PFM

I experienced a wonderful childhood due to a very godly grandmother. I was given to her at the age of 6 months. She always told me, "Jeffrey, there is nothing you cannot do in Jesus!" Her deep love for people had a contagious effect on me... along with her very capable switch! When I was seven, I went to live with my Mom and step-dad and it was then that I witnessed my mother being physically abused. It was during those times that I would always reflect on the instructional words of my grandmother along with her sincere faith.

A year later my grandparents came to get and bring me home with them. The transition from boy to teenager brought many challenges with it. I asked Jesus to save me at the age of 12 and I remember how real the presence of God felt at that moment. I cried for a long time saying, repetitiously in a blubbering kind of way, "I don't know why I am crying -- I feel so light and clean." Yet, I didn't completely understand God's expectations for me as a new Christian. It was not until I met a man in the Marines at the age of 22 that I truly began to mature in Jesus Christ.

After completing my military service and returning hom, I remember one night I asked my grandmother, "What is a missionary?" She responded, "One who travels to share Jesus with others." I remember the soft inward impression, or "call" that grew over the next several years, until it became a gripping reality inside of me, that I was called to foreign mission work.

I worked as a waiter for four years defending family and friends and empathizing with others. The preparation for service was a breaking time for me, a season of development. Our Lord taught me many things (both formally and through life experience training) during that season of five or so years. But finally, I was released by God to go to the Philippines, where I now serve with Frontline.

God has placed in me several priorities: On is to provide opportunities for new Christians to understand and mature in Jesus. another is to develop leaders who can develop others. And another yet, is a deep resolute conviction to rescue abused, abandoned, and highly neglected children, that they may have the opportunity for a dignified life and to discover the deep personal love of Jesus! God is bringing these inward convictions to fruition.

Like my dear and godly grandmother, Muriel Rice, I want nothing more than to honor the Lord in loving service to others.