I Married A Missionary, Too!

Sometime back, I received an email from a young woman in Bible college that was doing some research for a thesis.  I had never met her, and I really don't even know how she got my name or email address.  Anyway, she wondered if I would mind answering some questions for her when the time came.  I told her that I would be happy to do so.  Only, when that time came, I was without access to internet and did not even read her email until several weeks after the fact.

But, be that as it may, through that contact, I began following her blog at Paper Dove Missions.  Although young, (of course, at my age, everyone seems young!) she is an insightful writer and seems to have a real passion for the Lord, His service, and missions in particular.  

In the beginning, she would occasionally mention a certain young man.  Then I began reading about him more and more.  It was quite obvious to me, as I am sure that it was to all of those who followed her blog, that young love was blossoming right before our very eyes! Finally, she announced that they had wedding plans!  

Justin and Anna Toews

Well, today, I received notice of a new post on her blog.  It was entitled I Married a Missionary!… .   Once again, it was a short, but very well written article.  In it, Anna spoke of the Holy Spirit being at their wedding and also about their plans of serving the Lord as missionaries.  There was also a picture of a beautiful bride and a happy groom.  

Now, at times, marriage can be difficult at best.  But, if anyone in this world has a chance of making it, it is a young couple like this who has put Jesus Christ at the center of their relationship since the very beginning! 

I just had to leave a comment on Anna's blog this time and thought I would share that comment with you. It contains a bit of my own testimony.  Here it is:

We've never met, Anna, but I have followed your blog.  I too, married a missionary…  41 years ago this June!  We were in Bible college and our goal was to be missionaries in Mexico.  But, God gave us a few detours on the way.  We didn't always understand why, but we knew without a doubt that they were GOD'S detours and not our own, because, the WHOLE TIME, it was in OUR hearts to go to the mission field.  

First, it was 6 years in Texas, our home state, with my husband working as assistant pastor and music minister, and the both of us in the capacity of youth directors, printing, cleaning and maintenance, and general flunkies.  Then, when we felt the Lord was moving us, (a VERY difficult move because we LOVED the church in which we were working!) we thought we might finally be going to the mission field.  

But, GOD had other plans, and He called us to Tacoma, WA, to lead a small struggling church of about 25 people who had been left with thousands of dollars of debt.  Of course, by this time, we also had 2 small children, but we packed  up everything we had and made the long trip from Dallas to Tacoma.  

After a few years, with God's divine help,  the church in Tacoma was no longer in debt and their old building had been remodeled.  By the time we celebrated our 13th anniversary with the church, we had purchased more property for expansion, we had a thriving bus ministry and youth department and had started a Christian school, which also served as a training center for those churches starting new schools.  We had also sent out two missionaries from our church (one to France and the other to Mexico), started a faith promise mission program and added about 20 more missionaries to our mission support program.  Before we knew it, we were out of space and having two Sunday morning services and Sunday School classes in the church kitchen and in one of the church buses.  We dearly loved our people and they loved us and, after years of struggling, God was blessing us greatly and we were seeing our prayers of many years being answered in that place. 

After several years in Tacoma, I thought, "Well, THIS must be the mission field where God wanted us all along!  And, even though the people here don't always understand my Texas accent, at least I didn't have to learn a new language!" 

Finally, since we were debt free, we decided that the $60,000 in the building fund was enough with which to get started.  So, we had blueprints drawn up for a new church building and began to make our plans for expansion.

But, before starting the new building, we were going to take two of our Christian school graduates to Honduras, Central America.  They both wanted to work in bi-lingual Christian schools for a year.  One of the graduates was our daughter, Kristy, and the other, Jason, was a young man who had surrendered to missions.  My husband and I went to check things out first, and were there for only 10 days. But while there, God broke our hearts for the people of Honduras and made it clear that someone else could take our precious church through their next phase of development, and we were to leave it all and go to Honduras!  Mike had been the pastor at Faith Baptist Church for 14 years! I believe resigning from our dear church was one of the hardest things we've EVER done! 

NO, WAIT!  I take that back! Learning a new language at 45 years old was THE hardest thing I've EVER done… BY FAR!!  

Well, Anna, we have now been serving in the country Honduras since 1997, and you know what?

I CAN'T IMAGINE LIVING ANYWHERE ELSE!  I LOVE IT HERE, I LOVE THESE PRECIOUS PEOPLE and  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!  

Yep, it took us a while to get here, but…

I MARRIED A MISSIONARY, TOO!  And I thank the Lord every day that I did!

Congratulations on your marriage, Anna!  May our sweet Heavenly Father bless you both as you serve Him!

This is the missionary that I married
nearly 41 years ago!