Mary Booth- "The Adaptable Missionary"

In this episode I sit down with missionary Mary booth. 

Mary from a young age had an adventurous spirit and an urge to see the world. On one of trips to the other side of the world something changed her forever. The Gospel. 

From that point forward, Mary and her husband, along with their children, brought the Gospel Jesus Christ to Europe, South America and Asia. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:31

All right, everybody. This is Morgan, your host. I have a really exciting episode for you today. Um I have with me a dear friend that we've known each other since 2021. Uh about fall of 2021. Um I think it was fall 2021. Pretty sure. Yes, it was fall 2021. Um and uh we have a little bit something different. Um uh we're gonna be talking about missionary work all around the world. Um, why don't you go and introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_04 1:10

Hi, I'm Mary Booth. I live down the street. Yeah, we've known each other for several years, and um I've been in California since I left the mission field, which was my last post was in Taiwan, and I've been here ever since as family has called me back to just take care of people and do that sort of thing. So we live here now.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

We live here, and I love that I love how we met. I mean, you it was during COVID times, crazy times, and both of your grandsons, uh, who are great boys, um uh were involved in a homeschool program we were in, and um, it's just amazing how before that we didn't know you guys, you didn't know us, my wife and I, and we met because of that, and it's just been so fun seeing them grow up, get to know each other. Um, we've had dinner at your house, and it's just been wonderful getting to know you guys. Um and uh sharing um about kingdom work that we've each been involved in, um, sharing uh different things, such as my wife's from Peru. We're gonna get into this, but uh you've done missionary work in Peru.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

We were there for five years, and two of my children were born there.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:40

One in Cusco and one in Lima, one of the parts of Lima.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yeah. And we're we're we're doing a trip there uh later this year uh to see my wife's family, which will be fun.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Come on down, come on down, you'll see how much has changed.

SPEAKER_04 3:01

That's so crazy how things are changing. It's amazing. Always it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

That's a constant in life, right? It's change. Yeah. Um, but let's dive in. Okay, let's get to know Mary. Uh, Mary, where did you grow up? Did you grow up in a believer's home? Was Jesus present there? Where so where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_04 3:19

I grew up in Pennsylvania and Utah, and I am of Mormon heritage, but I did not grow up Mormon. Okay. I grew up in a home where my dad called himself a Jack Mormon, and we went to church maybe Christmas and Easter.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

My parents didn't really think that was a necessary much part of life, and I didn't know the Lord until later on.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Later on. So how old were you when you you came to know the Lord?

SPEAKER_04 3:53

Well, I got very curious in my later high school years, and one of my friends and I went to different churches and we listened here and we listened there, but we didn't really get it. But when I actually got it was when I met, I guess you've probably heard, I don't know if some of you have maybe seen that movie, The Jesus Revolution.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Ah, the Jesus movement. Yeah, so this is what the early 70s?

SPEAKER_04 4:21

Yeah, the early 70s. So there were a lot of movements such as that. Yeah. Jesus freaks, we call them hippies out there that just finally learned the Bible and said, all right, we're gonna do this. And so that's where I actually received Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Was this uh a through a conversation with a friend? Was this at a church service?

SPEAKER_04 4:50

It was kind of uh it was kind of a a little bit here and a little bit there, and then I actually said a prayer, and that just it took me for a loop. So the first time I met the Jesus freaks, so to speak, I was a hippie.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:10

Okay, so I was traveling a lot, you know, going here, going there, meeting a lot of different people. I was seeking. I mean, we were seekers, that's what we were as hippies. Sure. We wanted to know what's spiritual, what's real, what isn't, and read a lot of books of Eastern religions, this and that, psychology, everything.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Why let me ask you, why what was what was it about that generation, your generation? Why do you think there was such a movement of wanting to seek out spiritual truth or spiritual things compared to the generation before?

SPEAKER_04 5:50

Well, I think a lot of it has to do with what was going on. Like we came out of okay, our parents were involved with World War II. Sure. So that was a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

And then they were very staunch about certain things, and they were a certain way. And like what?

SPEAKER_02 6:11

What's an example of that?

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Oh, like my dad was a businessman, he always looked good. They, you know, like to drive their fancy cars and sip their martinis and go out to dinner at the country club, and so very, very just put together. Put together sort of lifestyle. And I think when okay, President Kennedy was shot.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Right.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

That was like oh 63.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

1963. 62, okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:42

And that kind of knocked us for a loop. And then his brother was shot, right? And things were happening, like the civil rights movement, and we were and the Vietnam War.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

You know, more Martin Luther King.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Martin Luther King, everything, the world was kind of just turning apart, falling, everything was getting crazy.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

And we just were like, wait a minute, what? What is going on here? What is real? What isn't? What do we want to live for? Do we want to live like this? Just be staunch little, you know, penguins and put on our fancy suit and pretend nothing's going on, because there's a lot of stuff here that we don't like, and we don't like these attitudes. We think, you know, people need to be, you know, the civil rights, that thing all needs to happen.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

I mean, we didn't grow up even like I grew up in Pennsylvania. There was a lot of um different races, but we didn't grow up thinking that way. We grew up thinking we are all equal, we are all friends. So what is going on here, you know? And then who killed Kennedy? Why? What's going on? Yeah, you know, that's our presentation.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Then you had Nixon and his whole deal.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

Nixon and the Watergate thing were like, holy moly.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

A lot going on in a short period of time.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

And then the music came out.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

The music started coming, and people started. I mean, there was the you know, psychedelics and yeah, Credence Clearwater, the Beatles, the Beatles, the acid movement. I mean, yeah, things were changing, things were coming out, the uh fashions, everything, everything just the world flipped.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

And so we had to try to figure out where in the heck do we fit in? What do I want? Where do I want to be? What do I want to do? I didn't know. I went to college to be a doctor. Really? Wow, okay. I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna be a country doctor, Dr. Mary, and I got absolutely flabbergasted by the way the system ran with trying to train us as young people trying to get into the field.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

What so what what do you mean by that? What was so bizarre?

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Um we weren't allowed to ask questions, we weren't allowed to say anything. And I just we were told what to do, what to tell the people, what to tell if you're in a medical situation, this is what you have to do, this is what you have to say, and if if you don't like it, too bad. Really? And yeah, it was it was tough. Wow. And I came to a point where I decided I'm gonna go trip down to South America where they have country doctors and people live simply, and people um, you know, they treat you with the local herbs and this and that, and I'm gonna see if I can learn something different than the way they were trying to teach us.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Was it heavy on the prescribing pills and and and the that sort of thing?

SPEAKER_04 10:23

Well, okay. I'll just give you this one example, because this one example just knocked me for a loop. So this this girl comes into the hospital, she's obviously on the lower income scale. She probably only eats potato chips and Coca-Cola, okay, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, right, and she ends up in the hospital. Sure. And instead of anybody thinking to try to tell her, you know, this lifestyle of yours is what's got you in here.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah, that's killing you.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

We're we're gonna give you some drugs and we're gonna send you home.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

So not really treating just uh just throwing a band-aid.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

And you know, nobody can say anything but the doctor who decides what they're gonna do and say. And this was in the 70s. Yeah, this was in the 70s.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Wow, because that's you know and I know that's happening to this day. Right. I was just gonna say that is that a lot of people are that's been a big hot button topic of the medical industry, the practices there, not being able to say anything, Western medicine, pill prescribing, not really diagnosing and treating the patient themselves. Right. And to think that here we are 50 years down the line, and you're telling me that's how it was then.

SPEAKER_04 11:50

That's how it was in the 70s already.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Wow. And so you saw that and said, I love caring for people, but not like this.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Yeah. I mean, I just wanted to take the girl and say, Listen, yeah, either there's a way to help you, but this isn't it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Right. Wow. So okay, so how far did you get into your medical training?

SPEAKER_04 12:15

I did three years.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Oh, wow, pretty for pretty far down.

SPEAKER_04 12:20

Okay. But I only did three years, and I worked as an admitting um what do you call it? Uh in the admitting office, just uh, you know, admin job in the hospital at the university. And I was also a um operation operating technician. Okay. Okay. So that's all I did.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

And and how old were you when you when you stepped away from that?

SPEAKER_04 12:52

I guess I must have been like let's see, 22.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Oh 22, okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:59

22 or 3.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

So then once you step away, what was the next move? What did you do?

SPEAKER_04 13:04

I took off for Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Mexico, which part? I love Mexico.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

I traveled um down through Mexico into Guatemala, at least, and then back up again. Oh, how long did that take? Uh eight months. Oh. I just spent eight months going down and seeing what I could learn and kind of decompressing from the life that I didn't like. Trying to decide what I should do, where I should stay, where do I fit?

SPEAKER_02 13:43

I love Mexico. It's a beautiful country, beautiful people. It's unfortunate um what it's allowed, um, how it's run. It I I've been there so often. I truly the people are beautiful. It's a beautiful my one of my favorite drives is to drive the coast um down to Ensenada. It's just it's it's very, I mean, it's almost identical to driving up um on the coast in California. Yeah. You know, just rolling green hills when it's just rained in the ocean and yeah, um, beautiful country.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Um man, that's so what'd you learn on those on that eight-month journey? What'd you learn?

SPEAKER_04 14:29

Well, I learned that a lot of things a lot of life you just have to slow down and take things as more as you see it, not like what you rationalize that you think you're gonna have to do or whatever. Like um, I learned a lot about health and just taking care of yourself and how these people live a very, very simple life, just out in the you know, out in the fields and in the small little towns, and they eat healthy natural food. They're not like taking drugs.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

I mean, of course, they have their tequila and whatever, but that's not necessarily in small doses, not necessarily bad.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:25

But the people were happy, you know?

SPEAKER_04 15:26

Yeah, people were happy when they weren't so pressured to have to be something or whatever. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Was it do you think just because they were focused on just the day, yeah, they were outside, they were productive and you know, producing for their families.

SPEAKER_04 15:46

Those ladies would come down. I stayed in this little town on the um coast down below Mazatlan, this little town called San Blas. And a lot of the hippies kind of came there because you were it was a nice beach, you could camp there.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

And there was like a a water pool, I guess, in the um over by on the other side, they call them cenote's, like uh a fresh water pool. And these the local women would come down there and they'd wash their laundry in there, and they'd just be singing and having a great old time, washing their laundry in the water, you know, hanging it up on the tree, and they're making their tamales and just having a good time, you know. Oh and it it just was uh just a calm life. So I thought, you know, that has a lot to do with sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

We get caught up in a lot of nonsense here, keeping up with the Joneses, yeah. And that's I mean, over and over, Jesus says, Do not be anxious.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Right. We are like the lilies of the field, and he takes care of us. So what what is so during that trip I had a situation where I felt like I saw Jesus and I felt like I knew that was the way but I didn't know the Bible, I didn't know anything about it really.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 17:29

But that became foremost in my mind that okay this this was a clear thing that happened that I know I should follow Jesus, but how, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

And so it wasn't until later that I came back and I still didn't know what to do with my life. And uh this person that I met, a friend through my husband, was um she was a rich kid, and her father lived in Italy, and her mother lived in San Francisco. Okay, all right. And she had been to visit her father, and she had this plane ticket, and she said, I'm not going back, I'm not gonna go there. So if anybody wants a ticket to Europe, and I'm like, uh, yeah, I'll take it. Why not?

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Okay, I'm going to Europe. What was your parents' reaction to going to Mexico for eight months, mom, dad, see you, and now I'm going to Europe? I mean, that's a lot for early 20s, especially back then. I mean, what what was your parents' reaction?

SPEAKER_04 18:48

So when uh the friend offered me this plane ticket to Europe, I was like, oh yeah, well, okay. Kind of thought this is a I didn't really know the lingo, how to explain things, but it's an open door that I'll take it.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

So yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Why not take it? Um so I prepared to leave. I went to visit my parents and told them here I am going off on another journey, and I guess they were kind of used to it by then because I'd already moved away when I was 17 out of the house.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Now, which part of Utah were they in?

SPEAKER_04 19:28

Um, south of Salt Lake.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Near the canyons.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Sandy, Utah. See, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Yeah, I know that area a little bit. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

Um so we'd moved there when I was going into middle school, and I finished high school, went to um one year of college, and then I was back and forth. But I actually moved out of my parents' house when I was 17 because I'd already graduated from high school and wanted to live close to the college. Near town.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Yeah, and that was uh that was medical school.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

It was the university, yeah. Okay. Normal, you know, university studies as far as I got.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Right, right. And so, and so you visit your parents, and then you took you took the ticket.

SPEAKER_04 20:23

I took the ticket, went to Christmas at my parents, said goodbye, took the ticket and went in just after, you know, about this time of year, just January.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

And this was you mentioned that your friend's dad, I think it was her dad, was in Italy. Is that where you went or where did you go?

SPEAKER_04 20:43

No, no. See, she, yeah, the girl, her dad lived in Italy. But when she gave me the ticket, she said, you can put any destination on it. It's an Italy. Oh my gosh, what a so I said, okay, well, I'm gonna choose London just because I don't speak these other languages right now. Right. I think I'll start off easy and I'll just land in London and see how it goes from there. So yeah, I landed in London.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Okay, so landed in London, never been to Europe before.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

No other ticket. Yeah, just there.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

And so what transpired from okay, you're in a foreign country, never been there, you speak the language, that's a big plus. Uh, so what happens next?

SPEAKER_04 21:27

So I went to this international student's hostel there in London and uh met a lot of different people, very interesting, from here and there and everywhere. And um I wrote to David because um he's like, Well, um actually, the funny thing, there was a phone in London in an underground in the um metro station, they called it the underground, the tube. So there was A phone that you could call anywhere in the world, and all you had to do was hit it.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

It's like back then they had these things that like a spinner on it, and for some reason, all of these international kids that I was hanging out with, we learned how to hit this phone, and you could call anywhere in the world and talk as long as you wanted. You just keep hitting.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

No charge. No charge. Whoa, okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:27

All right. So I called home, I called David, I called people. Yeah. Everybody was somebody was always down there on that phone calling South Africa, calling, you know, Canada, calling Australia, who knows where. We're calling anybody at any time. Yeah. Until they finally fixed it after a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Yeah, okay. So the so they've eventually figured out figured out what was going on. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

It was a good uh communication starter.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

So sure.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

So David said, okay, I'm coming over. I'm gonna sell the stuff um that you left and my stuff, and um, and so he came over at about like I don't know how long it took him, a little while. A week or two to get there.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

Then um, so we met up and we kind of traveled around for a bit, and I didn't really know what to do. I I went to Switzerland and I looked into getting jobs at the ski resorts there, okay. But there was some fishy stuff going on that I didn't like, and so I didn't commit. And then I went back to a youth hostel in Munich.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

Well, we okay, so we we traveled for a few weeks and then we split up. He went back to London to take a job.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

What was he doing?

SPEAKER_04 23:56

He worked in some kind of factory with a friend that he had met in London while we were meeting up anyway.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

And and approximately what year is this?

SPEAKER_04 24:07

This is um early 75.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Early 75, okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

All right, and so I hadn't figured anything out yet. I was in this youth hostel in Munich, and I was cooking some dinner, and these two other guys were cooking dinner. One was American and one was German, and they started talking to me, and apparently they were doing the mission work, and they knew how to strike up the conversation and let it around, and they had me pray to ask Jesus to come into my heart. Wow, I'm like at that point. My reaction was, well, why not?

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

Nothing to lose here. Yeah, if this is gonna be good, then good. Yeah. Because I've read everything, I've been, you know, learning about this, learning about this, all these different spiritual trips and this and that. And I'd met some other Jesus freaks of the same nature in Mexico before, and I thought, oh, it sounds okay, you know. Yeah, but they were a little scattered, they didn't really rein anybody in, but these guys they knew how to do it, yeah, yeah. So we had a good time, a good conversation. I prayed that night. I became a Christian.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Yeah. So you had been on this spiritual journey. Were you looking at all different types of faiths and beliefs?

SPEAKER_04 25:53

I was reading, you know, all these books about Tibetans and you know, Buddhism, this and that, reading, yeah, all this philosophical stuff. I mean, that was a this was back when there was a lot of heavy stuff going on back in those days. Right. When all this I don't know if you know about the stuff that was going on, like at Stanford University. Sure. All these psychological things that were going on, like with the you know, the LSD things, and I mean my parents are PC and all that was going on, and we were all looking like what is real, what is I mean, that's yeah, that was a very common theme in that time of searching for truth, searching for faith, what is true, all that because every other system had failed, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Had failed you guys, you'd seen the brokenness, and this and I kind of see that I mean, and especially since you lived it, you can attest to this more than I can, but it seems like we're in a very similar position right now where systems are broken and the youth of today are looking and searching in a similar way to where you guys were at that time.

SPEAKER_04 27:09

And you know how I what I feel about that, I think what really kicked into that right now is the sh uh execution of Charlie Kirk. Ooh, I think that just really set off an eye-opener, or it's either you wake up or you put it out of your mind, or I feel like that was a very significant blatant thing where whoa, you know, we're fighting a battle of good and evil here. It's not I think it's lessening the whole um like the last few years going through COVID and all this stuff, it's like the left, the right, the left, right, the right. But I think it's kind of made the two sides more similar because what happened there? What in the world is going on for that to happen?

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Sure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

This is bigger than the left and right.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

I a hundred percent agree. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. When when we start when they're when assassinations start happening, that's when we need to put that aside. Um, there's more going on behind the scenes. I mean, I yeah, I mean, my parents were of the same generation. My my dad was born in 45, my mom was born in 53, and so they were of that same generation. So I remember having um conversations with them, especially in high school when we were studying that era. Um, my dad um started his teaching in the late 60s, my mom graduated in 71. So I mean, she was they were right in the thick of it. Um, and right here in Southern California where um you know the Jesus Revolution started, and there was a lot of just a lot of that, yeah. Um, but they were out um in the Rialto area, so not really out here, they were more in the Rialto area, a lot of farmland out that way at that time. Um and so what did these people say that was so compelling that made you say yes?

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Well, you know what? They were completely simple and just went to the Bible and said, This is what the Bible says, and this is how it is. Yeah, they didn't go on about things, you know, they just showed me some Bible. This is what it says, you know. You need to, if you're born again, the spirit, and somehow it was so simple that I was able to say, wow, yeah, nothing to lose here.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

They didn't uh they didn't beat you over the head.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

No, they did not, and that to me was also a lesson of you know what kind of a missionary should a person be. Because we ended up in Asia.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

Oh yeah, no, well, oh we'll get to that. Oh yeah, oh yeah, we'll get to that.

SPEAKER_04 30:41

But I mean, you know, anyway, yeah, they were very simple, very direct. Just well, you just need to get Jesus in your heart, you need to receive Jesus, and then you're a child of God, and oh okay, yeah. So I said the prayer. I had a weird dream that night, it kind of confirmed something. I for some reason I'm not remembering that dream so well, but it confirmed it to me that I had really made a change in my life, and I felt it from that day forward. What'd you feel that there was I knew that I had become part of God's kingdom when I hadn't before?

SPEAKER_02 31:31

Was it was it a sense of peace? Was it a sense of certainty?

SPEAKER_04 31:36

Yeah, both, all of that kind of like, okay, now you know, you should just be what you should be, kind of.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

Like no more fooling around, you know. I mean, I wasn't like a bad person, like lying and cheating, but even if that would come to me, I'm like, no, I can't, I can't lie. Yeah, I can't cheat. Yeah, I'm not that way anymore, you know. Like it's just it kind of made a uh one day to the next.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yeah, it it kind of woke me up.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Yeah, it was it was a day that um that lives in your mind of a day that was special. Yeah. And so, okay, you've become a Christian, you've accepted that Christ is Lord, you've accepted the gospel. So from that point, how long did you stay with these people? What what took place after?

SPEAKER_04 32:39

Well, that the next day they said, Okay, well, why don't you come with us today? We're gonna go up to this place it would uh Munich, Germany, this little place up by the um the castle, garmish, a little tiny town. You're gonna go walk around and see the town, and I'm like, Oh, okay, yeah, why not? I'll I'll go. And then they kind of branched off. They said, Okay, we're gonna do this for a while. I guess they wanted to go out and you know, try to convert some people, you know. That was their mission there. They were on a special mission for the weekend or whatever. They said, Okay, walk around, do what you want to do, and we're gonna meet back up at like five o'clock, and we'll have um dinner or whatever. So, okay, so I went walking around town, looking around, and we meet back up at five o'clock, and they're like, Oh, yeah, we had a great day. Yeah, I looked around, it's a cool day. They they grabbed my hands and said a prayer, and they asked, um, they said, Lord, could you please supply us some dinner? We really don't have you know much money or anything. Please supply our dinner tonight. And I was thinking at that point, now wait a minute, this is getting oh boy, oh boy, okay. And so the we were in Germany. The German guy says, just a minute, um, wait here. He goes off, he comes back, he says, Come on, we're going to dinner. I'm like, yeah, this guy over here said, Yeah, he'd love to treat us to dinner. See what happens when you pray?

SPEAKER_02 34:33

Fish and loaves.

SPEAKER_04 34:34

I'm like, Oh, I guess these guys aren't messing around. Yeah, prayer is powerful. And um, yeah, so we went to dinner, and then I guess friends of theirs came, and it was like a place we went, everybody was playing music in this pub or something, and then went back to the youth hostel, and then they left, they had to go home. Okay, and I left, and I was gonna go back to meet the friend of mine who I was planning to meet in the first place back in France because this girl said we can meet up and then we can go stay at my brother's house because he has extra rooms, and then we can decide what to do, because I didn't know what to do yet, because I hadn't looked for a job or decided where to stay, or so I was headed back that way after I met them, and I'm like, oh, okay, now I'm a Christian. Yeah, and they gave me a little book of some you know teachings which is good, and I started reading that.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Did you have a Bible with you?

SPEAKER_04 35:50

I did not have a Bible, I just had this little book of kind of like basic teachings, okay, and it kind of went through John 3.16 and a few things, and uh I went back to Amsterdam to the place we had stayed before, and I'm kind of like all like oh, I've got a different perspective on all this and just kind of different, and then I got to France, and um, that's where I met the group out on the street doing the same thing, and they actually knew the guys who I had talked to.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Oh, okay. Were they part of the same like organization or okay? Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

And so they said, Well, you know, come on, we have a you know, introduction party. I guess it was a Saturday or whatever, and so I went there and I just hung. Yeah, they said, Okay, so if you want to serve the Lord, this is what we're doing, and you know, so you're just getting thrown into it. I just dove right in.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Love it, Matthew Levi. Okay, wow, okay. So, are you letting David know what's going on? Have you guys talked?

SPEAKER_04 37:22

We didn't have cell phones, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:24

That's yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 37:25

So, meanwhile, he's back in London. So, I guess after I'd spent a few days there, I you know said, Well, look, I've got this boyfriend, and we're supposed to meet up again. I'm just gonna write him and tell him what's going on, you know. Kind of what should I say? Yeah, and so I wrote him and he decided to come. This all took place within, like, I mean, maybe it was a month or so.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Oh my gosh, wow. And he wasn't a believer at the time.

SPEAKER_04 37:56

No, yeah, he was like, Oh my god, what's she got? What the heck? Oh my god. Oh he was like not really knowing, sure. So um there was a place in Paris where everybody, there was a lot of people, they're all like young witnessers and coming and going, you know, out and and then so some of the people part of the group had children, and so there was a little school outside of Paris in a little town outside of Paris, about 15 minutes, and so they had sent me there, and that's when he came. He ended up at the place in town, and he was asking, so where is this girl now? I don't even know where she is, and so I had they knew. I guess I told him he said he was gonna come, so he finally came, and then uh I guess they talked to him and told him, Well, this is what this is, this is what's going on here. Are you interested? Yeah, so they already got him through the main part before I got to see him again.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

So so in in Paris, so I I have um I know some people that do missionary work right now in Paris, um, all over France, in fact. And they're saying it's pretty hostile towards Christians there.

SPEAKER_04 39:31

It's it's well, I'm sure it's gotten worse since we were there.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

How was it? What was the environment like while you were there? Was it pretty hostile or was it more accepting, or was it kind of just um kind of just numb?

SPEAKER_04 39:46

You would know right away if it was a yes or a no, kind of like they would not even give you the time of day if they didn't want to hear anything about it, and you know that not like hostile, like you know, mean, but just like no, you know, just yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

You think that's because the Catholic Church has been there for so long, it's just they've they're kind of numb to it.

SPEAKER_04 40:14

That, yeah, and just the way society's been. I mean, look at their leadership now. I mean, Europe is a funny place in that sense. Yeah, it's kind of the bed of all the philosophical weird stuff, and you know, fashion. Sure, they're not really looking for Christianity, you know?

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Well, were Europeans in a different place at that time when when we talk about um like a lot of the youth culture of that time, your generation of that time was seeking and searching after truth and faith and spirituality. Were Europeans in that same boat, or were they just not?

SPEAKER_04 41:02

There were I it was kind of I guess you know, like here it was a certain type of young people that were looking. Yeah, certain type of people were like, eh, yeah, get lost. Sure, it was similar at that time, okay. You know, we'd meet people all the time that were like like us, just kind of like the hippies that were like, What what what are we looking for? You know, just wanting to find out how to live differently than the powers that be, and you know, yeah, it was definitely uh a vacuum for that at that time, probably easier to find than nowadays, but now I think too, people are waking up to that. It's kind of a new vacuum has opened, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

Yeah, it's funny how that happens, it comes back around like that. Um, so David shows up, he kind of gets introduced to this. Does he become a believer right away?

SPEAKER_04 42:17

Well, yeah, he did actually. He said, Yeah, um, he he received it all, and um so they were like, So what do you do? And he's like, Well, I'm mainly like a carpenter, you know, handyman, construction guy. I've been working in this factory over in um England, but normally this is what I do. They go, Oh my god, we need you. Yeah, we're we're working on this place over here, and we need some guys. He says, if you want to join us, if you want to, you know, we'll teach you the Bible. And he's like, Oh, okay. So, all right, yeah, I'm in, you know. Okay, so uh he he got on board there, okay, and then um we started seeing each other, and I guess one thing led to another, and we decided if we're gonna do this, then we got married in that summer.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Summer of 75. Yeah, whoa, and and you guys have been on and off for how long?

unknown 43:24

Two or three years.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Okay, so a bit you guys had known each other.

SPEAKER_04 43:28

Yeah, we'd been here and there and off and on, and yeah, just couldn't quite figure it out, like okay, and you figured it out in France of all places. Well, I guess we both decided this is the life we're gonna lead. We're gonna be missionaries on this mission, yeah, for God.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

And wow.

SPEAKER_04 43:49

So if we're gonna do it together, then we're gonna make it.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

And so what you wrote your parents or called your parents said, Hey, by the way, I got married.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

Okay. And they knew him. Yeah, they knew him. Yeah, they knew him. Yeah. Okay. All right. So married summer 75. So uh you guys are what that's 50 and a half years.

unknown 44:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

This past summer. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_04 44:20

Last summer was our 50.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

That's amazing. Oh, wow. That not a lot of people make it to 50.

unknown 44:27

I know.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

That's amazing. Um, wow. That's inspirational. 50 years. All right. So the next goal is 60. Let's go. 60 years. Come on. As long as we last. That's right. That's right. Um, and so okay, so you get married, and then what is life like now? You both are introduced to this, you're in France, you're doing missionary work. What so what is life like now? You're married. What is life like?

SPEAKER_04 44:59

Well, kind of in that time, I guess once you get married, you just kind of go off and you know, start your whatever you're gonna do. So we did. Our first kid was born the same day we got married a year later.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

And by that time we were out in Britannia, Brittany, and Brest, out in the corner of France out there. Okay, and um just trying different things, different uh options. Then we we're gonna have the second kid. We moved around a bit. Oh my she was born in Po, France, which is down at the bottom next to Spain.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Okay, okay, and so this is what's the names of their of the girls or or of your kids?

SPEAKER_04 45:57

Um, Jay was the first one. Jay's the one that had a motorcycle accident, and he's no longer I'm sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

And Chris is the second Chris was born in France, okay, okay, all right. Um, how I mean, okay. I just how did you guys do this? I mean, two kids, missionary work, away from family, working. I mean, how'd you guys do it?

SPEAKER_04 46:30

I don't know. I mean, it was fun. We were just actually we were having fun. Yeah, he was a musician, okay. So he would play music in restaurants, and I was actually a backup singer sometimes. I was out with the babies, but he would either do it or we'd both do it. And we met up also sometimes with somebody else, and he'd do it to they'd do a little band together or whatever, and that was one of the main supporters of what we were doing.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

Also, we would teach, yeah, have Bible studies, okay. At the at the house you guys lived at? In the house, yeah. Okay. Was it um like on a Wednesday night?

SPEAKER_04 47:15

Apartments okay, like Tuesday, Wednesday night, we'd have these little Bible studies and sing some songs and some Bible studies and um I don't know, somehow God just keeps you going, you know, encourages you to keep going and people donate. We um wrote back to people and told them what we're doing, and we didn't really have much backing at that time when we were in France, but um later when we came back, we actually got together with the um Four Square Church in Salt Lake.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Oh, sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:02

And we hung out with them quite a bit, and they kind of backed us after that to different missions until we ended it.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

So, how long in total were you guys in France doing missionary work?

SPEAKER_04 48:22

Oh, we left France in '79.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Four years. Oh, okay, wow. And in those four years, how often would you come home?

SPEAKER_04 48:34

We only came home once. We came from the couple. Oh wow. I don't know. Wait a minute. Yeah, I think once between, and then we came back for the last time.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

Okay, wow.

SPEAKER_04 48:52

We came back the first Christmas after we'd gotten married.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 48:57

We came back and visited everybody at that point, and that's when I actually realized oh, gonna have a new one.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

Yeah, another one's coming.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

We're gonna have one.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Wow. So wow, four years. That's amazing. Have you ever wanted to go back?

SPEAKER_04 49:18

I would like to. I've only been back once to France since then.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Okay, when did you go back?

SPEAKER_04 49:25

Uh, about seven years ago. Okay. Because my son lives in Switzerland now.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

Oh, okay. That's funny. My wife's uh uncle lives in Switzerland. Yeah, yeah. I've I mean I see pictures and it's absolutely beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 49:38

Yeah, I've been there a couple of times. Wow, okay because of our situation. I haven't been that much, but sure.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

So you come home, 1979. Um you're not done with missionary work. How long are you home for?

SPEAKER_04 49:59

At this point, we were gonna just come back for a visit and go back. Okay, but we didn't. Um, at that point, we changed visions. Uh, we had number three, was born in Salt Lake City.

SPEAKER_02 50:16

Oh, okay, fine. At home.

SPEAKER_04 50:19

Okay. Yeah. And at that point, um, there was a couple that we had worked with in Europe, and um they had moved down to Peru.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Completely different. Okay, all right, I see where this is going.

SPEAKER_04 50:38

So they were writing us, and they were starting to um feel like they couldn't stay there. Then they actually said that the wife was having health problems and they really needed to go back. They were from here, from Southern California.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

So they were gonna leave and come back up here and see what was going on. And they wanted to know if we wanted to take their place, because if we did, they would leave us the car and the and the apartment, and we'd just come and take it over.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

That's I mean, that's a big shift. Now, I mean, especially now you have three kids, a newborn at that, right?

SPEAKER_04 51:26

Well, this all took place. Okay, so we'd come back. The we had the kid, and this is when all this was transpiring, so it took a while. Okay. Right back then, right? Computers, I don't think.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

Not not home computers, yeah. No.

SPEAKER_04 51:44

No. So this was 80 79, 80.

SPEAKER_00 51:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:50

Um, so we we finally had made the decision we were gonna swap out places. This was fine, it was this time of year again, 1981. Wow, okay, and they had just come up here. We came down here, met them, worked out some stuff, hung out for a few days, and then we went to Peru from here.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

So, did you so which part of Peru? We went to Cusco, so landed in Lima, landed in Lima, uh, and then busted, drove. How'd you get to Cusco? Because and that's not a short trip.

SPEAKER_04 52:33

No, we actually took a plane because at the point I was uh six or so, six or seven months into number four.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

Oh my god. Oh my okay. So, and how old, if I'm doing my math right, the oldest one, if this is 1981, first one was born in 76, so they're five years old, about five.

SPEAKER_04 53:01

Five, four, two and pregnant.

SPEAKER_02 53:07

Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine. Oh Lord. I mean, we're about to do a trip to visit Ali's family, as you know, she's from Peru, from Lima, that's where her family is, and I'm already racking my brain with one two-year-old. I can't even do you have any tips? Any any any tips for international travel with toddlers?

SPEAKER_04 53:34

Um, try to get them tired, run them around in the airport. Get them tired before they get on the planes. Okay, sleep as much as they can so they won't be trying to run around the plane and everybody nuts.

SPEAKER_02 53:47

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 53:48

If not, uh have a few snacks and be ready to walk up and down the aisles, and maybe some Benadryl that won't hurt. I guess so.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Uh wow. Okay. So, okay. New place, different continent, new language. Three kids, one on the way. You fly to Lima, and then you take another flight. How long is that flight from Lima to Cusco?

SPEAKER_04 54:22

It's not long, it's very short.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

Like 30 minutes. Uh I don't remember.

SPEAKER_04 54:28

Okay, something like it's been a while, but it was not a long flight. I mean, the flight to set up, we went to the airport, we got there, we got to the place all in one day without okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Yeah, I mean, the flight to Lima, how long? I mean, uh now a straight flight is eight and a half hours.

unknown 54:46

Really?

SPEAKER_02 54:47

Yeah, I can't even remember how long from LAX is eight and a half hours.

SPEAKER_04 54:51

Um, because we left from LAX to go there the first time.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

Okay. So you you get to Cusco, you have a car, you have an apartment, which is great, because you didn't really have that in France, right?

SPEAKER_04 55:06

We didn't have a car, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:08

So you have a little bit more, which is good, especially with a family, you need it. Um so then what is the work that you're doing? What what are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_04 55:20

Well, that took us a little while to figure out what we're doing here, anyway. Where we lived, I mean, Cusco was a very small town back then.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 55:33

And the road we lived on was basically half dirt, just kind of stony, you know. We had this Volkswagen bus, which is what, you know, that's what we always that's what they had. That's they we gave them money to take the bus and stuff, you know, when we left. And so that's it was a little old clunker Volkswagen bus.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

Sure, but it worked.

SPEAKER_04 56:01

There was like in the street, there's chickens and pigs running around. Oh, what a scene! Oh my gosh, hilarious! It was cool.

SPEAKER_02 56:11

Wow, I bet the oldest kid loved it with the chickens and the pigs and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 56:16

Well, all three of them, they were all together, yeah, running around out in the streets in the mud and feeding chickens.

SPEAKER_01 56:23

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 56:24

We had a big backyard, there was a few cactus out there and little trees and stuff, and so we kind of got to know the neighbors, and there was another couple that um lived in the apartment by us, and they were Europeans, and so we became friends, and they were kind of doing the similar work too. Okay, we all hung out together, and you know, they had they have two kids, I think. Anyway, um, so yeah, and we started meeting people, and we had these two girls that just really loved us and wanted to help all the time.

SPEAKER_03 57:12

Love these.

SPEAKER_04 57:14

Oh, can I take care of your kids and can I help you this and that? Just really sweet girls. So they were always almost at our house all the time.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 57:23

So we'd go out and they could, you know, speak the language, and so we'd tell them we want to, you know, invite people to know Jesus, and that's kind of what we ended up doing.

SPEAKER_02 57:38

And were you attached to a church down there?

SPEAKER_04 57:41

Or well, we were kind of off by ourselves in Cusco.

SPEAKER_00 57:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 57:45

Um, so we started trying to do some music in the restaurants in town a little bit. I mean, it was very cheap life. We didn't really need much, yeah. Right, we didn't really need much at all. So, and then uh uh we had the baby, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

So, what was that like having a baby? I mean, so so did you by the time the baby came, did you learn Spanish? Were you on your way to learning Spanish? Yeah, we were okay, and so was there doctors?

SPEAKER_04 58:27

Was this how she was born on March 30th? We had gotten there sometime in late January, so it was only a couple months, but we had we got a midwife ready set up, and you could communicate with the midwife, yeah. Okay, these this one girl that was always hanging out at our house, she too was helping. She helped, okay. Yeah, so that was that was cool, you know. Yeah. So I had the baby, the midwife. Actually, that that birth, if that had been taped, that would have been a comedy scene to know, and it was just insane.

SPEAKER_02 59:13

What what happened? I gotta hear this.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

I woke up five around in the morning having contraction. Oh, I guess this is gonna be the day. So okay, try to go back to sleep. Nothing's really gonna happen for a while. Oh, maybe it is happening. So, not more than 10 minutes later, I wake him up. Um having some contractions here. It's getting really tense. I think uh maybe you better get up. Yep, and it just hit me like nothing, like a like a freight train. I said, go get the midwife. So he goes, makes a cup of coffee. David, no, goes and wakes the other couple up. Okay, have the baby. Okay, I'll go with you. Let's go, let's go to the midwife's and get her. Because, you know, we didn't have cell phones, we didn't have anything. They had to go knock on her door. Uh, can you come to the house now?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

It's go time, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:29

So, meanwhile, they're gone. So, the girl, our friend, comes over, and I'm laying there just about to actually have the baby. And she's like, What? What is that? What I said, well, I'm having a baby. She runs off. I didn't get late. There was a lady downstairs that I guess she was kind of an assistant nurse or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:01

And she went to get her, so they both come back upstairs. Meanwhile, the baby's actually born, and I'm sitting there like uh trying to untangle it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

Oh my, they didn't even have time. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:18

The short It was 45 minutes from the time I woke up to the time it came out. And I think it has something to do with the altitude, maybe. Yeah, because that's like 13,000 feet.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

Oh my gosh. So by the by the time they even come back, the baby's in your arms.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:40

I said, can you just get me some rags or some diapers to help clean up this mess?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:45

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:46

I'm like, okay, well, she's breathing. I've got her untangled here, the thing straight.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

Oh my wow, what a scene. It was hilarious. Was David right there?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:00

So finally they come back with the midwife, and they're all running in the door, and we're sitting, I'm sitting there with the baby already, and the midwife's like, Well, I'm a little late, aren't they? And they're like, Oops, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

Oh my gosh. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:14

Meanwhile, the other kids got up and they're all standing around going, What is going on?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

You got a new sibling.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:22

There's your sister. Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:26

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

So she the midwife takes over and tells everybody what to do and calm down, and everything's alright. And cleans up the mess.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:38

And this is just a couple months in.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:41

Wow. Wow. So um, you're doing music, you're, I imagine you start doing the exact same thing you did in France. You're doing Bible studies. Um, how long, how long were you in Peru for? How long were you in Cusco?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:03

Um, we didn't stay in Cusco that long after that.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:09

We kind of started getting involved with the the group, the kind of the cult.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:17

And which we learned later we shouldn't have done.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:22

But it was kind of a welcome thing at the time because we were kind of off on our own, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

You just didn't know who these people were.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:30

Yeah, I mean, we didn't know what it would evolve to yeah. It's like Jesus freaks, and then things started going a bit awry.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:40

So we learned a lesson there. Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:43

Anyway, yes, one thing that that's the lesson that I think is a very good thing to high note is that we as children of God and ourselves as a believer and a follower of Christ, we don't follow other people. We follow God. And if we do get caught off, like I think that's sometimes a it's an easy thing for that happens in the Christian community. Sure. So it's you know, I mean, I'm not saying that pastors are bad, pastors are great, but there is a fallibility there. We're human, but we're human, and we can easily get caught up into following somebody. It's it's human nature, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:48

It's human nature, and even I mean, Paul talks about that throughout the New Testament. I mean, he says, imitate me as as I imitate Christ, right? He's continuously directing them towards Christ and not himself.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:03

God is not a respecter of persons, right? And so, anyway, that is a lesson that I think should be high noted for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:15

So then from Cusco, where'd you go? To Lima?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:18

I went to Lima, okay, then we stayed in Lima.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:22

Oh, we actually well, we went from Cusco to yeah, to Lima, then we went to Arequipa for a little while.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

Which is where Ali's family. I mean, they I don't I think she's told you this. Uh they actually established that city.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:37

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

Yeah. Um she's got a beautiful city. I I have yet to see it. Um, I've only been there, only been to Peru once, and I've only stayed in Lima. Um, this next trip I think is gonna be very similar. Uh, because it's if I'm remembering it's not it's not close to Lima, right? Yeah, it's not close. Yeah. Um but yeah, no they actually out my wife's family um established that city.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:06

Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:06

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:07

It's a cool city. There's like cathedral like churches up in the hills there.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

Yeah. So you went from Cusco to to there to then Lima.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:20

And then back to um to Lima, to Arequipa, and then back to Lima.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:26

Oh my gosh, kind of bouncing back and forth.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

Um and so doing Bible studies, getting to know people, yeah, that sort of thing. And what was your total time in Peru?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:41

Uh, from the beginning of '81 until um into eighty um about fall of eighty-five.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:57

No way, eighty-four.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:01

She was born in the fifth one, was born in Lima in '83.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:06

Oh my gosh. You had another one.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:10

Then she was about a year and a half when we left.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:15

So it was okay. So that would put it at 85. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:20

Okay, so then we came back to the states and we were feeling like we should go to Asia.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

Why Asia?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:32

What what was drawing you just as like a prayer magnet was on us or something and well pray about what we should be doing? We just kept feeling well.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:45

Let's go back. What what brought you back to the United States from from Peru?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:50

Well, we felt like we should be going to another you felt your time there was done.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:57

Yeah, we felt like did you hand it off to somebody else as it was handed to you?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:02

Yeah, we were working with another Peruvian family at the time. Okay. And they were kind of just ready to keep going and doing what we were doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

Okay. And have you did you stay in touch with them?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:17

Yeah, we're still we still still to this day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:21

That's very and they're and and this proving couple, where are they? Have they are they in Lima still?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:28

Not no. Actually, they moved to Ecuador. Oh, wow. In the like 90s or something. Okay. Okay. And now I believe they're they ended up having like eight kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

Oh my gosh. Were you guys having competitions?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:50

I wasn't. They um one of their uh a bunch of Peruvians for some reason got into some company that they moved to Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:10

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:11

And the dad, at least, I think he still lives in Chicago. He goes back and forth.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:20

Uh the mom, she's kind of, I mean, they're our age, so okay. The mom kind of skips around visiting her children most often.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:30

Yeah, yeah. Okay. That's cool that you've remained in touch. I mean, I think that's so important to remain in relationship with those that you've done ministry with that you know, and um, because at the end of the day, our life as believers is about two different relationships the vertical relationship we have with the Lord and the horizontal with those that we serve and live life with. Right. And it's important to keep those things as priorities. Um, we're not called to be islands, we're called to continuously be in community, which is why scripture says don't forsake the fellowship, right? We need to continually be in fellowship. Um, that's really cool. Um that you've after all these years, that's really cool. Um that drives me to want to because there's many people throughout the years I've served with and need to do a better job at staying in touch with, and they're all around here, they're all around, and you know, so there's no reason I I shouldn't stay in touch. Um but going back to what you were saying, you felt though you and David felt that chapter was closing, your time there was done, you'd been ministering to people, you came back to the United States, but you felt this draw now to Asia. So now you're about to hit continent number three. So where in Asia?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:08

Well, so we started writing letters trying to research where we should go. We kind of felt it was like China, yeah. But at that time, this was okay in the 80s, sure, 86 by now, sure. We weren't getting a lot of information. China was kind of at the point where they were getting ousting anyone that was doing anything that they thought was Christian influence.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:37

Not much has changed, yeah. Yeah, it's still pretty against it.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:42

So we got we got a hold of a family that had been working there, and they're going, yeah, we've we gotta go. We're actually getting in trouble if we don't get out of here now. So they're like, it's not really easy to get in there. Um just come on over to Asia, and then we were writing to Malaysia, we were writing to Japan, we were writing to wherever we could find anybody that would answer us, you know. And then um our response came from Japan. They said, well, you know, we're kind of we want to just sort of make like a a launch pad here, so come on over.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:31

Which part of Japan?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:33

We went to Tokyo, okay, and then we went to Osaka, uh-huh. And um, by that time, we we stayed in Japan almost a year and we'd gotten a hold of Taiwan. So the people that had been thinking of China had gotten to Taiwan and said, well, you know, this is what we should be doing for now, and just going into China, but not try to live there.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:04

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:05

They're not very they're kind of hostile if they find out you're doing anything suspicious, and you got kids with you, you gotta be mindful of that. Yeah, so we went to Japan, stayed there almost a year, and then we went to Taiwan, and that's just it Taiwan was great. Yeah, I mean we could witness to people, people were very respectful, very receptive.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

What was so? I mean, now you're dealing with what that's uh four different countries, um four different cultures. What do you think the differences, the main differences between them all?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:57

Well, I just one thing that was so which I just when we went to Japan after Peru, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

I mean that's a shift.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:07

Peru was a bit of a chaotic country.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:10

Sure, sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:11

I mean, there was a lot of they call them the bardios uh people out around. I mean, things were like, you know, you wouldn't walk around with a necklace on in Peru. Yeah, you wouldn't even have dangling earrings in Peru. Yeah, you have anything, it's down in your pocket. I mean, we had purses stolen, we had things taken out of our cars, this and that. I mean, things were like chaotic in some places, you know. But you get to Japan and everything is so neat, tidy, orderly. Yeah, none of that, you know, ratero stuff is going on. Everybody in the post office is all lined up, being all polite, and it was like night and day. I'm like, oh holy, look at this place. This is amazing. I mean, the tiny little fishing villages, sure, they're poor people, but everything is tidy, the shoes are on, the what a difference. You know, the plants are all neatly kept, and walks are swept, and you know, no chaos at all. Just order and tidiness, and that's just the culture, just the culture. Yeah, and I was like, whoa, this is crazy night and day, and now it's how it was in Japan and Taiwan. Yeah, Taiwan is a little less regimented, but okay, quite similar. Okay, because actually, Japan did have teach Taiwan how to do it for a while.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:01

They did have um custody of Taiwan for a little while, and so you spend a year in Japan, then go to Taiwan. So by the time you got to Taiwan, how old are your kids?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:14

Uh let's see. When we got there, we had two birthdays because two of them were July birthdays. We got there like the week before their birthdays, and Jen turned three. So the youngest one was turning three. Okay, so three, three, um, five, seven, nine, eight, and nine.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:43

Eight and nine. Do your kids, I mean, I I know as you mentioned, your oldest Jay, is no longer with us, but the rest of your kids, do they remember being abroad? Do they remember? Sure. Do they look at it fondly? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I I just I I'm so curious about looking because we hear testimonies from missionaries often, but it's it would be interesting to hear from a child's perspective, especially born into it. They were all born into it. Yeah, and so I imagine it was almost I I I I guess compared to the American childhood, they didn't know any different.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:34

Oh, you know, we had to study the Bible every morning. Oh, what a burden. We weren't allowed to watch TV and go to movies and yeah, what a burden.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:44

Oh my gosh. They all have you know those kind of grapes, but sure. They are thankful for some of the things because we were quite strict about like diet. We already were kind of into a natural diet.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:00

I mean, that goes back to what you experienced in medical school, right? Um, and I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I guess if this may be a stereotype, I don't know, but the Japanese and and pretty much Asian culture all around are pretty healthy eaters.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:22

They are actually, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:24

Um we had, I mean, in Taiwan, we had access to such good fresh fruit and vegetables and you know, yeah, fresh meat and stuff because you just go to the market, the you know, the open market, and they'll kill the chicken right there. Oh my god, it's fresh, put it in the you know, feather grinder.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:49

Okay, here you go. Wow, and so did you guys just like the same thing you were doing in France, the same thing you were doing in in Peru, and now you're doing it again in Taiwan and Japan.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:04

And now our kids are bigger, so they're into it, so they can participate.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:08

Yeah, so are they doing music?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:10

They were doing music shows.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:13

We got the Osmonds going on here.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:15

They were putting together shows with the kids. Oh man. Going into like you know, hospitals and schools and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:23

Do we have pictures of this? Oh, yeah. Okay, all right. I need to see I need to see young Chris.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:31

Oh, the star singers, she is a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:36

Was she really? Oh, we is your video.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:40

You know, I wish I had the videos, but somehow got but we have pictures.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:45

We have pictures, I'll take it. I need to see this. Oh my. Oh boy. She has no idea what's about to happen. Um, so I mean, that's cool. So, I mean, the kids are participating now, they're with you, they're older, they're they've learned music and they're singing. Yeah, that's I I bet as a parent that's pretty rewarding.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:07

It was fun, it was a lot of fun. Like we take them out, you know. Okay, we're gonna sing here tonight, you know. And we'd have okay, there they used to have in um Taiwan the the circle K, like they had okay, yeah. And they had the soft serve ice cream, and so okay, after the show, you could all get your ice cream and made them themselves, so they'd make these ice creams huge towers after us coming there for a few months. They're like, oh no, we're gonna make them ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:42

Yep, I bet. Oh my. So, where where would you go? Uh, were you doing this? And where would you guys be performing these these songs?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:56

We had a we would take a group out to restaurants, and we had certain restaurants that wanted us to come on a regular basis, okay do a little show with the kids singing and doing dances and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:13

And were you seeing gospel music?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:15

Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, gospel music with you know, some um like known songs as well. And and the goal was just try to establish relationships, yeah, and then we'd pass out tracts and there you go, Bible tracts and stuff, yeah. And then we got to the point where we made these CDs and we'd sell them. The kids would go around, oh, do you want our C D? Do you want our CD?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:48

Oh, that's do you still have any CDs left?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:51

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:52

Oh, that's cool. That's cool. So did you learn Thai?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:57

Um well Taiwan speaks Mandarin.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:00

Mandarin, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:01

They speak Taiwanese, which is a dialect. Oh, okay. Chinese. Okay. And the main study language for school is Mandarin.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:11

Mandarin. So did you learn Mandarin? Yeah. You did. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:14

I mean, I I'd say I got to an intermediate level. Sure. So different. Um, David's better at languages, he learned better than I did, and then our older kids were the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:29

I mean, there are sponges at that age. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:32

Um, she went to study Chinese and Chinese calligraphy in China after. Oh, wow. She was I never knew that.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:43

She never told me that.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:44

She went to college in China.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:48

I never she never told me that.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:56

And even the she was doing translating at the Canadian Embassy, and wow, crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:03

That's some pretty cool stuff. Wow. Um, and how long were you in Taiwan for?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:12

All together. Um, well, I kind of ended up there the longest because my kids grew up and left, but I was there 18 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:22

Oh my gosh. Wow. 18 years. So, okay. Let's so 1980. What? When did you land in Taiwan?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:34

Um, 1987.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:37

1987, and so that would be 2005?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:43

Well, yeah, um, just before uh the Christmas before that.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:48

Oh my gosh. Wow. And this whole time you were doing missionary work, Bible studies, all of this.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:57

We got a lot of friends. We had so many friends in Taiwan. We'd have these big Christmas parties, a grip, big Christmas ball, uh not a ball like a gala. Yeah. And they'd all come and we'd do a pageant, and it was got really fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:15

So, what why do you think you stayed there longer than anywhere else?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:21

Just it was so it was inspiring and fruitful, and just didn't ever want to leave.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:32

Wow, 18 years, and how often would you come back here to the states?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:38

Um, every couple of years. We actually in '92 we came back here. And we're like, I don't know. You guys, you know, we came at Christmas time, visited the folks, and we went to Texas.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:59

And then we're like, all right, we're just gonna, you know, see if you guys want to be Americans, whatever. And by the summer, all our kids were in an uproar. We want to go back to Taiwan.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:12

Yeah, we all hate it. I mean, that that's what they were used to. That was home, probably more home than anywhere else for them.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:18

Yeah, so we went back to Taiwan.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:21

Wow, and so then they grow up and one by one they wanted to come back here. Is that what it was?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:30

Um, okay, so the first one he our oldest went back to Japan in his later teens. He was a musician, he became a sound technician, he was working there as a sound technician, and he got an offer, he was gonna go to Peru. And uh the prison at that time was studying China, and uh the third one, he didn't go anywhere, he was still in Taiwan, and that's where he met his wife, and they got together in Taiwan, and she became pregnant, and they went to Switzerland.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:27

Um the fourth one, she was a bit of a whippersnapper the minute, she was off. She went, she heard from some friends and went to Houston, Texas. Okay, and so she was in Texas, and then she got an apartment with a girl, and my oldest son was passing through there because he was going to Peru, and he went together with her roommate and never left.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:04

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:06

So there are the he's in Texas, she's in Texas, Chris's in China, Mike's in Switzerland, and then the fifth one. She came over here and um she went to El Paso, Texas. And she got into the she um trained as a midwife there. Okay. She started her. She decided to become a midwife and found out that that was one of the best places to do it. So she stayed there for a couple years becoming a midwife. And then she okay, so over the years we had become friends with the church. In Salt Lake, uh Four Square Church.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:03

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:04

And the pastor there, he was such an awesome guy. He was he really understood the whole philosophy of being missionary-minded and just you know your houses where you're at it. You're you know, not like you're need to be anywhere. You're wherever you are, that's where you are. Yeah, like it doesn't matter. You don't have to be, you don't have to call this home or that home. You can be home there or whatever. And they were very supportive and cool. And anyway, so it's his grandson that my daughter is married to. Oh okay, okay, all right. Um, when my mother had a stroke in just after 2000, 2001, she had the stroke. So my youngest was not yet 18, and I had to go see what was going on with my mom, and she came with me. We stayed in Salt Lake for six months, and she did her driver's license, got her GED, and that's when she met her future husband, and she had him in mind. Ah, and he had a younger brother who was after her, but she wasn't interested in him, so she decided to go back. She uh went to China for a while as well, and then she was in um in El Paso, Texas. Yeah, and then she heard that the brother had gotten married, so he was out of the picture. So um I was back and forth with my mom and this and that, so we went again, and that's when she connected with Dave, and then they got married, happier, yeah, and still there.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:28

So, I mean, 18 years, that's that seems like a lifetime. What even I mean, you're and your kids are all over the world. What eventually brought you back here?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:41

Well, my mother had the stroke, right? And we um had to see if she was gonna get better or not, and so she went to assisted living for a period of time, and then it was apparent that she was gonna be wheelchair bound, and so I thought I should come back and take care of her.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:05

So so that was what that put an end to you being in Taiwan. Yeah, so you and David both decided we're gonna go.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:12

Well, there's a little bit of a quirky story because David decided he was going to um Ecuador because there was some kind of a healing situation there. He actually spent a year in Ecuador.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:30

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:31

During the time I made that decision and moved back here.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:35

So you guys kind of you went west and he went southwest. I guess on a map. I mean, I guess there's a couple ways.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:43

He left from Taiwan before I came back over here. Okay, he stayed there for a while, and then I was back over here.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:51

He came back here. Okay. So then once he was done, he came back here.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:00

Yeah, and he's been like uh he he had well, he didn't get healed from the MS. He's still so he's he has you know become weaker over the years.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:15

So it had started back then. Okay, so he's going on almost 30 years of this. Yeah, wow. I mean, I've heard MS. I mean is that is that's a long time for MS. Is it is that is that right, or am I wrong in that?

SPEAKER_04 1:32:33

MS is one of those things that they don't really have a plan with, right? I mean, there's so many variations, you don't have a rhyme or reason as to what exactly is gonna happen to you when you get diagnosed with it, so right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:51

Um, how has that impacted you guys? I mean, you guys have been all over the world ministering to lots of people, being active people. How has that impacted you guys? How's that as husband I mean, impacted him, impacted both of you? Would you guys do you think you'd still be out in the in some country, maybe back in Taiwan, if that wasn't a part of your life?

SPEAKER_04 1:33:17

I'm pretty sure we would be, actually.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:22

Um I mean, I don't know. I always felt like I'd probably live my days out and yeah, yeah. Um I guess you just don't know, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:37

Yeah, right. Um I mean, I've I've obviously met your husband, and he's always been um always had a smile. You know, I've had some short but good conversations with him. He's very welcoming.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:56

So um he's always happy for someone to come around because he has, you know, short-term memory loss.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:04

He does. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:05

Oh, yeah. Okay, quite severe. That's probably one of the main reasons he doesn't care to do much anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:13

So when you say short-term memory loss, what what what do you mean by that? How short?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:19

Um, well, like he'll ask me in the morning, so what's happening today, and I'll tell him, and then an hour later he wouldn't remember what I've told him he needs to get ready for.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:32

And that's constant. Yeah. So if we were to go over there right now and I say hi to him and we have a conversation for 15 minutes, he wouldn't remember it an hour later.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:44

Well, he he'll he would probably somewhat. Okay, it just depends. Like some days is worse, some days.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:52

And is that a result of the MS? Yeah, it is, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:56

Okay, they say like his brain is like 89% of what it should be, like it shrinks, or like it's a neurological disease, yeah, so it affects your neurological system, which is why he's got progressive weakness. Yeah, I mean, he still remembers a lot of the past better than he remembers what I told him to do an hour ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:24

Well, and that's what I've heard with short-term memory loss, is that from the point when that starts forward is when the forgetfulness, but from that point back, they usually remember.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:39

Yeah, like he'll remember old songs, old, you know, I I play a lot of um old, you know, the music we used to like to listen to, classic rock and stuff. He remembers all the old music, so and he knows like like if you came over and you said hi to him, yeah, he'd remember who you are, right? He wouldn't like he'd be like, Oh yeah, I saw um what's his name?

SPEAKER_00 1:36:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:09

He might not remember your name, but he'd like, oh, I know this guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:12

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:14

Maybe I don't remember his circumstances.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:17

So, how is it that you came to be here in Capil Beach?

SPEAKER_04 1:36:22

Okay, so uh came back to the states uh to take care of my mom, and at first my oldest son said, Oh, well, you know, we'll just take care of her. You you can go back to Taiwan. And so my mom went to he had um he got married with the two girls, the two um his two girls, Aaron and Brooke. And so my mom went there, and then after about a year or so, uh his wife was kind of done with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:59

So it's a lot, so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:01

I mean, I understand. Yeah, I said at first I said, Well, I'll come and give you guys a month off, and you know, you guys can go take a vacation, I'll take care of the kids and mom and whatever. And we did that once, and then it was about six months later, they're like, Oh yeah, done. Yeah, and so I just came back to take care of them, yeah, yeah. And and so then well, they had moved out here, they moved out here, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:34

Got it, got it.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:35

Okay, they had lived in um Irvine.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:38

Oh, okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:40

They were in um Georgia, and they he had decided to start his business out here, okay, got it.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:50

Yeah, Irvine's just 15, 20 minutes up the road, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:54

And so they I um came with them and then I looked for a place for me and my mom and David because we weren't gonna stay with them, and then I went to Oceanside for a year and rented this place. It was awesome, and the guy's like, Oh, you guys can probably live here forever. And then a year later he's he wanted to sell it, so we had to leave. Yeah, so we got a place up by my son's place in Irvine, and then Chrisa had come and she got together with Paul, right? And they were living in San Diego, and then when Jay had the accident and passed away, I was like, uh oh well, my mom passed away first. My mom passed away in 2008, and Jay passed away in 2010, and at that point I'm like, oh my god, but my I didn't want to stay in the big expensive house that I had with the kids, and it was just me and David, so we got a place down in San Diego by Chris's, and then they split up, and we found right here. We found this nice little place. It is a nice place, it is a tight-knit community. F I do believe that my son up there led us to this place. You know the um concerts in the park?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:44

Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:45

So he was a sound tech and a computer guy. He was the one of the first sound techs doing those concerts in the park. It was in Heritage Park when I started doing that, and he was the sound tech, and he said, Oh, we're gonna have this cool, you know, music in the park. You should come. So I went and brought his kids and everything, and uh he was looking over that hillside into the harbor. Said, by the time the girls are 18, I'm gonna have a yacht in that.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:21

Yeah, he's dreaming. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:23

Dream, I'm gonna have a yacht in that harbor, and we're gonna be out.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:30

Doing our thing. I love it, and that's why we put his bench there. But I think that's why we're here. Yeah, I think he led us to find these frizz at least to start, you know, to find a place right here.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:47

It's a good place, it's a good family place, it's a niche, it's a little, yeah, it's it's been special for us to be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:56

It is.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:57

Um, so we're almost to the end here. You've been all over the world, served countless people. You came back to serve your mom. You are continuously serving your husband now. You have had a life of service, um, which is admirable. And so that's that's what we are called to do, right? As as Christians, we're we're called to serve. Um, that's what Christ has called us into, um, is to a life of service, and you've done that. And that's so cool to hear because we've talked about in the past, we've talked about different places you've been, but we haven't dove into the details like we have in this conversation. It's so cool to hear um how you did it, where you went, who with the fact your kids eventually helped you with all this stuff? It's so inspiring and amazing. For those that are looking into missionary work, what advice or guidance would you give them as they're looking into it?

SPEAKER_04 1:42:15

Well, I'd say don't be afraid, don't think that you need to be somebody, or you need to be this, or you need to be that. All you need is to really pray and hear from God and let Him use you. You know, and I think that um sometimes just thinking that you can't do it because you're not this, or oh I don't know, I don't know the language. Well, if you go there you're gonna learn it real quick. Yeah. If you think you know where you want to go, just pray and try it. Just try it. Start from the beginning. Like, you know. Um God just will set you up and do it if you want to do it, and you know that's where God wants you to go, do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:26

Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:29

And um you know, there's pitfalls along the way are human problems, you know, we could get tripped off following somebody else and not doing what we should be doing, but I think our heart and our gut will speak if we keep God first and foremost.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:56

One last question before we wrap up. What was out of all those years um doing missionary work, what was the hardest part?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:09

The hardest part.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:10

What was what was the most difficult?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:16

I guess each time you'd go to a new area, it would be the hardest part, just trying to figure out how to operate, you know, getting set up, getting going, getting something going, because you always, you know, it's a new place, it's maybe a new language, you know. Yeah, what am I am I gonna do this like I always do? Maybe you're not gonna do like you always do. Maybe there's something else involved or whatever, you know. So be adaptable, be adaptable, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:53

Yeah, but just as you said, uh let the Lord provide what is necessary, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:04

And we always, you know, it it's always so rewarding when the Lord shows you something or provides a need. Like you get to a new place and you're like in a hotel, and you'll meet some guy out at lunch. Oh, I'm just ready to rent my house out. Maybe you want to live in my house, or you know, just things like that, how things happen, how God will set you up when you need it.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:35

Right. The Lord will provide.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:37

Will provide.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:39

Well, Mary, thank you so much for joining us, sharing about your missionary work, sharing about your life and your experiences. Um, I know that the people that are listening, you've inspired them. I know that there are gonna be people that are seeking after should I do missionary work? And they're gonna hear this, and they um are gonna be impacted and they're gonna learn so much from what you've done. Thank you for volunteering and asking that you can because I I've learned something and I know others are. Um so thank you so much for joining us um for this episode.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:22

It can anyway be of assistance. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:26

You you hear that people for those that are listening? If you're considering missionary work um and you have questions, message Aspire Ministries. Uh, we have an Instagram, go on there, uh, send us a message, and I'll make sure to connect you guys and um take the wisdom, take the experience that you learned here from this episode. Um there's so much, and I know there's probably so much more, but we only have so much time. Um so thank you again. Um, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask it or email us. We'll have to next episode.