It’s hard to describe what it’s like to be married for 50 years! We got married August 17, 1974.

We were 18 years old and had a 3 day honeymoon on the way to our freshman orientation week at Biola College in La Mirada, California. So we went to college together, married, for four years and graduated together in 1978. Our time there was rich and we felt called to go to India to reach the unreached there. Our first trip to India was in 1979 with a seminary professor and team of students. Rick enrolled at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, while I typed papers for students and did medical transcription for a radiologist. Our daughter Amy was born in 1981.

We started leading a youth group at Montrose Community Church during college, and eventually Rick became the pastor in 1982. We planted a new church in 1983 with young people mainly from CVHS, Rick’s high school. We joined the Vineyard churches later that year and pastored that church for three years. Our son David was born in 1985. After that we moved to Florida in 1986 to help plant Vineyard churches. In 1989, we moved to Atlanta, Georgia to plant another Vineyard church. We pastored that church for 16 years and began taking trips to India in 1995.

Our kids grew up in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. We found great schools and they enjoyed swim team in the neighborhood, baseball, and softball. We had a flourishing youth group that reached many from the punk rock community and more. Amy became part of that group in middle school, and reached many of her school friends. David was very active in baseball and then the debate team in high school as well as Model UN.

In 1999, we spent a semester together as a family in India, after Amy’s graduation from high school, training leaders in a Vineyard church in Chennai. It was a good experience, but we returned so David could finish high school in the USA, and Amy began college at Lee University in Tennessee. In 2003, David graduated from high school and enrolled at Lee University also. We kept pastoring the church in Marietta, and visiting India once or twice a year training leaders in the Vineyard churches there. In 2005, we moved to Delhi, India to plant a Vineyard church. David was at Lee University and Amy began her MDIV program at Princeton Seminary.

We lived in India for ten years, five in Delhi and five in Bangalore planting Vineyard churches and training leaders at all the Vineyard churches over there. We also started visiting Vineyard churches in Sri Lanka and training their leaders in 2009. We also started an English institute in Bangalore that we handed over to one of our Indian leaders at our church, Mercy Vineyard.

In 2015, we moved to Chicago to be near our daughter Amy and her family. Our grandson Lincoln was born in 2013 and Simeon was born in 2016. Our son David and his family moved from DC to Philly during the pandemic. Our grandson Noah was born in 2017.

We continue to train leaders in the Vineyard churches in South Asia from Chicago. We coach leaders one on one, and visit them about twice a year. We plan to keep doing this as long as we are able. We are also training other leaders outside the Vineyard as God leads us.

We have learned much about the disciple making movements and it has proved to be very fruitful to the leaders who have adopted this model of planting simple churches in order to reach the lost in unreached villages and areas. We have the privilege of working with young people even though we are getting older.

So, this is our story and we love sharing it with you all.

Our prayers are with you as you journey with Jesus and we thank you also for your prayers as we continue to follow His lead. We are constantly amazed that we are still best friends through it all and enjoy working together as a team in all we do. We have downsized in Chicago and just live in a small condo. We do travel a lot but we also have a heart for our neighborhood and are finding ways to encourage people around us.

2 Corinthians 9:8:

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work”