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Mark's Testimony:
 I
praise my God that I was saved at a young age. On an early summer
Sunday night, when I was seven years old, I accepted Jesus Christ as my
personal Saviour. I can remember an old-fashioned hell fire and
brimstone message. I knew that I did not want to spend eternity in a
place such as that. I knelt in my parent’s living room and told
Jesus that I realized that I was a sinner and accepted Him as my
Saviour. Not long after that I made my faith public in the waters of
baptism.
I attended a Christian boarding high school and during one of the
breaks from school, I felt the Lord dealing with me. I knew that the
Lord had some type of full-time service for me, but I was not sure
exactly what that was. I surrendered my life to whatever the Lord had
for me. I went on to attend Pensacola Christian College where I majored
in Computer Science. It was a PCC that I met my lovely wife. After
college, I began a business career and a family. This took Missi and I
through many different areas of the country and a wide range of
business experiences. These included motel management, printing, and
computer programming. During this time, Missi and I were also very
active in leading youth groups and teens. God gave us a great amount of
experience during this time, but His call to full-time service was as
yet unfulfilled.
While we were members of the Youth Staff and I was serving as a deacon
at Faith Baptist Church in Champaign, IL, we assisted in a youth
missions trip to Baptist Youth Mission in Sidney, NE. God impressed on
our hearts that this was finally the place that He had chosen for us to
serve Him full-time. However, His timing was not yet perfected; He
still had almost another complete year before He was ready for us to be
on-site.
Missi's Testimony
My parents made sure that from the earliest day I was attending church
with them and hearing the message of salvation. At the age of four I
realized that I had to personally ask Christ to forgive my sins and
become the Savior of my life. I can even remember the prayer I prayed
with my Grandmother on the back steps of our church. About two years
later, I was baptized and took my first public stand with Christ.
While in high school, I was a sign language interpreter for a deaf
friend. As I interpreted church services for someone younger than
myself, I was forced to break down and explain the sermons as I was
hearing them. This made me concentrate on the messages I was hearing in
a new way. It was during this time that I dedicated my life to do
whatever it was God called me to do . . . whether that was to be a
housewife raising a family or to be a missionary in some far away place.
I went on to attend Pensacola Christian College for one year. The Lord
brought a wonderful man into my life! We were married and started on a
long adventure of moving and changing jobs (for me) as Mark’s
career progressed. One thing remained constant and that was our love
and burden for teens.
As the Lord led us around the nation and from one teen group to
another, we felt Him drawing us closer and closer to full-time service.
Upon visiting Baptist Youth Mission, we knew we had reached the place
where we would step into the ministry position God had been preparing
us for all these years!
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