Bill was born in Minnesota and Patty was born in Honduras. Bill and Patty met when Bill went on a Mission’s trip to Honduras in 1997, and a year later they got married. God has blessed them with 4 children, Daniel, William, Hope and Ruthmarie.
Early in 2019, God brought to our attention a ministry called In the Gap located in Oklahoma City. In May our family got invited to visit the ministry and we were able to see what they do. This visit helped confirm to us where we felt the Lord was leading us. He was moving us to Oklahoma City to join the team at ITG.
During that trip we were able to attend a training meeting for In the Gap’s summer missionary opportunity called Operation Impact. On our way home, Hope and William asked us if they could go and participate in Operation Impact for 3 weeks in June. This experience made a huge impact in their lives and in the lives of the kids they were reaching out to.
We accepted ITG’s offer to join their team and began their training program. In the Gap is a non-profit ministry that ministers to children in the public schools by teaching character classes during the school days and offering Bible clubs on the school campus after school hours.
Because of the nature of the ministry, every staff member at ITG needs to raise their financial and prayer support to be able to serve these kids and in the community.
We were able to participate in ITG’s staff retreat in August, 2019 in Osceola WI. It was a wonderful time to be encouraged and to get to know the team we are joining.
In November we had the privilege of representing ITG along with two fellow ITG staffers at the National Bible Bee in Kentucky, William had also qualified to compete at Nationals as a Senior.
ITG’s Leadership Academy disciples young people from age 16 to college age to be the primary missionaries in reaching out to children, both during school and after school through the Bible Clubs. These young missionaries are trained, discipled and encouraged to live out their faith and have the opportunity to put into practice all that they are learning.
Our son Daniel participated in ITG’s Leadership Academy at the beginning of this year, for 10 weeks. He was planning on participating in the spring session, but it had to be cancelled because of the COVID-19 crisis and the schools being closed.
We brought our first load down to OKC when we went to pick up Daniel after Leadership Academy, and we delivered our second load at the end of May . By God’s grace, we were able to permanently move to Oklahoma City on July 1st, and have been able to work with In The Gap ever since!
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