God's Calling: Our Passion 

Everyone has a passion – that strong love or devotion to someone or something. For some people, their passion is their home, continually improving and making it a more enjoyable place to live. For others, their passion is their ministry, whether that is working with children in the nursery, operating a sound system, teaching a Sunday School class, or preparing coffee for their Sunday School class each week. Still, others have a passion for people, perhaps as a nurse, stay-at-home parent, pastor, or a missionary, from Ukraine, to Portugal, to Peru, or anywhere else in the world. That passion is unstoppable, burning, and growing within the person. 

One such passion in our family's lives is God's calling to work and minister to and with people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing, whether they live in Ukraine, Romania, the United States, or any other country. Ten years ago, God called me and Bonita to Tennessee Temple University to major in Deaf Studies and Sign Language Interpreting. From that very first day of registering for sign language classes, I have had a passion for working and ministering with deaf people. Each time I interpret in school, video relay, or any other setting, I can feel that passion burning within me. When I teach Sunday School or lead music at Harvest Baptist Church of the Deaf, that passion of working with deaf people continues to grow within my life. It is a passion that is unable to be described in words alone. 

This summer, God has given Bonita and me the opportunity to continue that passion of His calling to work with deaf people in the country of Ukraine and also to minister to those who are also called as missionaries to the deaf in Ukraine and Romania. We ask that you would pray for us and also consider partnering financially in this calling that God has put in our lives.