God's call on my life came early and I chose to attend Bible College right out of high school.

While there, I had the opportunity to go to Urbana, a big missions conference for college students, where I learned about overseas missions and the huge need for people to carry the Gospel to the unreached places in the world.

It lit my heart on fire and I told God that I wanted to be a part of what He was doing.

It was at Urbana that I met Ruth, a nursing student who I would end up marrying upon graduation. We joined New Tribes Mission (now called Ethnos 360) and completed their training, thinking we were headed overseas to the mission field.

But God had other plans and we stayed on with New Tribes Mission as trainers, and I eventually became the chairman of one of their Bible Colleges in Jackson, MI.

It was there we discovered she had cancer, and after a 7-year battle, she passed away, leaving me a widower with 4 children at home.

My grief was overwhelming, and I was trying to walk this painful road not just for myself, but with my kids as well.

As I leaned into the grieving process, God met me and the healing slowly began.