WHO WE ARE

Elliot’s Testimony

My sisters and I were raised by Christian parents who showed us that serving God and going to church was important to them. With having rules in the home, I quickly learned what my parents wanted me to do and to not do. When I did something right, I knew that it pleased them. Even to the extent of when my two older sisters came up to me and told me I should tell my dad that I want Jesus to come into my heart, I went and did just that, since I knew it would please my parents. I thought I was saved. But I realized that I could not always please my parents and bring them joy, especially when they decided to get divorced. I could not fix the situation, and I became confused in all the chaos of my parents’ divorce. I realized that I was truly lost and far from God. At the age of 13, I no longer wanted to live a life of a false testimony, where I pleased self or found satisfaction in the feeling of pleasing my parents, but I desired to follow and trust King Jesus. God continued to work in me and show me to have a love for the nations. He provided church families that I have been a part of that love on missionaries and love to see others come to know Jesus. Through that I knew that God was calling me to be sent to the nations. But I was not sure how I would get there since I did not have a calling to be a pastor. While in college, I was shown that God can use your gifts wherever in the world that you are, which includes the career that God led me to. Civil engineering is needed anywhere and everywhere that a city or civilization is located. God opened my eyes to using my engineering career as a door into a country, where I could serve in a church plant and build up the local church. Until God opened that door, I knew that I had to be serving Him and growing closer to Him each and everyday.

Bethany’s Testimony

Growing up as a missionary kid, I was able to see the sacrifice my parents, Jon and Pam Konnerup, made each day, and the importance of telling others about Jesus. I was saved when I was six years old. I remember one night going to my mom and telling her I wanted to ask Jesus to forgive me of my sins, because I knew I was a sinner. My parents took me to my room and led me through a track where I asked Jesus to become my Savior. There was a change in my life from this where I no longer felt like I had to obey because that is what was expected, but now I wanted to obey God and my parents because of what He did for me.  Because of being exposed to so many different missionaries and countries while growing up, I always assumed I would one day become a missionary. But as a kid I only knew or thought of the "fun" aspects of this life and the adventure like traveling, eating weird food, hanging out with missionaries, and sometimes saw it as a vacation. However, when I was a teenager, God worked in my life to show me the importance of telling others about Jesus and how so many places around the world have never heard the gospel. That was when I fully surrendered to God's will for my life, willing to go or stay wherever He would lead. In college, I chose to go to nursing school because I knew this was a potential career and skill set that could be used overseas if God were to lead in that direction. When I met my husband, we both were interested and hopeful to one day go to the mission field and both chose careers that could easily be used in other countries as well. Even though this was something I felt God leading me while growing up I know, it is more than just an adventure of traveling and seeing other cultures. I continue to remember the verse where Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him. I know that the life of a missionary will not be perfect or easy, but that it is God's will for my life and I am willing to sacrifice ease and comfort for the purpose and plan He has for me in reaching others for the gospel.