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Meet Nate and Kim |
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Nate: Like many of you, I was raised in a Christian home. When I was about eight years old, my family moved to Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) where my parents worked for the Zaire government. One Sunday night we had a guest speaker at church, and he spoke about the heavy burden of sin we each carry and how we needed to lay that burden at the foot of the cross. On the way home, I told my parents I knew that that was what I needed to do. My dad stopped the car and we knelt together at the side of the road. I remember it was the River Road, and there with the mighty Zaire River moving quietly in the darkness behind us, I trusted Jesus as my Savior and Lord. Shortly thereafter we returned to the U.S., and I continued to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. By the time I left for college, though, I had my own plans and ambitions. I loved science and majored in biochemistry with the idea of becoming a great researcher. I also got involved with a Christian group called Campus Crusade for Christ and began studying the Bible on my own. As time went on, I began to grasp the incredible greatness of God’s love for me in Jesus Christ. The summer after my sophomore year, I decided to work at a small mission hospital in the northern part of Zaire. The missionary doctor there was a man by the name of Roger Moxon. He was a big, tall man who had played basketball in college but had developed a progressive, wasting muscle disease called polymyositis. Just walking was difficult for him, and he had to lean on my arm to make it up the three or four steps to the hospital ward. But where his stricken muscles failed him, his love for God and for the hurting, broken people under his care was strong. That summer God began to reshape my priorities. By the time I returned home, I knew God was calling me to serve Him as a medical missionary. That was almost fourteen years ago, which seems almost like forever to a young man. The years of preparation have been long, but God’s call and purpose have only become more clear to me in the intervening years.
Kim: I was born in South Viet Nam and grew up in a war-torn country, witnessing daily the injustice and cruelty of life. Although my family was not Christian, I learned about God at the French Catholic school I attended. In the summer of 1975, my life turned upside down when the communists took over South Viet Nam and I watched my family’s fortunes disappear. My father was taken away to a "reeducation camp" for 2 years, and life was very hard for us. "Where was God?" I wondered. My father finally returned home, and in 1979 our family escaped Viet Nam together in a small fishing boat. We eventually made our way to the United States, where my first ten years were filled with loneliness and anger toward God. I worked hard to learn English and do well in school. As a family we struggled to make our dangerous journey worthwhile. It was during my second year of medical school that I met Nate. He asked me to go to church with him and study the Bible. Through our study of the Gospel of John, I came face to face with Jesus Christ, who called me to come home to Him. Finally I trusted Him as my personal Lord and Savior. The next few years were filled with tremendous spiritual growth and excitement. Nate and I eventually started dating and were married after graduation from medical school. I knew missions was very important to Nate, and before we even started dating, we took a course together called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. I learned about God’s desire that everyone should hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and I even agreed to go if that was where God was calling Nate, but deep in my heart I wanted to stay right here in Houston. Leaving my family to go back to a poor country went against every thing I had ever worked for. After we had been married three years, I had my first mission experience, a two-week trip to Ecuador. Slowly the Lord began working in my heart. After two more mission trips to Viet Nam and a visit to Kenya, I began to catch a glimpse of God’s heart for the nations. I could hear Him calling me through Isaiah: "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" Still, this was the hardest thing God had ever asked me to do. Obedience means leaving a thriving, Christian medical practice with unique ministry opportunities and saying good-bye to family and friends. It has been a struggle, but I, like Isaiah, can finally say: "Here am I, Lord. Send me!" |
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