before he passed away. I was saved when I was about five years old. I knew that I was a sinner and needed to accept Christ’s payment for my sins to be forgiven. It was not until I was about twelve years old that I began to take my faith more seriously which included evangelism and missions. I felt a desire to do missions cross-culturally, but was not sure what that would look like. It started with me going to the Ethnos360 Bible Institute in Jackson, MI where I heard about unreached people groups. I also met my husband there, and we decided to pursue cross-cultural ministry with Ethnos360 and take their missionary courses at Ethnos360’s Missionary Training Center in Missouri.

 
 

Two Become One

Gerald and I (Lizzy) were in the same graduating class in Bible school. We were both pursuing cross-cultural ministry, but did not hang out much together until our senior semester at school. We took a vision trip to Ethnos360’s MTC (Missionary Training Center) and just so happened to start hanging out and talking. We found out we were both planning on doing missions with Ethnos360 and had a lot in common. We quickly became really good friends, and began to pursue a relationship with each other back at the Bible school. We continued to pursue a relationship together and dated long distance over the summer of 2017 until we started at the MTC fall of 2017. Gerald asked me to marry him that fall and we were married the following May of 2018.

Gerald and I took a year off from school to be with my family when my dad passed away, and to save money for school now that we were married. We started our training back up in the spring of 2019 and graduated in March of 2020. Even though it was hard for us as a newly married couple to navigate through grief, we have grown closer to the Lord and each other because of it. I couldn’t imagine life without Gerald! Being his wife has been such a blessing and I couldn’t think of a better co-worker to do ministry with on a daily basis.

Before we left for the Philippines we had our first daughter Sybil Grace (Prophetess of God’s Grace) born in December of 2019, and then our second child Maybel Peace (Beautiful one of Peace) was born March 13th of 2021, but she was a stillborn. We landed in the Philippines in March of 2022 and since then have had two more children. Our Willa Love (Fierce protector of Love) was born in July of 2022 just a few weeks into our language program, and our Bentley Truth (Field of Truth) was born in February of 2024 just a few months after I (Lizzy) had finished all of my language courses. We have felt beyond blessed to have our arms full of beautiful children and such blessings from the Lord. It has been such a humbling honor to do our best to raise them in the ways of the Lord, and next year (2025) we are hoping to begin the adoption process in the Philippines for a baby. We are excited to see how God will use our family and children for His glory in the years ahead, and for more information on what’s next for us click the link below.