It is an honor to share with you part of God’s work in our lives. Please know that we pray regularly for the alumni of Trinity Baptist College as you continue faithfully to impact your world for Jesus Christ, often in quiet places without public accolades or awards. We are grateful for the friendships we have enjoyed with so many of you over the years. How good God has been to allow our paths to cross.

FAMILY

We begin with a personal note on our family, and tell you simply that God’s reputation for faithfulness cannot be overstated. We have been married for 38 years now, and find more joy today in our covenant relationship than ever before. Our children, Matt, Brandon, and Blake (and his sweet wife, Meredith), each have a heart for God, and are using their gifts by serving Him through various ministry opportunities. We have no greater joy than to hear that our children walk in truth.

Above all, we praise the Lord for saving us, and remain grateful for our own parents who were all involved intentionally in evangelism and world missions through their local churches. Because of God’s grace, the consistency of their influence, and their prayers for our generation, we both surrendered our lives to God and to His call to serve Him as young adults. We then labored for Him in Jacksonville for thirty years, primarily through the ministries of Trinity Baptist Church and College. In 2008, God called us to Stoney Mountain Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC. Looking back at our 38 years of marriage and ministry, we are confident that God uniquely prepared us for this season, and we are enjoying every opportunity He affords us to serve Him with this body of believers.

INTERNATIONAL MISSION

God is on a mission for the world to know Christ. It is His mission, and He has made it ours. We are co-laborers with God. For many years, we served God with the knowledge of these truths. However, after nearly thirty years in our own Jerusalem and two years prior to our move to NC, these realities took on fresh meaning as God burdened our hearts to found Women of the Well International Ministries, Inc. We have been asked specifically to share this part of our ministry journey with you. Now in its eighth year, the most frequently asked questions about WOTW are still who, what, when, where, and why.

Who?

Women of the Well International Ministries, Inc. is a non-profit (501c3), local church centered, Baptist missionary organization that assists missionaries, national pastors, and local New Testament churches in their endeavors to spread the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to those primarily in restricted-access regions of the world. Internationally, WOTW operates only at the invitation and under the authority of veteran missionaries or national pastors on site. Organizationally, we are governed by a stateside board of godly directors and an advisory board of supportive pastors. Our annual ministry teams are formed from a growing network of volunteers from like-minded local churches.

What?

Without question, the primary focus of WOTW is evangelism. Year after year, we continue to marvel at the doors God supernaturally opens for our evangelistic efforts. Since 2006, we have seen thousands reached through evangelistic crusades and vacation Bible schools in remote regions, but we believe the greatest harvest may yet come from the creative duplication, importing, and distribution of God’s Word. Our secondary focus is to equip and encourage nationals who are zealous regarding their own responsibility to reach their generation in their regions for Christ. Among the highest privileges God has granted to us in these eight years has been to labor with those behind doors closed to the Gospel, and to equip and provide resources for many who regularly suffer for Jesus’ sake. These men, women, and children are truly quintessential servants of God, who often, without any bravado, lose all in this life but Christ.

When? Where?

God has now allowed WOTW to complete more than three dozen international mission endeavors and more than one hundred stateside meetings. We have been privileged to serve with our Lord in Africa, Asia, Central and North America, Europe, and the Middle East, often alongside members of His persecuted church. God consistently opens doors for WOTW to serve among
Muslim women (the descendants of Hagar who was the first notable woman in Scripture who encountered the Son of God at a well). It is estimated that there are one billion Muslim women world-wide today. Grievously, we report that most of these lost souls are taught that no Savior would die for the worthless soul of a woman. It is untenable, but it does not prevent the Light of the glorious Gospel of God’s Son from piercing this grave darkness, one soul at a time.

Why?

Why Women of the Well? Because of the call? Because of the count of those who have never heard the saving Name of Jesus (nor know anyone else who has)? Because of the crisis of women and children in cultures where societal restraints prevent men who do know Christ from sharing the Gospel with them? Because of the cost of the Church’s disobedience? Because of the outright disregard for the sobering reality that lost heathen women and children (of accountable age) still go to Hell, and Hell is still forever? The greatest motivation for reaching these souls is actually none of these. WOTW exists because our Lord Jesus Christ, our Crucified Savior and the Risen Lamb of God, is worthy of souls from every kindred, nation, tribe, and tongue.

Without acrimony, we boldly cry out that Jesus is worthy of ALL souls throughout the Uttermost, including the souls of disenfranchised women and children who wait for the Gospel to reach them.

Why? Why now? Why there? Why women? Why another unconventional, cross-cultural, even counter-cultural international ministry in our day? We do not know the significance that WOTW plays in God’s divine scheme for providing access to the good news of salvation to lost souls. Obedience does not require our knowing. For reasons known only to God, He still uses the unlikely to accomplish the work of the Almighty. It is no anomaly. God birthed WOTW in this generation to be another Great Commission connection into the Uttermost.

Aren’t we each glad that God never asks any of us to do the impossible on our own? He offers overwhelming challenges with underwhelming resources to not one of us. He does not require that we impress Him with our feasibility studies, or satisfy Him with our well-devised, well-funded strategies. He simply wants what we have, all of it, in every season of life and ministry, without the cacophony of our litany of complaints and excuses.

WHEN GOD CHANGES YOUR COURSE

Our final thoughts are directed primarily to any of the alumni who are facing your own changing seasons of ministry. Is God up to something new in your life, even though you have reminded Him that you are quite comfortable with the familiar routine of the old? Maybe you are wondering where God is taking you in your next season. Maybe you are asking Him when you will get His direction, or how will He ever provide? Whenever God engineers the circumstances of a new season of life or ministry, the most critical questions may not be those of where, or when, or how. The greatest insight into His dealings with us may be found in the wisdom of why. (Isaiah 43:18-19 and Philippians 1:12.)

After serving God for over thirty years in one place, we can now speak candidly to the realities of uprooting and (seemingly) starting over. At first, we did not realize that our God was up to something new, or that His agenda was perfect, unlike our own. With deeper faith, we see more clearly today. Although certainly not the epitome of successful service, we can sum up four of the many lessons that God has taught us in the challenging, changing seasons of our lives. We trust these thoughts will encourage someone with a similar need.

If you are facing a season of great change, first, (recall and then quickly) release any regrets. Face regrets honestly. Restore broken fellowship with God by surrendering any attitude of entitlement. If needed, be willing to make restitution. Forgive others freely. Regrets can best be forgotten by remembering them forgiven. Biblically, we can be released from the depths and the debts of each of our regrets. Secondly, beware of bitterness. Bitterness is not a tree from which we can shake off the leaves or trim the limbs. The only way to deal biblically with bitterness is by acknowledging that it is the consequence of our failure to appropriate the grace of God. This failure always results in a root deeply planted that inevitably springs up. When we purposefully take the Axe of God’s Word to every root of bitterness in our lives, the Spirit of our God helps us get unfinished business of our past done while there is still time. How sweet to enter His presence with nothing undone, nothing between. Thirdly, celebrate the changes God makes through His grace. His promise is for a new thing. When we allow God to do His best work in us, it is truly a season of “out with the old, and in with the new.” Finally, practice private worship daily and marvel at His miracles. Every directive of God comes with a sufficient supply of Himself. New grace, fresh faith, and a course of unhindered obedience all birthed in the secret place of His presence makes the next, new season of life and ministry one of unexpected, even incalculable miracles.

Changing seasons in our lives or ministries may never make sense to us or those who look on from the outside. In ignorance or with limited information, even well-meaning friends may criticize or even ostracize us. Tell the truth to whom the truth is due. Is it not enough that God knows? The Judge of all the earth will do right. Until that day, we must all continue to find our expectation in our unchanging God. As He said, He will faithfully make a way in our every wilderness, and provide rivers in our every desert.