How does a guy from Texas and a girl from Indiana get married and start a ministry? Only by God’s hand. My wife Janine and I met on a blind date when I was a pilot in the Air Force at Grissom AFB, Indiana and she was a dental hygienist practicing in Kokomo, Indiana. The year was 1978. I left the Air Force and joined American Airlines shortly after we were married.
During our college years, Janine and I had both drifted away from living the lives we knew we should be living. When we got married, it was as if God gave us a wakeup call to grow up. In our 1st church as a married couple, we soon became youth sponsors. Were we ever in over our heads! Fortunately, we had a great group of junior and senior high students.
After three years of snow and ice in Chicago, I was able to transfer to DFW. Again, we became active in our local church. As we studied the Bible more and more, we each had verses that had a special calling to us. Janine’s verses were Luke 4:18-19. My verses were Mark 16:17-18.
Over the next 20 years we visited dozens of churches, constantly looking for a church that really embraced those two sets of verses. When I say embrace, we were looking for churches that did what these verses said. We were always told the gifts of the Holy Spirit left when the last of the original 12 disciples died. But those verses kept calling to us. We knew there had to be more to being a Christian than sitting in a pew every Sunday, Tithing, and being on a lot of committees.
Janine had several interests, and one involved the Plano, Texas’ Sister City program. In about 1992, we were invited to host two Russian dancers who were part of a larger dance group that had come to Plano. We became good friends with these two men. One man kept rubbing his jaw one night, and with the help of our English/Russian dictionary, we soon learned his teeth were bothering him. Janine was working for Dr Robert Pritz at that time. She was able to get our Russian friend to Dr. Pritz’s office where it was determined he had four abscessed teeth had to be extracted.
Our new friend was terrified at the prospect of having four teeth extracted. He had been in the Russian army in Afghanistan and had a tooth pulled the old fashion way. Drink half a bottle of vodka, someone (not a dentist of course) pulled the tooth with a pair of pliers, and then he drank the second half of the bottle of vodka. Dr Pritz was able to make a call to an oral surgeon who quickly had him sedated, teeth extracted and sitting back in the waiting room 45 minutes later. This act of kindness led to Janine being invited to be part of a group from the Plano Sister City Program that had been invited to Ivanovo, Russia
Janine eventually made about five trips to Russia, always speaking about our dental procedures in America. Her visits might be to elementary schools one day and dental clinics on other days. In Russia, the idea of preventative care was a new concept.
On one trip to Ivanovo, Janine was part of group of doctors and dentist. This team called all their doctor friends and asked them to donate all the sample medications. They even call several of the pharmaceutical supply reps and asked them for donations. On that trip, they took about 20 boxes that were 18”x18”x18” full of medical supplies. These acts of kindness allowed Janine to find favor with a several business and government leaders including the mayor of Ivanovo and several Department Heads at the Power University. This favor allowed her to share the Gospel with them and their families.
In about 1995, Janine was working for a dentist named Dr. Tom Brian who invited her to join a medical mission team he was taking to small villages in Mexico. Dr. Tom Brian has a ministry called Send Hope and they partnered with the Wycliff Bible translators and local Mexican pastors. The translators helped the doctors who didn’t speak Spanish and witnessed to the people who came to the medical clinic. People often walked for days to get medical treatment. At night, Dr Brian would show Christian movies such as the Jesus film. For some of the villagers, it was the first movies they had ever seen. Janine would clean people’s teeth as part of the team providing badly needed medical care. Janine continued to go on these short-term mission trips once or twice a year. On one of Janine’s trips, they found out that a pastor who had invited the group to come to his village had been killed for his attempts to bring the gospel to that area of Mexico.
On one of Janine’s mission trips to Mexico, there was a retired Army Helicopter Pilot named Tom Hans. Tom was told by God to go on that trip even though he didn’t speak Spanish or know anything about medicine. Tom was baffled about why God wanted him to go to Mexico; because he was trying to raise support to be a pilot in Papua, New Guinea. Soon Janine and Tom discovered our mutual love for flying and missions which became a common link between us to this day. Much more on Tom later.
In about 1998, Janine came down with Rheumatoid Arthritis and her days as a dental hygienist were over. Because Janine had met and worked with several pastors during her mission trips to Mexico, we started visiting with one pastor who had a school and church in McAllen, Texas. After a few years we felt God wanted us to move to the McAllen area and help this pastor with his work. So, over the July 4th weekend, 2001; we moved to McAllen. Janine enrolled at Kingsway Bible Language Institute to learn Spanish. Her school was 6 hours a day, with about 4 or 5 hours of homework each night, for 9 months.
This all proves God has a real sense of humor. The only subject I ever failed in my life was 8th grade Spanish. So where was God sending us, Mexico, and later Ecuador of all places.
As I mentioned earlier, we kept asking every church we attended about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and we were always told they had passed away when the last of the 12 original disciples died. But we knew there had to be more. God was faithful to answer our pursuit.
In Janine’s language school class, there was a wide mix of people, very old to very young, professional to hillbillies. But the most important people to us were Jerry and Bennie Newkirk. They were from Indiana and had been going to Mexico for short term mission work for several years. In 2001, God impressed on Jerry and Bennie that they needed to learn Spanish and not be forced to use translators all the time. Jerry’s calling was teaching on the Holy Spirit which included the demonstration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We had our answer at last.
When Janine finished language school, we started going to a small village in Mexico to help Jerry and Bennie. He was teaching at a small Mexican Bible school on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and he started training us as he trained the students. We also started working with a pastor on the Mexican side of the border in a town called Rio Bravo, Mexico. In addition to our home in McAllen, we had a small, humble apartment in Rio Bravo very close to where the Pastor wanted to plant a church. It was in an area that bad been the dump, but recently turned into an area where houses could be built.
One day we were with the Pastor in his van with a small group from his church and we drove around the dump/housing area looking for potential sites to buy land to build the new church. At that time there was one small convenience store and a dozen very small houses. Only a few houses had indoor plumbing and electricity. The Pastor wanted to have a spur of the moment worship service on a lot we felt God was telling us to buy for the new church. But the problem was a lack of electricity for the speakers and microphone. Janine jumped out of the van, ran to a house, and knocked on the door. A minute later, she came back and said the lady had given us permission to do our service in her front yard and use her electricity; all for free.
So began a series of services in this ladies’ font yard. On occasions, the pastor might be preaching to 20 adults and Janine was doing Bible stories for 60-80 kids. She was really humbled when a 6-year-old boy was acting as her translator to the younger kids. He felt he needed to correct Janine’s Spanish. Janine was always happiest when surrounded by a group of poor, dirty and other wise forgotten children. That was where she felt she could make the greatest impact for the Kingdom.
On one night, it had rained, and the streets (unpaved) were a muddy mess. I felt I heard God say, “Get them out of the mud.” After a lot of prayer, we started raising funds to buy land and start building the church.
Even though the land in most of Mexico is relatively cheap, the land in the dump/new housing area was expensive. We couldn’t imagine how we would be able to raise the necessary money needed for the church. We told our friends what we felt God told us to do, and soon we had purchased not one lot, but three and started construction of the church. We hired the local church members to build the church. We felt the church needed to be built quicker than using volunteer labor on nights and weekends. We also wanted the members to take ownership of the building and to be able to maintain the property.
In May of 2003, one year from the beginning of construction, $40,000 had been raised, three lots were purchased, and the church held its dedication ceremony. Obviously God had ordained this project.
During 2001 to 20010, I would commute to DFW to fly my airline trips and return to McAllen. When not flying, we worked in Rio Bravo and at the Bible School about 5 hours into Mexico. As we helped Jerry and Binnie Newkirk at the Mexican Bible School, our spiritual gifts came alive.
In addition to teaching of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we would drive the students to different villages and cities for them to practice what we had taught them. We told the students we expected them to be as proficient in the gifts at the end of their 9 months as we were. Many of the students passed Janine and I in their Giftings. Our work took us from the Northern border of Mexico to the Southern border. Working with these two groups in Mexico opened doors for us to minister in numerous homes and churches and later other nations.
Because of Janine’s ability to speak Spanish, she was able to minister in Merida, Mexico, Bogota, Colombia, Guayaquil, Ecuador, Artigas, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
In 2010, we moved back to Frisco, Texas, a town North of Dallas. We joined a local church where we serve.
Several things helped us move forward in ministry over the years. Whenever we felt God was opening a door, we would pray about the invitation and unless we felt God say no, we went. Conditions were often very primitive and the food strange at best. Janine had Iguana tacos at one church. (Yes, we have pictures). Sleeping on wooden benches or in the van and going to the outhouse was common. But one of the most important factors during this time was Janine’s ability to build personal relationships with people. Her acts of kindness to help people by cleaning their teeth and just loving on people was what opened doors. She was also a great intercessor for all the trips.
Our trips would later take us to Ecuador for several years, then Scotland, Indonesia and South Africa.
Earlier I mentioned a retired Army Helicopter Pilot named Tom Hans Janine met on one of her early mission trips to Mexico. When I saw videos of the flying Tom was doing, I knew he had to have been called, and protected by God. At that time, I had about 10,00 hours of flying experience and I wouldn’t dream of doing that kind of flying. Janine and I supported Tom and his amazing family for about 25 years when he was flying missionaries to remote villages in Papua. Through the means of the internet, Tom was able to keep us updated on all the issues they had while they were in Indonesia. Malaria, Dengue fever, and to many other to mention. Tribal wars, injured villagers, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, search, and rescue missions were all part of what Tom was part of during his time with Helimission. But here is the best part for our family.
In about 2014 Tom emailed me and asked if we could host a retired Indonesian Army General when he came to Dallas. The General needed to visit Bell Helicopter to explain their need to get expedited handling of their request for replacement parts because of their critical mission they performed. The General had learned to fly helicopters in Texas many years before, so we formed a strong bond.
The General invited us to come to Indonesia and happened to mention that he had three very beautiful ladies that worked for him in Jakarta. My son was just back from seven years in Scotland wasn’t at all interest in meeting anyone from Indonesia. He just knew he was going back to Scotland and marry someone who was blonde and blue eyed. And he didn’t want a 73-year-old retired army general to be his wedding planner. And he told everyone he wasn’t going. Then God told him to go. Well, you guessed it. Chris met all three and married Niken 6 years ago. Just for the record, she wasn’t even vaguely interested in meeting an American and she really didn’t want a retired army general to be her wedding planner. Again, you probably guessed it; he was their wedding planner. O, Tom who answered God’s call to go on the mission trip to Mexico 25 years before was my son’s best man at his wedding. God had been working to find the perfect wife for my son for over 25 years.
We have made 5 trips to Indonesia and have gotten to minister in Muslim community centers, and homes. Janine again worked with other medical professionals taking peoples blood pressure and measuring their blood sugar levels. I got the fun part of praying for those who had various physical ailments. At times I had to have two translators because of the different dialects. The Holy Spirit did what we called “showing up and showing off”. I have never prayed for so many people and seen God heal that many in all my life. On one of our ministry times in a Muslim home, we were within a couple miles of and ISIS training center; but they were never an issue.
When we moved back to the Dallas, we continued to minister wherever and whenever we had an opportunity. Over the years, we made numerous friends and had some great experiences spreading the Gospel the best we could. Unfortunately, in 2021both Janine and I contracted Covid, and she passed away on October 24, 2021. I continue to regain my strength and plan to keep on ministering as long as I have opportunities.
When Janine and I were helping in Rio Bravo, we formed a 501 C 3 organization. Our main purpose was to help fund our ministry efforts to build that church. Over the years, we have felt God expanding our original mandate. For the last several years we have been supporting three widows. Two are in their late 80’s and one is in her 60’s. All three are still involved in mission work in Mexico. Our motto has always been we would rather wear out than rust out.
I know this is probably more than you wanted to know, but thanks for hanging in here with me.