You Can Help Us • We Can Help You • Links
|
|
You Can Help Us • We Can Help You • Links |
Our journey begins in two continents--North America and Africa--and has taken us to a third: Australia. Ben grew up on a Holstein dairy farm in northern Baltimore County, Maryland. He was very active in his church and youth group at Grace United Methodist Church. At age 13 he gave his heart to Jesus, and a year later sensed clear call to the ministry. He enjoyed serving in the church by playing piano and teaching Sunday school throughout his teenage years. Ben was also active in the local 4-H chapter and was president of the club for one year. He attended Hereford High School and graduated in 1980.
Judy grew up on the mission field in Belgian Congo (later called Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo). Most of her school life was spent in boarding schools in the Congo and at Rift Valley Academy (RVA) in Kenya. While she was home on school breaks, Judy loved typing for her Dad, who wrote many Christian books in the Swahili language. She graduated from RVA in 1980.
We met at Messiah College and were eventually married at the chapel there. One of the things that brought us together was our interest in missions, and it was quickly evident that we would someday serve overseas. During our senior year, Ben went on a mission trip to Jackson, Mississippi to help poor and marginalized families. Shortly after graduation in 1984, we served for 11 months in Zaire as volunteer missionary assistants. Judy taught practical household skills to women including coooking, sewing, and sanitation. Ben repaired sewing machines and hospital equipment, and supervised the building of an MAF airstrip with 70 African workers at his command.
Upon our return to the US, we led the youth group at Ben's home church for 18 months. We moved to Reisterstown, MD and joined Northwest Baptist Church. Ben was the outreach director there for a year, and it was during this time that Ben began to revisit his call to the ministry.
From 1988-90 Ben studied for the ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. During seminary, Ben worked with Pearl River Baptist Association in Mississippi. With the influence of Ken Rhodes, this experience helped Ben to develop a passion for church planting and would help us to determine more specifically our area of ministry. In 1990, Ben received his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree.
Upon completion of our seminary studies, we wanted to be involved in church planting. We moved to Brattleboro, Vermont and worked from 1990-95 as missionaries with the Home Mission Board (now known as the North American Mission Board). Ben started a church and was pastor for 5 years while Judy led the children's ministry as well as ministry to women. We also had a thriving youth ministry in that community. Ben served as Associational Sunday School Director. He also worked with Rescue, Inc. as an Intermediate level Emergency Medical Technician.
In 1994 we began to explore once again the possibilities of serving overseas. We applied to the International Mission Board and were appointed in Huntsville, Alabama in April 1995. We attended the Missionary Learning Center near Richmond, Virginia for 8 weeks in preparation for our work. Ben had also attended the Saddleback Church conference that year.
We moved to Australia in January 1996 and began working under the direction of the Baptist Union of Tasmania. They sent us to a small town called Port Sorell to plant a church. We formed a core group, trained them, and launched "New Beginnings" in July of that year. Ben continued as pastor of the church for four years. During this time we formed many small groups and had a total of about 70 people in small groups. We had a thriving youth ministry and baptized a number of young people. Ben was asked to lead the state church planting task force; he also began working with Crossover Australia, a national evangelism task force. In 2000 we went back to the US for stateside assignment for eight months.
Upon our return to Australia, we moved to the capital city. We were passionate about reaching people and felt that we would be positioned best in the people center of the state. We spent about 18 months working alongside the churches, training and encouraging them in evangelism and leadership. We also began to meet many non-churched families from the Glenorchy area, so we started a gathering called Time Out. This was not a church, but a place where we could address everyday life issues and share the gospel message. We also began to start churches based in homes.
In 2005 we went back to the US for our second stateside assignment. During this time, Ben began work on his Doctor of Ministry at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary . He completed 3 out of 6 seminars.
During our third term in Australia we were introduced to SC (Strategy Coordinator) training, preparing us for a broader vision of reaching people not just in Tasmania, but throughout the nation. Our vision is that every Australian has the opportunity to hear and understand the gospel in his heart language with an opportunity to respond, in the present generation. We pray that God will give us the strength and wisdom to make this a reality, for the sake of His Kingdom.
Our favorite Bible verses reflect our passion for ministry and are particularly appropriate to our present work. Ben's favorite Bible verse is Matthew 28.19-20, also known as the Great Commission: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them...and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Judy's favorite Bible verse is Joshua 1.9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
This site has had 3824 hits from 705 hosts since 7 September 2007