Our Story

Stan-

I was born and raised on a farm in a Mennonite community in Wisconsin.  After teaching at a small church school in Indiana, I moved to Pennsylvania and worked at a dairy equipment dealer for several years before moving on into the construction field.  I owned and operated my own business from 1993 to 2009 when I felt called into prison ministry at We Care Program in southern Alabama. Under We Care Program I served 4 years as Volunteer Chaplain at Century Correctional Institution before moving into administration.

Ruth-

I was born in Iowa but raised in southern Missouri in a small Mennonite community. I developed my talent of baking in our family bakery.  I taught the following year at the same school Stan taught.  This is actually where we met.  We married December of 1994 and set up housekeeping in southern Pennsylvania.  Austin was born in early 2000 and Denver in late 2001.  I home-schooled our boys through their graduation.

In October 2016 our family took a mission trip to Puebla, Mexico to visit a former employee turned evangelist, church planter and founder of La Roca Missions.  It was while visiting him and his family that we learned about the La Roca churches and children’s home in Peru.  After returning home we couldn’t get Peru out of our minds.  This was a strange experience for us because we had not yet visited Peru.  After seeking God’s will for several months and receiving confirmation through the Holy Spirit, through scripture, through other believers and through circumstances we moved to the jungles of Peru in the Iquitos area November of 2017 to help at an orphanage.  My main goal was to help the children’s home become self-sustaining by restarting a once functioning broiler chicken project. Ruth’s primary focus was to finish homeschooling the boys and help out where she could in the children’s home.  After 14 months of working and the chicken project showing a profit, it was abruptly shut down.  Our family, especially Ruth and I were struggling with the language.  We had not taken any language school as of yet and there was not time to study the language at the children’s home.  Since the chicken project was closed, on January 24, 2019 we moved to Arequipa, Peru to learn Spanish at a school recommended to us by other missionaries. During the 9 months we were in Arequipa, the doors of opportunity of going back to the jungle and work at the children’s home slowly closed.  In the meantime, we were asked to stay in Arequipa and help with the Christians in Action mission work here.  We look forward to what God will do through us during our 2 year commitment here in Arequipa.

Austin turned 18 and returned to the states in 2018.  He is living with my parents and works at a mechanic shop.  He enjoys rural farm life and still has interest in our work here.

Denver is living with us here and plans to remain with us for the next year. He has interest in mission aviation.  We’ll see how God moves in his life.