Calling to Ministry-Mark
I continued to grow in my faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ while in college at the University of Colorado. During summers, I worked for the power company as an engineer-in-training and the last two summers, I was a soils engineer on earthen dams near my home. It was very enjoyable work for me but God was working in my heart calling me to something much more important. The last dam I worked on was in the summer of 1976. Because of my previous experience, I was the soils engineer on this dam. One morning in my quiet time near the end of this summer, God spoke to my heart. Not in an audible way but in a very clear impression, He asked me ‘what else did I want’? I thought about that. I was making good money. I had a lot of responsibility, and I was working outside building things which I enjoy immensely. I told the Lord, “Nothing, I have everything I’ve always wanted. Thank you!”
For the next two weeks, I did not hear God’s voice in my quiet times with Him. I studied His Word, I prayed, I praised Him, but He was not speaking to me like He had just done. At the same time, I was getting uneasy about my work. I started asking myself why, if I had everything I wanted, it wasn’t fulfilling? At the end of those two weeks, I was frustrated and spoke out to God: “God, I have everything I’ve always wanted;most of my friends would love to have what I have and do what I do, but it is just not enough. Show me what you want me to do, and I will do it”. God showed me that even though the projects I was working on would last for hundreds of years at the most, they would not last for eternity, but people would. If I wanted to make my life count for eternity, I needed to invest it in people.
I had one more semester of college left prior to graduation and I prayed a lot that month of August before school started. God led me to Campus Crusade (whom I was previously not involved with) and showed me that that was where he wanted me at that time. I attended their meetings on campus and joined their leadership development group and by December felt God would have me apply for CCC staff. I was told not to get my hopes up as I had only been involved for a short while but a couple of months later, God confirmed my call when CCC accepted me on their staff.
I had a longing to serve overseas and the first year with CCC I served on a team recruiting people for overseas ministry. During that year, I met my wife Elaine and we were married in May of 1978. We served the next year at the University of Rhode Island where we worked closely with international students. The following year we traveled with the music ministry doing evangelistic and Jesus lordship concerts in the eastern US. At the end of that year, we joined a team going to Asia to give evangelistic concerts there. Finally, our desire to serve overseas was fulfilled!
After three years in the Asia music ministry, we transferred to our Central Asian headquarters in Baguio City, Philippines where we served for 14 years. In 1997, we transferred to our East Asian headquarters in Singapore where we served for 5 and a half years. The summer of 2003 we finally returned from Asia after more than 22 years. We are ministering at our Worldwide headquarters in Orlando and are still involved in ministry to Asia as well as most parts of the world.