Go To Nations International Apprenticeship Director
2009 Graduate of Christ For The Nations Institute

I discovered Christ For The Nations Institute when I moved to Dallas after graduating from Oral Roberts University with my undergraduate. I knew I was called to missions, but I didn’t know how I would go. When I found out that CFNI had a missions program, I enrolled in their 3rd year missions program. After receiving from Mr. Rod Groomer and the other instructors, I prepared to go to the field school in the Philippines. During my field school, I received further confirmation regarding my missions calling.

The field school was facilitated by Go to Nations’ missionaries and while I completed my field school with them, I realized that they carried what I wanted. I was connected with Tim and Nancy Lovelace at that point and I knew I wanted to run with them and to go where they were going. After joining Go to Nations as a full-time missionary, I went to do the next phase of my training in the Philippines. 

I thought I would be there until the end of my training, but the Lord had me stay where I was in the Philippines for a total of six years. I started by helping with a foundation called the Sonshine Center that reached out to children and their families that came from the nearby squatter areas. My eyes were opened to the great need, and I wanted to do whatever I could to help. During my time there, I helped start a tutoring program and a library to assist those children we were reaching.

Next, the Lord moved my focus and I began to help a local church plant a church in a community of people that had been relocated after a severe typhoon. The community started with 70 families, but by the end of my six years, there were over 2000 families. During my time with the church plant, I helped develop the worship team and the children’s ministry along with implementing community development projects such as clean water catchments, screens to guard against mosquitoes that carried diseases, and tutoring for the children. 

Along with the community development and the children’s ministry, I also was the Assistant Director of the Timothy Internship Program for Go To Nations, which is an intensive 10-week training course for future missionaries. This was the same training that I had undergone for my field school for CFNI. As I trained American missionaries, the desire was birthed in me to develop a pre-field departure training for Filipinos that felt called to missions. I was able to run two trainings in the Philippines and out of the 15 people that underwent the training, seven are in the process of being trained or already are on the field as full-time missionaries in Thailand. 

In 2016, Go to Nations asked me to take the position of International Apprenticeship Director and transfer to Chiang Rai, Thailand, which is where I am currently serving. The position previously had not existed, so I had my work cut out for me as I took what we were currently doing all over the world with our apprentices and started to streamline it and develop our curriculum. I currently have 10 apprenticeship units in the Philippines, Thailand, Honduras, and the United States. I am working to train additional apprenticeship directors so we can expand our apprenticeship to different locations.

I met my Filipino husband in Thailand, and we work under Bishop Ariel & Paz Acuna in partnership with Asian Mission Outreach Foundation (AMO). The need in Thailand is to learn English, so we meet that need by offering classes to children, youth, and adults in one of the villages north of Chiang Rai. Through the English class, we build relationships and look for an opportunity to pray with them so they can encounter the love and power of God. We also offer English and Skills classes at AMO for high school and college students. We use the same strategy of having English discussion groups to build relationships to share Jesus with them.

My vision is to reach the unreached, first in Asia and then in other parts of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ For The Nations Institute helped me get started in reaching this vision and prepared me to take my first steps onto the mission field.