Long Time Coming

I have just gotten back from the airport in St. Louis taking friends to see them off to East Asia. Our relationship with them started 5 years ago while the wife was a freshman at Central and we were on a year sabbatical from Taiwan. She joined me on 3 different trips, to Taiwan & China and the husband went along on one for a summer internship. Her passion started while she was in 8th grade and it was obvious as she became the student leader for the missions department at Central her last two years there. She graduated in 2005, married that fall, and spent the last year waiting for her husband to finish up his degree in Engineering at Rolla, Mo and raising support. They joined Team Expansion and are partnering with another young family with Outreach International.


A lot of discussions, meetings, phone calls, chats, training, preparations and vision sharing has taken place in the past 5 years with both of these couples. It is with great excitement that they are now where they long to be, and at the same time, they have become very, very dear friends. There was a point when we couldn't wait for them to come to us, and now, we are here and they are there. We think God sometimes has an ironic sense of humor. But it is all good. We still feel a part of their team, and will miss them, yes... but we know God is going to do great things through them. Pray for their adjustments as they begin language training and start to make God appointed relationships! Oh, and pray for us too... a piece of our hearts, a big piece, just went with them.

The Passing of a Friend & Missionary

Mark Randall Trotter

February 14, 1954 - September 9, 2006

We were blessed by attending the memorial and graveside services of Mark on Thursday & Friday. It was quite celebratory as he would have wanted and it was obvious that Mark's influence on others was only surpassed by the Lord's influence on him.

We first met Mark & Lyla and their 8 children 2 years ago while speaking at First Christian Church in Grandview, MO where my nephew Tom is the associate minister. The church has been supporting us and we were speaking and sharing the need for more missionaries to go to East Asia. Mark & Lyla answered that call and were preparing to go to Cambodia. Mark was a very successful dentist and he was willing to give up his practice to move his family overseas and use his skill to help further the gospel of Christ among the unreached.

While in missionary training out in Colorado in January, Mark was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, inoperable and incurable. The past 9 months have been challenging for the Trotter family and many, many people were praying for them as were much of the student body here at Central. In order to keep people informed, Team Expansion hosted a web site: http://www.teamexpansion.org/caring4mark/ where you can find out more about the struggle Mark went through and about the Mark Trotter Foundation created by his sister in law to help with the incredible expenses of cancer treatment and to assist the ministry of the Rapha House of Cambodia to young girls who are victims of slavery and prostitution.

While Dezi & I were listening to the wonderful testimonies of Mark's family and friends during the Friday services, I became envious of the closeness they had with him during his life. I was looking forward to having a friendship with him in the future as they made their way to the field, knowing I would be visiting them often and getting more connected with their ministry. I felt as though a kindred spirit would have eventually developed and I mourned his passing.

Last week, Colan had to go to the dentist and it took 3 doctors and the nurse to hold him down for a simple extraction. We had previously benefitted from Mark's generosity when he invited our whole family
up to his practice before he sold it and worked on all of us. Then, a simple gentle word from Mark and his kind demeanor helped Colan go through a much more difficult procedure without restraint of any kind. When we told Colan of the sad news, he went to his bed and cried, saying Mark "was the nicest dentist he ever had."

Yes, Mark was a generous and kind person. Someone who loved the Lord and was willing to sacrifice all to serve Him in the harvest fields of East Asia. And while hundreds of people were saying goodbye to him at the memorial service, I, in my envy of the strong friendships he had surrounding him, thought that 'goodbye' wasn't the right word. Perhaps the Chinese have it right by not really having that word in their vocabulary, but at any kind of departure, they simply say, "Dzai Jyan", or "see you again". I'm looking forward to seeing Mark again... it's going to make me a better person, a better father, a better husband, and a better Christian by doing so. I want to have an eternity of opportunities to get to know a kindred spirit. I know he's there waiting.

So far so good...

School is just completing it's second full week and we are slowly getting in the groove again of having a regular schedule. It has been especially trying as I have had the opportunity to teach a new class for this semester called Spiritual Formation. It is a freshman course, and all the freshman must take it. It has been an excellent opportunity to get to know them early and encourage them in the area of serving God in the harvest fields.

Friday evening, we will be having our first ever 'Harvesters Retreat' at the West Central Christian Service Camp in Lamonte, MO. Tom & Duonna Worstell are the camp managers there. We have about 40 students signed up to attend and we hope to plan out the semester activities including Missions Emphasis Week in October and get started on Spring Break trips. For Missions Emphasis Week, we were able to invite Ted & Bev Skiles, from the Home of God's Love in Taiwan, to be our guests for the week. This is a great opportunity for the students to hear as we did over 23 years ago! That was the last time Ted spoke at Central!

Dezi has been busy teaching Chinese and running the Harvest House. She has help this year from Tabitha Palmer, a graduating senior who has been a big help. They have been busy selling coffee, cookies, frappes, t-shirts, hats, water bottles, hoodies and other new things. With these funds we are able to have a missions program, send students on mission trips and provide help for students in need throughout the year. Many people simply donate directly in order to help Harvesters in their ministries. Harvesters is a student driven organization that exists to promote missions among the students. We are the faculty advisors and find many recruits for East Asia among the members.

All is well with the family and we feel adjusted with having a new toddler in the house. Raena is now enrolled in pre-school and after only two days, she is speaking many new things in English. We primarily converse with her in Mandarin and our goal is to keep her bilingual if possible.

Keep coming back as soon we will be posting some information about our latest recruits who are in China!