Paul and I have known each other
our entire lives. We grew up in
West Texas
, went to the same church and the same schools. Our families have
always been very close. So…it was only natural that we get
together. We attended
Gulf
Coast
Bible
College
together in the early 60’s and married in 1965. Our first child,
Melina Ellen was born in 1966 and our son Mark was born in 1968.
In 1970 we felt God’s call to full time
ministry. We moved to
Shreveport
,
Louisiana
so Paul could be youth and music director for the First Church of
God. Paul’s older brother was then pastor in
Winchester
,
Kentucky
. He kept urging us to consider moving to
Kentucky
to help him. So in 1972 we moved to
Winchester
where Paul was minister of youth and children.In 1974 a friend of ours was pastor in
Mt.
Sterling
,
Kentucky
and called to tell us there was an opening as director of Hope Hill
Children’s Home, only 20 miles from
Winchester
. Paul had always felt that someday in would work in this type of
ministry. We moved to the Children’s Home in June of 1974 and Paul
was director for the next 17 years. Our second son, Matthew, was
born in 1976.
After 17 years we were really exhausted and
felt it was time to leave this ministry. God called Paul to pastor a
church about 10 miles from the Home. This was very difficult because
the children’s home had been our life for so long we knew it would
be hard to be so close and not be involved. Paul pastored the
Camargo Church of God for 10 years. When he was 62 he decided to
retire so we could do some type of missions work. For the past 25
years we had taken work teams into South American countries to build
churches or schools and do medical missions. We felt God might use
us to continue full time in this type of ministry but that was not
to be.
For a vacation we came to
Antigua
for a couple of months in October/November 2001 to study Spanish.
Paul already knew quite a bit but I knew nothing. While in
Antigua
we met a couple who asked if we would come back in 2002 and house
sit for them. They had a Christian college and needed someone to
take care of it while they recruited new students. We agreed to do
that and returned in the summer of 2002. On the first Sunday back we
ran into a couple of missionaries at church. They asked what we were
doing here and what we had done in our past. When we told them we
had been directors of a children’s home they immediately began to
tell us about Prince of Peace and the need for a director. We came
to
San Cristobal
that very week and met Cindy Miller. Al was in the hospital in the
states.
We began to drive to
San Cristobal
3 days a week and work with Cindy. They asked if we would consider
taking the job as directors. We began to pray about it and felt it
was God’s call on our lives even though we knew it would be very
hard. We committed to one year. We are now in our fourth year and
God is moving in miraculous ways. We feel very fortunate to be a
part of Prince of Peace Home for Girls.
Prince of Peace Ministries
P.O. Box 1344
Mt. Sterling, KY 40353
(Please make checks to Prince of Peace Ministries)
