“Dear Jesus, please help me to meet just one Christian,” Duang pleaded. Her Buddhist family thought it was crazy that their teenage daughter would become a Christian when there were very few Christians in Southern Thailand and none in their village. But Duang was undeterred. She had listened to Christian Radio broadcasts and had written to request Bible studies. For two years she prayed to meet another Christian. When missionaries came to visit, she was overjoyed. Soon she was baptized and went to study at an Adventist boarding school in Northern Thailand. She began praying for her family and rejoiced when three of her older sisters gave their hearts to Jesus! Among her prayers was the request that God use her as a missionary.

“Lord, use me as a missionary,” Brian prayed on the other side of the world. When a call came to work as an ADRA volunteer in a refugee camp in Northern Thailand, he happily accepted it. Visiting the Adventist boarding school one weekend, he noticed a senior student whose eyes sparkled with life and whose smile could melt granite!

Our friendship grew over the next couple of years with occasional visits and correspondence while Brian worked on a development project in Laos. In April 1993 we married at Mission College in Thailand and soon moved to Weimar College. While studying there we accepted an AFM call to work in Northern Thailand as missionaries with the Mien people. God had answered our missionary prayers! Our daughter Benya and son Eliyah were born during this time. After serving with AFM we had two other mission assignments for a total of 18 years of mission service as a couple. God is good.

After transitioning to the States in 2013, our constant prayer was for an opportunity to return to frontline mission work, to proclaim the name of Christ where He is yet unknown. And now God has answered that prayer, too! We have accepted a call with AFM to share the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ with the Buddhists of Southern Thailand.