John’s Testimony
I accepted the Lord as my Savior at the age of 6. Several years later while in the 6th grade my teachers asked us to answer the question “What are you going to be when you grow up?” I didn’t really know at first. One day a boy in my class said that he thought that God might want him to be a missionary. That was the day the Lord began working on my heart. A few weeks later my Sunday School teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. The Lord kept telling me that day “I want you to be a missionary, so when the teacher asked that’s what I said. After hearing this my teacher told me, ”If that is what God wants you to do that is good, but make sure it is what God wants you to do otherwise your life will be empty.” After finishing High school I enrolled in Baptist Bible College in 1990 and graduated from the missions program in 1995. In 1996, we had a missions conference and Jim Carter missionary to Alaska was there with his family. As he shared the need for the Gospel in Alaska, God burdened our hearts and we surrendered to go. The Lord moved us to Wellington Baptist Temple in Wellington, KS where we did our internship. In 2004 we were approved as BBFI missionaries to Alaska. In 2009, we moved to Alaska and have spent the past year here working with other missionaries.
The Lord first burdened our hearts for the people in Dutch Harbor on our first survey trip to Alaska in 2001. We have prayed about this area and these people for many years. In December 2009, a lady in the church in Wrangell, gave me a free airline ticket to Dutch Harbor. A couple months later another family gave Jody and Jonathan round trip tickets to Dutch Harbor so that they could go with me. After visiting this area, the Lord burdened our hearts even more for the people there who have no Gospel preaching Baptist Church to share the truth of God’s Word with them.
Jody’s Testimony
As a child, my parents took my sisters and I to church at Wichita’s Baptist Tabernacle. I went to the Christian school there also. I was born with a heart defect and had open heart surgeries when I was 4, 11, and 18. The people in the church and school were so sweet to me. I remember one Sunday when I was 7 years old hearing the story of Barney’s Barrel in children’s church. It was then that I realized that even though I tried to be good I was still a sinner. I prayed with my mom and asked Jesus to be my Savior. My parents quit attending church when I was 11 years old but God allowed me to go to a good church with my Grandma as I was growing up. Shortly after I graduated from High School God opened doors for me to go to Baptist Bible College. While at BBC I struggled with the question of if I was really saved. Finally I prayed for reassurance of my salvation. I’m so thankful that once we know Christ nothing can take us from Him.
Shortly after I made sure of my salvation I became burdened for missions and I told God that I would go anywhere He wanted me but “please make it someplace warm.” In 1996 God called us to Alaska. Later after doing our internship in Wellington Kansas, I knew it was time to actually start deputation. I was not happy. I had grown to love the people in Wellington and once again I tried to tell God what would be best; that maybe we should just stay there where it was nice and sunny! The very next week I started to lose my eyesight. The optometrist told me I had an eye disease called kerataconus and that I would need a cornea transplant in each eye. After the transplants I could not stand to look at any light. We had to put blankets over the blinds in our windows so I would not get a horrible headache. God used this “dark” time in my life to focus my attention on Him and on the fact that I needed to be willing to go anywhere He called us. I realized that the darkest times in our lives can be the times when the light of Christ can shine through us the brightest. God used my friends in Wrangell Alaska to provide a short survey trip for us to Unalaska and my heart broke for the people there who are going through life very much in spiritual darkness. As we flew into Dutch Harbor the song “Lord, You Are More Precious Than Silver” had just played on my I pod. As we landed I thought of the words to this song and God changed my heart. I no longer dreaded the fact that He might call us to Dutch Harbor but hoped that He would.
