About Us
About Jon
I went to college planning on being an Aerospace engineer. God had other plans. In my freshman year I got saved and gave my life to God. After that I became obsessed with seeing one person saved - I figured that if I got one person saved, then I would have done my part to keep Christianity alive. That was back when I thought Christianity was dying. That summer, I counselled at a summer camp, where I ran smack into the power of God to change and transform lives. Eleven of my fourteen campers gave their lives to God and I began to realize Jesus’ power and plans were greater than I could have ever guessed. After that, I listened to one too many of God's leadings and found myself on the mission field in the Philippines. In the Philippines, God asked me to give up my career and girlfriend. That began my life of following God, no matter how crazy His leadings are. The rest of my time in college was marked by working as a Resident Assistant, leading small groups, organizing prayer watches, and occasionally doing homework. I still primarily consider myself a discipler and there is no where I am happier than sitting down with someone and talking about what God is doing in their life.
About Carla
I grew up in a very missions-focused family--we lived on a Youth With A Mission base in Texas for two years and then my whole family moved to Russia for two more years when I was 9. As long as I can remember I had a heart for taking the good news about Jesus Christ to people around the world. When I graduated from home schooling, I attended Rosedale Bible College in Ohio for two years before embarking on my first mission trip without my family, going to Bangladesh for six months. When I got back to the States, I attended the University of Missouri-Rolla for English and Education to take steps toward that goal, and it was providentially where I met Jon. He had just returned from a mission trip to the Philippines, and I knew we were meant to be when he told me his life goal--to be a teacher in Asia while doing mission work--which was exactly the same as my life goal. While still going to school I got a job teaching English for international students, and I spent a summer vacation in China doing the same.
Life Together
We got married May 19, 2007, and life has been a wild ride ever since. While in the United States, we live in the same town where we went to college, Rolla, Missouri. For a little while Carla taught English to international students and organized events to give those students a taste of American culture and living. Jon tutored college Physics and designed websites. However, we have spent most of our life together in southern Africa, helping the poor and preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. Currently, we are working on a mission base near the Mozambican city of Beira as missionaries. Jon works with finances, administration, base upkeep, and worker discipleship and training, while Carla works with setting up programs for short-term missionaries and teams, and teaches at the Bible school. Our current plans are to return to the United States for a year starting May 2011, as the time of our commitment to our base comes to an end. Beira and Iris Ministries have been great preparation, but Jon and Carla both feel like we are being called on to a different mission. We will be looking into more missions training in other areas of ministry, and hope to be back overseas within a couple of years.
Family
In February 2010, we welcomed our first child, Kyran Jay, into the family. He was born on our furlough in the States, and when he was just 3 months old we returned to Africa for the rest of his first year of life. Kyran loved playing with his "big brothers" of the children's center on the base, whether that was playing in the sand with the little boys or going on long walks with the older ones. He is an active and outgoing little boy, and a great joy to all who know him.