Biography, School, and Work

Christy was born in Modesto, California and grew up as a missionary kid in Ecuador. Her parents had devoted their lives to being missionaries and Christy grew up with everyone around her encouraging her to do the same. She didn't ever want to do what her parents did. She wanted to go back to the United States once her schooling was done and just live a "normal" life.

When Christy was 16 years old, she went to a church camp with other young adults and teens. While she was there, altar calls were made daily for the kids to go up and give their lives to God and to missions. On the last night, Christy sat in the very back, knowing that the push for missions would be stronger than ever. She sat back there and bowed her head and prayed and before she knew it, she was up front, giving her life to Jesus and His call to missions. To this day, her and her friends don't know how she got up to the front. None of them remember her walking across the room and none of them saw her do it. But even then, Christy still didn't think of doing missions for her whole life. She told me, "I made a deal with God that I would go on a short-term mission and then I would be done with missions altogether." Of course, God doesn't agree to the terms of our mere human deals.

Once Christy was done with high school, she started going to community college and got a degree in bilingual education. After that, Christy moved to New York to go to school at Nayak College, but didn't make many friends there. At the end of her education, Christy's grandmother had a heart attack, and she decided to move in with both of her grandparents in California to help them out. While in California, she got a job as the director of the Bilingual Education and Immersion Program. She helped Spanish-speaking kids grow their language arts skills in Spanish and English and she played a role in them reaching proficiency. She worked at that school for a year and then volunteered for another year after that.

Family and Missionary Life

Christy met her husband while she was being a director at that school. They got married after knowing each other for about eight months, dating for five months and being engaged for eight weeks. Being married to Matt convinced Christy to only be a volunteer at the school because of Matt's work hours. After being married for a year, Matt started school at Moody Bible Institute. After a few years of marriage, Matt and Christy took a team to Ecuador, where Christy saw her baby for the first time in an ultrasound. Though she had known she was pregnant for a few weeks, it was still an unforgettable experience for her.

In 2010, Christy and her family went to a week-long, 80th anniversary celebration for the missionary agency that her parents served at. While there, she heard story after story of missionaries and the work that they did and were still doing and she knew that God wanted her to be on the field. She had no idea where God wanted her to be, so she prayed to Him about where to go. He answered her and said, "Don't worry. Hold on. I have a plan in store for you." She was kind of impatient to hear God's voice and decided that her and her family would just be financial supporters of missions. She admitted that she lost a bit of faith that God would keep His promise to her and send her back out.

Around Christmas time of 2011, an opportunity arose to serve in Ecuador- the place she never thought God would call her back to. She didn't know if it was exactly right for her, so she kept praying about it. Her church had plans to support a team to go to the Philippines, but at the last minute, that fell through, which gave her the idea that she would take that same team to Ecuador. It just so happens that the mission organization in Ecuador needed a team of that same size for those same dates to serve with them. God answered the prayers of many people and worked out everything just as He had planned. God told Christy before to, "follow and obey Me until I close the door." And He kept His word and sent the group on their way to Ecuador.

There were so many things thrown in the way of Christy and Matt before they left for Ecuador. They were offered great jobs and they were given every reason to stay. It made Christy ask God if it really was what her family was supposed to be doing. But she remembered God telling her that He would close the door if that wasn't what they were supposed to do. So, her family went to Ecuador and everything worked out. Christy and Matt both got jobs in Ecuador and they did service there for 1.5 years. During that time, Christy worked under the director, where she oversaw and organized many things for the organization. While she worked there, Christy witnessed terrible leadership skills from the director and quite a lot of things that weren't morally right. Christy and her family also suffered much scrutiny and unkindness from most of the people that worked with her. She made friends with some of the temporary missionaries, but she wasn't very well liked by the people she worked with day-to-day. After a year and a half of being judged and treated unfairly, Christy's family decided to resign from their positions for that organization and they went back to the place where Christy's parents served as missionaries.

New Life Path

Last January, Christy and Matt wanted to go to a different country for a mission. They prayed that God's will would be done with it and it was. While they were considering and planning to go to a certain place in Russia, so many obstacles got in the way, including leadership problems, Matt getting very sick, earthquakes, racial purging, and a few other issues. It became overwhelming and Matt had to return to the U.S. so they he could get better and get over his sickness. They decided, as a family, that it was just not their time to be going to a different country, but to return back to the United States to settle and take some time off.

During this time, Christy and her family had a tough time getting things in order to come back to the States and decide on where to live and how it would all be worked out financially. After consideration and prayer, they decided to move to Idaho specifically for Grace Bible Church. They wanted to be around the people who supported them financially and spiritually on their journey, as well as to be surrounded by an astounding community that loved them.

Although they really didn't have a clue where they would work or live, they trusted in God's provisions. He gave Matt a great job working on the police force, where he will be starting as a depute in the next few weeks. Christy also got the opportunity to be brought on as the Director of Operations at Grace Bible Church. They received great support from people at church and it reminded them that God is so good and that He will protect them and reward their faithfulness to Him.

Missionary Advice and Lessons

Three things that Christy learned in her life as a missionary were these:

1. That God is good. Despite every valley that we go through, God is doing things for our own good because He is good.

2. God is trustworthy. We can bring everything to His feet and He will keep His promises. We can trust Him with anything in our lives.

3. God is sovereign. He has the right to do things for our good because He can. Whatever happens to me or with me, it is because He is in control and He is good.

Those three attributes of God are woven together. They are not separate of each other. What God chooses for my good is because He is trustworthy. God will provide for us and He will continue to prove that He is good and sovereign.

Some advice that Christy gave me and would give others pursuing missions is that we need to clarify and verbalize what we are expecting on and through our mission. She said that we need to visualize what the mission will look like. What is our goal? What will we be doing every day on the trip? How will we reach these people? She said that when we create certain expectations for ourselves and for the mission, we will be let down. We need to say, out loud, what we are wishing to achieve and put into action on the trip. Nobody can read our minds, so we must verbalize our expectations before the mission.

She added that we need to be prepared to look closely at who we are. We need to look at what we see in our innermost soul and be ready to face it. We must also be patient in learning a new language if we are going to a place where they speak with a different tongue. We must force ourselves to practice. When the natives see that we are putting in an effort to bridge the gap between cultures, they will appreciate it. We must humble ourselves and put ourselves out there with language. Christy said that if we wait to be fluent, we will never be as fluent as we want to. Also, when we are gathering supporters- whether financial or spiritual- we must be completely honest with them. Be honest about your goal, your position, your needs, and everything else that they need to know.

Though Christy faced major trials in her life as a missionary, she said she would do it all over again in exactly the same way. She said, "It's completely worth while." She said that we will face struggles of all sorts, but it's all worth it. We are not of this world and it will become evident in any ministry we are involved with. But we must remember that our King is not an earthly king. His ways are not our ways. His ways are not of this world and His power is more than we can imagine. He will not forsake us and He will always draw us close to Him and fulfill His good and perfect plan for our lives.