God's Grace to our Family

John Mark:
I thank God for the undeserved grace of being born into a Christian home. At an early age I professed faith in Jesus Christ, and before finishing elementary school I was baptized. Just before I started eighth grade, my family left Indiana for the West Indies where my parents began serving as radio missionaries on the island of Antigua. Those three years and 108 square miles were some of the most influential in my life. I began taking basic Spanish classes, compliments of the Venezuelan government and preparatory for service in Uruguay (though I had no knowledge of this at the time). Far more importantly, the Lord continued His undeserved working in my heart. After a period of resisting the idea of complete surrender to His will, I acknowledged His right to control my life. To use Isaac Watts’ words—words that played a part in my decision—I knew that “love so amazing . . . demands my soul, my life, my all.” In retrospect, that day may have been the day of my salvation; or the Lord may have saved me shortly after, when I sought to be sure that I had truly repented. A few years later I was re-baptized in Provo, Utah, where my family had moved to work with another missionary radio station.

In 1997 I graduated from Bob Jones University with an undergraduate degree in church music and a piano proficiency. By this point in my life I had told the Lord that I thought He might want me in some kind of “full-time Christian ministry.” I had also taken part in a three-week trip to Uruguay, an experience that had exposed me not only to the work of EMU International but also to the ministries of other faithful servants of the Lord in that country. One of these veteran missionary couples, the Garwoods, had a daughter who had helped to lead the mission team that I had been part of. My friendship with Deborah grew, and the following Christmas we helped to put together another student team that ministered for several weeks in Uruguay. We were married in 1999. We have lived in Greenville for the past ten years, during which time the Lord has continued to train me. This training has taken diverse forms: seminary and music classes, the preaching and teaching of our pastor, working a secular job in the community, participation in our church’s internship program, and involvement in the neighborhood outreach of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church. In May of 2008 I completed the Master of Divinity / Master of Church Music combination from BJU.

I desire generally to be involved in the process of making disciples of Jesus—that process of evangelism, teaching, and planting healthy national churches. Specifically, I want to help equip Uruguayan believers for the work of service and to have a part in training national leadership to carry on the work of the Church within Uruguay and beyond. We expect this to take place in the context of the EMU Bible institute in Montevideo and within the local churches around Uruguay. We look forward to encouraging the ministry of Deborah’s father as well. There is no question but that we will desperately need the Lord’s provision of grace, strength, and wisdom; and I ask you to pray for us. We want to do only what God Himself would choose to do through us. We want to bear the fruit that comes from abiding in Him. We must see His glory and are dependent upon His “establishing the work of our hands” (Psalm 90).

Deborah:
By God’s grace, I was privileged to grow up in a missionary home in Uruguay. My earliest memories include attending church and hearing the Gospel. When I was four, I professed faith in Christ on a family trip, visiting missionaries in Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, on a Sunday when I was ten, I realized that I remembered little of that trip and nothing about that profession, except what had later been recounted to me of what I had then said. Through my parents’ counsel and careful explanation from Scripture, I prayed that afternoon, asking God to forgive my sins and save my soul and telling Him that I desired to serve Him with my life. Various periods of doubt since then have helped me to refocus on Christ and on the fact that “believe” is not merely a punctual verb but essentially a stative verb. My mother often encouraged me with the truth that assurance of salvation depends neither on how I feel currently nor on anything I might have done (like pray the “right words”) but on Christ’s completed work on Calvary. I am trusting in His faithfulness and in His words:
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…”

In 1982 I was baptized in the Santa Lucía River in the department of Lavalleja. The Lord used the biblical teaching and godly examples of the staff at EMU’s camp in Uruguay to impact me as a teenager and encourage me at a pivotal point to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. It was at Camp Emanuel when I was sixteen that I answered the challenge of missions after hearing the testimony of David Livingstone, pioneer missionary to Africa:
“Lord, send me anywhere; only go with me…
My Jesus, my King, my Christ, my All!
I again consecrate my life to Thee.”

In 1995 I graduated from Bob Jones University with a BA in French and Spanish. A year later, while on staff at BJU, the Lord allowed me to travel with a university mission team to Uruguay and meet the man who is now my best friend for life! The Lord kept the burden of missions before us, providing for us to travel to Mexico, Spain, and back to Uruguay, and giving us opportunity to be involved in several local Hispanic ministries as well. As John Mark persevered with his training, God continued to put Uruguay on our hearts and open doors of opportunity there. We rejoice in His leading!

In January 2006, the Lord granted us the desire of our hearts by sending Anna-Ruth Elizabeth, a wonderful answer to prayer and great joy to us, and we are continually thanking God for her. Elizabeth loves interacting with people, known and unknown, and has been a great addition to our ministries. We look forward to what the Lord will do in and through our family as we seek to glorify and serve Him on deputation and in Uruguay.