One of the most exciting days of our lives occurred on June 25, 2008. During the last evening service of the 2008 North American Convention of the Church of God, our family was formally commissioned as missionaries to Kenya. That evening we stood before the entire assembly, including those watching via the internet, voiced our commitment to following God’s path for our family and received the blessing of the church to help build God’s kingdom in Africa. Naturally, this even did not just happen. It was the culmination of 6 year journey.
For myself, my interest in missions started when I was pursuing my undergraduate studies at Purdue University. At that time God began pricking my heart to find some role of play in His plan to reach the nations. However, it seemed clear that God was leading me into professional life as an engineer. For the next 15 years, I worked as an engineer, and supported others to go both financially and prayerfully. Likewise for Bonnie, her interest began as a young girl with her family that was always interested in missions and missionary stories.
Bonnie and I were married in 1994 and Joshua was born in 1998. Everything was going along status quo until we decided to attend a conference at Coral Ridge Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. During the conference, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me that I needed to go pend some time in prayer rather than attending the PM break out sessions. So I went to the prayer room to spend some time in prayer. It was there, by myself, that I heard an audible voice from God saying, “I want you to stand for the truth.” There was no great fanfare nor was there any detail as to what this might mean in practice. I shared this with Bonnie and my pastor. Bonnie agreed that we needed to pray and seek out what God meant. In turn, my pastor provided me with encouragement and a variety of ministry opportunities in order to help discern my calling. It soon became clear that at least one of my spiritual gifts was in the area of teaching.
Shortly after this, my company, decided that they wanted me and my department at our manufacturing in Greensburg, IN rather than in Detroit. So, we moved to Indianapolis, IN and I commuted 30 miles each day to Greensburg. Initially, we were thrilled with the move. I was raised in Indiana, it was close to my parents, and close to Bonnie’s family in Illinois. We were set to stay for a long time. However, God had other plans. In the end, we were back in Detroit one year and two weeks from the day we left. Naturally, we were somewhat confused and upset, but after some prayer it became clear why God has taken us on this whirlwind tour of Indiana. During our time in Indianapolis, we attended Meridian Church of God where we met veteran missionaries Stan and Marion Hoffman. In our conversations with them, God grabbed our heart with the need for people to come help train leaders for the vast number of churches that were springing up all over Africa. Not only did this fit with my gift for teaching, it also fit our desire to serve overseas.
After returning to Michigan, it became clear that I would need additional theological training so I began attending Michigan Theological Seminary on the west side of Detroit. I was enrolled in the Master of Divinity program (96hrs) taking one class at a time. This was all I could do while still working full time. Needless to say, my progress was frustratingly slow. This continued until early 2004 when the movie, The Passion of the Christ came out. Like so many others, I went to go see it with a friend. That night, as I was driving home, contemplating what I had experienced, I heard another audible voice. Jesus said to me, “If I gave up everything and did this for you, when will you give up everything and do this for me?” I was overcome for a while and had to pull off the road. After while, I was able to get home and discuss what happened with Bonnie. We prayed about it and decided shortly thereafter that one year later, if things went according to plan, that I would quit my job, we would sell our house, and move to Anderson, IN so that I could finish seminary more quickly at the Anderson University School of Theology. When we made our decision, Michael was about four months away.
Needless to say, things did go according to plan, and here we are. God has been faithful to meet all of our needs. He has allowed me to complete my seminary education and opened the door for us to serve Kima International School of Theology in Western Kenya. There we will be working to equip indigenous leaders to carry forth the Kingdom of God in their own cultures. That is our story. Today, we are in the process of raising the funds necessary to get to Kenya.
You can see our progress to date on the percentage gauges in the left column of this page. As you can see, we have a long way to go. Both of the these gauges must read 100% before we can depart. We are seeking people to partner with us in this ministry of training leaders to take the gospel to Africa. Would you be willing to help? There are three ways that you can participate. First, you could become a ongoing Living Link supporter. This means that your choose to partner with us for set amount on annual basis. You can give in anyway you choose: a monthly gift, a bi-annual gift, or a lump sum once a year. If you choose to be Living Link Supporter, please email Candy Power by clicking on her name. Second, you could give a one time gift. You can do this right now by clicking on the Give Link in the left column of this page. God may be calling you to give, but on a short term basis only. That is great. Third, you could support us in prayer (This applies to the first two as well.) You may not be in a position to support us financially right now, even more than the funds, we need to have our ministry lifted before God throne. If you are partnering with us in prayer, we would love to hear from you. Just send me an email at dwbaylor@sbcglobal.net and we will add you to our mailing list.
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