"Santa Cruz...Is that where Santa lives?"

The words of our five-year-old son bring a smile to my face every time I think of them.  Nathan is the youngest of our children at the ripe old age of five.  His older sisters, Abigail and Grace are 9 and 11 respectively.  They along with my wife and I are beginning our journey as IM missionaries to Bolivia.

For our family, becoming missionaries has been a long time dream.  Since just after we were married, we have always dreamed and prayed that God would one day open this door for us.  Currently I am the Pastor of Community Ministry and Media at the South Parkersburg Baptist Church in Parkersburg, WV.  We have served here for almost eight and a half years and desperately love our church family.  My wife Rhonda is a hospice nurse.  At the church, she is also a Sr. High youth leader.

For us, our family missions heritage begins with her.  While we were dating, she left for a 3-month volunteer mission tour in Thailand with Kim Brown working at an AIDS hospice (she actually turned down my marriage proposal before she left so she could determine if God wanted her to be missionary or a pastor's wife!).  Thankfully she came back to me and we got married and then about 3 years later, I began my short term missionary adventures that have taken me all around the world.  Those experiences have fueled a passion in us to follow God's call into missions full time.

We are thrilled to be working in Bolivia.  I have served on Mario and Iris Morales MPT for a long time and have grown to love the people and culture of such a rich and diverse country.  We will be living in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.  While there we will be training pastors and leaders, helping to strengthen and plant churches and beginning new ministries in the southern part of Bolivia.  

Please pray for us as we begin this next part of our journey as we begin working with our MPT and raising our support.  We would also like to invite you to partner with us as we join with God's vital work in this amazing country