Our Story

In January, 2001 my wife and I walked off the plane that had brought us almost 15,000 miles away from our home, and stepped into an adventure that would last for the next 20 years.  Those years were filled with incredibly hard work, challenges, heartbreak and victories that we could never have imagined. Serving as tribal missionaries, we dedicated our lives to bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a people who had never heard the Bible in their own language.

Years ago I read in the Bible how Jesus had told his disciples to go into all the world and take the gospel to all nations. In obedience to His command, we gave up everything we had in this world to take the message of salvation to those who had no access to the Bible.  It was our hope to teach the Bible to the Morop people in their own language so they could fully understand the message of the Gospel.  That hope became a reality in the fall of 2017 when, after teaching 70 lessons, six times a week over a three month period, we were able to teach the final message about Jesus' death and resurrection.  It took 17 years to get to this point not including all the training we went through in the U.S.  During those seventeen years we produced an alphabet for the Morop language, began translation of the Bible and corresponding lessons, provided much needed medical care to the people, built an airstrip and our homes, developed a literacy program and saw the Morop church born. Today, our co-workers, the Lees and the Yoons, continue teaching the Bible to the people with the goal of one day establishing elders and handing over the running of the church to the people. 

While it was difficult to leave our live in the jungle and return home to the United States, we trust that God isn't done with the Morop people.  It is our hope that He will raise up local missionaries from our village who will be able to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to other Morop villages that still have yet to hear the Bible's message.

Upon our returning to the U.S, my wife, Joy, and I established the Star Mountain Soap Company as an artisan goat milk soap business not only to provide us with an income but also to help support our friends and co-workers who are still on the front lines of tribal evangelism.