I was saved at the age of six, in the back of our van on the way home from church. My Dad stopped the van and my mom came to the back and prayed with my older brother and myself. My brother was asking Jesus to save him so he would not go to Hell, and I realized that All of my family were going to Heaven and I was not.
Because I was born into a family that loved and served God, it wasn’t a hard thing for me to believe. There has never been a doubt in my mind about Jesus being God’s Son, or that I needed him to save me from my sins. It was simply a matter of making him MY Savior. From that time I have always known that He is my Lord, and that I serve Him.
In 1989, When I was 16, our home church in TN. (Harvest Baptist Church) had a missions conference. As one of the missionaries (Brother John Boff) was speaking, the Holy Spirit moved in a very real way in my heart, and I went to the altar and prayed, dedicating my life to Him and answering the burden He had placed on my heart for missions. I did not know how or when, but from that moment I knew that He wanted me to be a missionary.
After Graduating High-school, my plans were to get a degree in medicine, and using that to work my way through Bible Institute with the end result of being a medical missionary. However, God had other plans for me. He turned my plans around completely, and I followed his leading to go to Pensacola Bible Institute first, and then worry about whether or not I would get a medical degree and complete my plans. My second year of Bible Institute I met Christopher Rue, who had recently visited the countries of Bulgaria and Ukraine. To make a longs story short, We had our first date the End of March. We dated for two weeks, and got engaged. We were married May 31’st, 1993 and within 6 months we were headed to the mission field.
It has been 25 years since we left everything we knew in America, and set out as pioneers to the mission field of Ukraine. God has guided and directed, protected and blessed, the entire time. He has walked with us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death more than once, he has driven with us thousands of miles as we commuted to start a church in a rural village, he has held our hands through the births of our 7 children, He has answered our prayers too many times, and in too many ways to count. He has never failed to provide our every need.
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8:4) I am truly amazed, humbled, and thankful that God would be mindful of me, and that He would choose to give me a place to serve Him!