Regarding missions, I turned that area of my life over to God in my early teen years. I was willing to go. I also began at this time to pray for a godly husband. I met my Joe when I was sixteen and we were married when I was twenty years old. Life went on and we settled into marriage, life and eventually family.

    In 1990, I was attending an Association of Christian Schools International conference with my teaching colleagues from rural Rocky Mount, Virginia…Christian Heritage Academy, in Williamsburg, Virginia when a short BFA promotional video was presented. The presentation so touched my heart that I went home and with excitement asked Joe if he would consider serving God at the Black Forest Academy in Germany. His response was "That’s a great idea, someday…." So I dropped the subject but continued to pray.

    Three years later at the same teachers’ conference, again God stirred my heart towards missions. I went to Kislovodsk, Russia with the CoMission Project. Our fifty-two team members presented a Bible based curriculum called "Morals and Ethics" to Russian public school teachers. It was a clear presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This short-term trip convinced me that God continued to tug at my heart for mission work.

    I was ready to go. I knew that I couldn’t go alone because Joe and I are a team. The team would have to claim the common goal of missions if this desire would ever be realized. I began to pray!

Click here to return to the Stebner's main page