Paul and Lana Sanders

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.