Seeking

My husband has had the blessing of being discipled by one of our elders, the last several years. Because of this, the elder is well aware of our desires and journey with missions. His own experience includes previously playing for and now working with MLB. In 2025, this friend told Rick about an opportunity to serve as a volunteer chaplain for the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino ...in Spanish.  We began to pray.  In January 2026, Husband began working on and submitted his application. Weeks went by, but he did not get a reply. The elder found out the website was down. A new link was provided, so he submitted a second application and received confirmation and offer the next day. Within that same week, he was advised to seek counsel from 2 other elders and discuss the potential impact to Sunday service. He did so and was encouraged to move forward . One of the greatest blessings was when we were told this opportunity would be presented to our elder board, so they cou...

With my Husband's bible training complete, the follow up question we have been getting the most is: so what's next, followed up with, will you guys be sent to the mission field now? The short answer is we do not know what is next, only God does  ( James 4:13-16 ).  I will never forget when we visited Cornerstone and spoke with the missions pastor for the first time. He said 'the church will disciple you, but there is no guarantee we will send you. Missionaries do not send themselves - churches do . Root yourselves here, and let us get to know you. We want to see how you respond when the sheep bite and if He will confirm this desire.' That was sobering, but we were confident in the Lord's leading us.  If you had asked me then, are we ready to be sent? I would have confidently exclaimed, YES!!! But four and a half years later, I am so thankful He did not allow us to go, when we had the opportunity. We were not ready. Are we ready now? That would be a question for our...

February brings much celebration to our home - me, Husband and both of our dad's have birthdays. I'll admit, I play the birthday card, because I enjoy spending time with people :D But as my D.O.B. neared, I was reflecting on my life as a whole, and especially since coming to Christ. The one thing that stands out is: the mercy of God - saving me, refining me and loving me.  To start, here is a bit of my testimony . I was raised catholic and attended church with my mom and older sister. Because of what I knew about God and what I did, like go to church, I believed I was going to heaven when I died. I thought I was a good person, or at least, good enough. In 2002, my dad who practiced no religion put his faith in Christ and "shared" Him with me. Shortly after, I prayed the "sinner's prayer," but my life was unchanged. Quite the opposite, I continued enjoying and walking towards sin. Another moral ritual, I now thought believing in Jesus and doing some of wh...

Happy New Year, beloved! To start out the year, we want to highlight a missionary couple: Art & Emalou Norris, as told by Juanita Fike in, "The Hand of the Ancient One." They served the Navajo people faithfully at various reservations for 42 years as husband and wife (plus their time as singles, prior to marriage). This couple has spurred us on, and we pray their conviction, unity and humility spur you on, whether single or married, as you press on where the Lord has you to minister to those around you. If I can sum up this couple in one word, the word is: conviction. When sobered by the reality that many natives had died without hearing the gospel, Art prayed, " 'I can't do anything about those people, but as long as You [God] give me life, I'll do everything to make sure the present generation of Indians know about Jesus' " (3). On his way to Prairie Bible Institute at 23 years old, facing logistical "setbacks," he thought, "Unce...

This past month I had the blessing of two weeks off from work at CBU, since my job is active 10 months each year. With some of the time I was able to rest and reflect, quite a bit. For our update, we would like to share some pictures, praises and prayer requests.  Praise Reports: July 1, Husband, Zachary and I toured the Master's University, and Zachary said it was his favorite college tour, so far; he also enjoyed his first time eating sushi, and we had a great conversation (picture #1); July 4, Husband and I celebrated by taking "A," an international student athlete to the airport, before she went back home to Western Europe; I met her at work, and it was a gift befriending her; I gave her a copy of the "Gospel Primer" and pray the Lord continues drawing her to Himself (picture #2); Husband and I had the blessing of meeting up and sharing with two young couples that are courting; Husband and I were able to fellowship with a brother and another family for lunch...

"There [at Puteoli] we [Paul, prisoners and guard] found some brethren, and were invited to stay with them for seven days; and thus* we came to Rome" (Acts 28:14, NASB; *see Acts 13-28 for Paul's rugged missionary life). Husband and I are back from our vision trip to Rome and would like to share about meeting the Italian theological Academy (ITA) missionary team, visiting the local church and assessing whether this could be where the Lord would have us relocate to serve. The ITA team consists of three main leaders (+3 associate professors in Genoa and Florence): Johnny Gravino (missionary), Cesare Albanessi (missionary) and Sebastian Mendez (ITA graduate now pastor). The Gravinos and Alabanessis are in Rome, and the Mendezes are in Messina which is near Sicily in the south. The academy serves to build the church by  training and equipping men to understand and properly divide the word (click here  for more info), with a goal to plant a church in Rome . ITA classes have ...