The 6 Bears: 2025

As Terry shared in church this morning when he told everyone that we have indeed decided to go to Taiwan as missionaries, there is a lot that brought us to this place, "a decision that's been a long time coming."

Before I met Terry or he had met me, some ladies from his home church (since before birth!), First E-Free Church (Gail, Liz, and Carol Greenhood), invited eighteen-year-old Terry on a short-term mission trip to Macau, China to help with an English camp that their missionaries, Bruce and Mary Damon, were putting on. Terry's in the D.A.R.E. drugs shirt (ha!) and Carol is in the blue vest and pants.

This trip truly changed the trajectory of his life. Prior to this, his only thought was to make a lot of money, but this experience opened up his eyes. He really hadn't known prior to it that there were people in the world who had never heard of Jesus, what He did for them, who'd never read the Bible.

That knowledge propelled him to follow his high school best friend Joel to his Christian school, Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri.

At one memorable service, Terry went forward with tears to pledge his life to missions. Terry tells me of how afterwards, he went alone to a park and sat on a bench to process the experience, asking himself, "What just happened?!" He put it off as emotionalism, but I think God saw his heart and He knew, even if Terry wasn't ready for it yet, that he really did want to do missions.

However, Terry did learn that Ozark wasn't right for him. God sent a wise pastor into his life, Stan, who told him that if he was so interested in missions that he should go to the Moody Bible Institute. So that's what Terry did after a gap semester at the South Dakota School of Mines where he picked up some extra credits. There at Moody he met his now long time friend and roommate, Ernesto, who all the students should remember fondly from his two visits to Rapid City for Fall Advance.

At Moody, Terry took up his alter-ego of Neo and was equipped not to fight the machines, but to bring the gospel to the lost. He earned a double major in International Missions and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).

All along he kept pursuing serving in the church, and in particular, to the Asian community. That same Missouri pastor, who had counseled Terry to come to Moody also moved to Chicago to pastor a church that had previously been named Lakeside Japanese Church. Terry served the youth at Lakeside during his time at Moody, both for his Bachelors and his Masters.

And during the summers he returned to China for two more short-term mission trips.

He would return one final time for his internship.

Here's Terry and Bruce during one of those trips.

In the meantime, in my junior year of high school my family had begun attending First E-Free and it was there that I met Terry's sister Shari. I can still remember clearly one of the first Sundays there where she shared about her car accident. We became fast friends. And Terry wasn't even around at that point. I didn't even know him.

One of my first Sundays at First E-Free someone had us listen to an interview with the youth pastor they were considering hiring, Mike. He wanted to know what the youth thought of him. We were all like, "Ummmm, sounds good." So they hired him. Mike's impact upon my life was profound. He gave me a place to belong, a place to finally grow, and someone to support me in the tumultuous time of deciding post-high school decisions.

Shari and I and the small youth group are pictured below at Purdue University for the E-Free Challenge conference. Shari never lets me forget falling asleep as she was telling me a story in our dorm room. :D

We also grew closer on a backpacking trip the following summer. "Rocks hold strong!" we prayed when we thought the storm was going to literally blow us off the mountain.

While Shari and I were growing closer together, Terry spent eight weeks alone in Macau, China, for his internship. Many beautiful Chinese young women were wanting to hang out with Terry and "learn English," haha. He knew that it was not a good thing for him to be a single missionary. He grew afraid to go to Macau as a missionary. He worried what his family would think, what everyone would think. He didn't want to let anyone down or destroy expectations. And most of all, he didn't want to be alone.

Shari had been telling me all sorts of romantic stories about Terry from her younger sister hero-worshipping perspective. I particularly remember a story about him giving a prized signed t-shirt to a girlfriend (swoon) and a photo of the girl he took to the senior banquet. Why was I jealous of this girl I didn't even know or drawn to this guy I didn't even know?

Well, God knew. He was for me and I was for him.

The summer after he graduated with his bachelors, he came home, unsure of what to do next. We had actually hung out during the previous spring break and much to my annoyance as I tried not to like him, I did. We hung out in church groups all summer long and got to know each other, and started dating at the end of the summer.

I went back to SDSU for my second year and Terry went back to Moody to start work on his Master's of Discipleship. We dated long-distance for those two semesters. He would drive six hours to Albert Lea and I could drive two hours there. Then he would drive me back to Chicago with him - another six hours and I'd stay with a friend from church. At the end of the long weekend, he'd drive the six and six hours again for a total of 24 hours of driving in one weekend.

Once in February he flew me to Chicago and I met his "youth group." Lakeside had hired him as a part-time youth pastor to look after the kids he used to volunteer to teach Sunday School. Here are those same kids. God provided a back-up to missions - youth ministry. Everyone at Moody always told him, "You're a youth ministry major right?" And he'd have to correct them and tell them, No, he was a missions major. But obviously, he was good with students too. God knew that. And even though he wasn't ready to be a missionary yet, He provided for many years to come.

I have this distinct memory when I told a college friend that Terry and I had started dating. After discussing where he was, obviously not at SDSU but Moody for missions, she asked, "But why are you dating him? You're not going to be a missionary!" The comment really stung and made it even more difficult to move forward when I was paralyzed in fear to do so. But God knew. Terry and I would talk about what the future would look like and would I ever want to be a missionary? I just didn't know. All I could say is that I was open to whatever God wanted for me. Even though I didn't know what the heck I wanted to do, He knew. I poured out my heart to my youth pastor all about how I just wished "there was a blueprint to my life" and that God would tell me what I was supposed to do! But God knew. I didn't know that I just needed to take steps and He'd make it clear in time. How gracious He is to take the blank canvas of my life and turn it His way. He didn't give me direction b/c He knew it would come through Terry.

April 19, 2003, Terry proposed to me at The Rock at the ranch and we entered into one of the most difficult times of my life. I over-analyzed every part of our engagement and really put the two of us through the ringer.

I of course said Yes, but didn't realize I had so much baggage. God has been dealing with me slowly and gently ever since, but even more so the last couple of years. I had no idea the deep hurt and pain that had built up through my childhood that caused me to react the way I did. Especially recently God had been teaching me and healing me...almost as if He was getting me ready for bigger things. Again, His mercy and sovereignty to take every little thing and turn it for good.

There are some at Parkview who will remember our wedding. It was a surprisingly emotional time.

To no one's surprise who saw him cry today at church (and in the past), Terry was moved to tears at our wedding. And somehow his tears released me from my anguish and I was able to actually enjoy our marriage ceremony.

We had done it. Terry was no longer alone and God was working in me.

This is my favorite wedding picture - taken at our cabin after we had left everyone behind and everything was finally peaceful. We remake this photo every time we go back to that cabin...which I would prefer to do every year. :D

Life was chaotic for a while there while I worked away at nursing school, got pregnant during nursing school, had Noah during nursing school, continued and graduated with a baby. But God used that too. It was in having Noah that I really settled down into marriage. Somehow marriage had mad me feel safe and having Noah made me feel established. Even though I was terrified at the time, God used it all for good.

We had Bruce and Mary over during that time.

God used this picture a year or so ago and just said, "Surrounded." He has surrounded me with people who love me and support me and don't reject me. They actually love me. That has brought healing too.

But life as a nurse for me and a t-shirt printer and Black Hills Works employee for Terry was not ideal. Terry had more in him and God had more for us. Terry took those comments about being a youth pastor and started pursuing it. God brought us to Gothenburg, NE.

Here is our tiny family with our parents after having just packed up our ranch house to move to Nebraska. It's crazy that we're going to do it again, but go much further than six hours. This time we will go 7,000 miles and 15 hours away.

I didn't really want to move to Gothenburg, but Terry was sure. It's kinda funny that this time around I and the kids were more sure and Terry was more tentative.

Terry wanted to start in the ministry. So our folks moved us in and visited often. Jerry even sold his cows so he could be more free to come down.

Terry wanted to pour his life into the church for God. And he was really good at it. We made a home there. We had Evie in 2008. The church helped me through crippling insomnia. They sold us a parsonage for pennies and we made it a home. We had Samuel is 2011 and fixed up that house. We didn't think we'd leave anytime soon, but then Pastor Dave called. The youth pastor, JD, was leaving and would we consider the job? We didn't want to at first, but of course we said yes. It broke our students' and church families' hearts. It was like attending our own funeral, but we came back.

And we've been back for twelve, almost thirteen years! God gave us Ezra in 2013 just over a year back here and we fixed up this house. Terry's done hundreds, if not thousands of youth group and Sunday School lessons, dozens of trips, many memorable fall retreats. We have so many friends at Parkview, it's gonna be really hard to say goodbye.

But look at this team God has created. Terry didn't want to be alone so He brought me. Terry wanted a team and He gave us this family. Not only our kids, but the youth group and their parents and all the people at Parkview, and maybe even Gothenburgers and Chicagoans, who love us and will support us. He created the team that Terry wanted through a ministry that he didn't even set out to do.

God gave us these last thirteen years with our families after Terry had been afraid to leave them - time to build up the courage to go. We have a continued relationship with the Damons, who were there when God first changed the trajectory of Terry's life. It was even Bruce who brought us the idea of Taiwan in the first place! Fall 2023 Bruce told Terry he felt "led" to share with us the Taiwan Initiative that we went on the vision trip with and ultimately led us to Chinese Bible Mission.

In 2021 when Steven and Prae were preparing to leave to be missionaries in the Middle East, Terry took the Perspectives on World Missions class for the first time. Perspectives reignited the passion in Terry's heart for missions. It had never went away. He always carried it in his heart and it came out in just about every lesson or sermon. He trained all those kids to know the gospel and know how to share it. He grounded them so firmly in the gospel. We heard from one student last week who effortlessly shared the gospel with coworkers. Terry trained her like he's trained them all. He's passionate for the gospel and for sharing it with those who don't know Jesus.

Terry had been doing Perspectives since 2021 and has been saying, "You can only take Perspectives so long before you want to do it yourself."

So we went on that vision trip July 2024.

And we've spent the months since, as Russ said, "agonizing" about the decision to stay or go. And we've said yes. God has really been at work in both of us to prepare us for this, especially me. The last couple years, God has really put His finger on some things that needed attention and healing. I think He's been preparing us.

God has graciously given Terry a second chance to fulfill the desires of his heart. He's given him a family that is supportive - yes, even the kids. It was the kids and I encouraging him to say Yes when he was too afraid or intimidated. We've been told it's very strange for kids to actually want to go. Ours do. It will be hard, but they are willing. We support Terry and are behind him and want to see him try and succeed.