After serving for a year in Africa with Mission to the World, my family and I will be returning for 2-3 more years. There is a stirring inside me that wants to put as much effort and love into this ministry as God has put into saving me and my sinful desires through his unfailing grace. I therefore cannot help but be reminded of Ephesians 6:10-20, where Paul is encouraging us to "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."

I was involved in my church growing up. I attended Sunday School and competed in several Bible competitions. I committed myself to Christ at a youth camp when I was ten. Asking Jesus into my heart was a special moment in my life, as was the baptism I received the following week. I felt as though God was preparing me for a special role in His work, but I also had feelings of resentment. My parents had divorced and remarried and, even though I loved my new families, I felt like I had no true identity and wondered if I was worthy of anything.

Although my faith had been strong in my youth, my high school years were filled with rebellion. I moved to a new town my freshman year, and quickly pushed Christ to the side to "fit in" to my new environment. I made the Varsity baseball team as a freshman and quickly fell in with an older crowd. I attended a Nazarene church with my family, but my heart had become hard and I rejected Christ's love and acceptance. My days were filled with drinking and drugs, partying, girls, and disobeying my parents. At any point during this time, I could have done something that would have had long-lasting consequences, such as crashing a vehicle while intoxicated, impregnating a girlfriend, or worse. It is only by God's grace that I was shielded from anything disastrous.

I was fortunate to have earned a baseball scholarship to Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. While my first year there was still full of partying, I began to slowly assess my rebellious behavior and make changes. I began to attend church on my own, as well as truly praying to God. The process of reconciliation with God had begun. I also confronted my feelings of resentment over the divorce of my parents and began to truly appreciate what God had given me for the first time in my life. It was at this same time that I began dating my future wife, Rebe. I had known her since we attended the same Nazarene church in high school, but our relationship became serious in college. I considered myself fortunate to be dating such a beautiful woman who was also a Christian of strong faith. In our second year of college, I proposed and we married later that year. Rebe and I moved to Texas and enrolled at The University of Texas at Arlington. We got jobs together in the restaurant business and both graduated after four years in Arlington. I would say that our relationship with Christ was put on the backburner during this time. We did not find a church body to call home, and we were not involved in any other ministries. We focused on ourselves and neglected to foster a Christ-centered marriage.

Soon after graduating, Rebe became pregnant with our son, Camden. We decided to move to Austin where a friend of ours invited us to attend All Saints P.C.A. We instantly felt like that was where the Lord wanted us to be, and we became members soon after. We were attracted to the liturgical style of worship, as well as the depth and richness of the Christian culture. Though we had never previously attended a reformed church, the doctrines and theology were something we had needed our entire lives. Since then, my walk with the Lord has been renewed and strengthened on a daily basis. Each new day I have been in the Word as well as talking with God. James 1:21 says, "Therefore put away all wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." I am humbled that Christ can straighten out this twisted life and set me upright through His ultimate sacrifice, then present me blameless to the Father. It is this Grace that I want to share with the world.

This past year, my family and I have been working in a rural area of South Africa with Mission to the World. We are working with Mukhanyo Theological College, a school committed to teaching and training local pastors in southern Africa and Mukhanyo Community Development Center, which walks alongside those pastors in planting churches, specifically helping equip the pastors to minister to congregations with eighty percent unemployment, fifty percent HIV/AIDS rates, and the unique challenges associated with those statistics. We fell in love with the people of this country on a short term mission trip a few years ago. It is our desire to see this part of the world transformed through local church and community development on a scale that can be self-sustaining. Our family will be going back to South Africa to continue our calling for a 2-3 year term.

As I look at the bigger picture, I realize that my family has a call to missions. We love to see the gospel go forth, and the amazing things God can do through all forms of mission work. We love when short term mission teams go to an area expecting to bring relief to a people, and wind up being far more impacted by Jesus and his love than they ever thought possible. Missions impacts the families who choose to go overseas, as well as the culture they are serving.

I want to thank our team of supporters who have partnered with us in an effort to be a small part of the great commision.

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I grew up in a loving family of four. My parents are Ministers of Music in the Nazarene Church and for the majority of my life have spent their years ministering to, supporting and encouraging Churches around the country via Church Revivals and Summer Camp Meetings. As a child I grew up traveling the States, absorbed in ministry with my father, mother and brother. I attribute the Christian care and mentoring of my childhood to how the Lord is now preparing our family for continued work on the mission field. I value my upbringing and am thankful for the Godly love that I received as a young girl.

From my first memories as a child I remember always considering myself a Christian and part of the Family of Christ. When my brother and I approached our adolescent years, my parents decided to settle down and accepted an Associate Pastor and Music Minister position at Georgetown Church of the Nazarene. The majority of my growing up years was spent in Georgetown, Texas where I went through periods of rebellion and denial of God's Lordship in my life. I was involved in drugs and alcohol and was always aware of my deliberate push away from God, in order to search for other avenues of getting through life. Even during this stage of running from God, I felt His strong grip on my soul as one of His children.

One evening, while attending my church's youth group, I met my husband, Bryan McReynolds. I was 14 years old when I first met him and I knew that we had a special connection. My parents accepted a new church position and we decided to move after my sophomore year of high school to Oklahoma City and I started my junior year there. I was extremely rebellious and resented my parents for moving away during these already trying times as a high school student. I did not want to accept this new town or the new school that I was attending and turned into myself during this time, trying hard not to build relationships. I continued to linger away from the Lord, although the Youth Pastor at my church took an active interest in my life and teenage struggles and played an instrumental role during this time in my life.

Through a series of events, I graduated early and started college at Southern Nazarene University when I was 16 years old. This is when Bryan, my husband, returned to my life. Our relationship became serious when we began College. We went through trials but somehow we knew that God had a plan for us to be together. I was still immature in my relationship with Christ and continued seeking a life that could be lived without Him at the center. I found myself very frustrated with rules and regulations that had always been imposed upon me and felt guilt for not having the same convictions of other Christians. I speculated why I had never been encouraged to form my own convictions, but rather accept the convictions of other believers, and this led me on a continued search for a different philosophy.

Through various friendships and experiences the Lord worked in my life to draw me closer to Him. After being a part for 6 months, Bryan made a surprise proposal at the end of our sophomore year and I accepted. Deep inside my heart I believed God had a plan and a purpose for our relationship together. We married in 1998, then moved and finished our studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. Our enjoyment of these years together was mutual, although Christ was still not at the center of our lives. Looking back I see that we were stubborn hearted and still had not been broken down enough to see the real need for Him to be Lord of All.

We had our first child, Camden McReynolds, and it was not until this time that things really began to be shaken up in our marriage, family, friendships and lifestyle. We moved to Austin, Texas to be near family and in that year Jesus began to reveal to me my selfishness by literally stripping me of all vitality which led me to my knees in utter dependence on God. My experiences that God carefully led me through carried me to the point when I gave Christ the whole of myself and I understood that this commitment would change my life forever. I can vividly reflect on how God is transforming my mind and self from the inside out since I gave everything to my Heavenly Father. I have since had a joy inside me that never ceases.

I have had a call to the ministry since I was 15 years old. I went on a number of mission trips with my Youth Group and mark those as highlights in my spiritual walk. Bryan has known of my calling since I was young and when we married it grew into a unified calling that we were uncertain of what to do with. Soon after we had moved to Austin, close friends of ours invited us to All Saints Presbyterian Church in America and we fell in love with the people, style of worship, preaching, liturgy, missions vision and joined the PCA soon after. Personally, I found great joy and pleasure in the church's transforming emphasis on God's Grace. The immeasurable Grace of God is what brought me to His feet and allowed me to see His unconditional love and my persistent rebellious heart. The truth of Grace that we actively participate in and receive from God is a renewing affirmation that Christ must become more and I must become less. This is what my soul had been searching for all along in my journey.

In 2004, Bryan and I had the fortunate opportunity to go on a mission trip to South Africa with a group from our church. On this trip God made it very clear that He had been shutting many doors and business opportunities back home in the States and was now opening a door to missions in Africa. The calling was pressing in on our hearts and we began to share with our mission's leader what God was doing in us. From here, God began to make our path crystal clear and after much discussion, prayer and mentorship from our Pastor and others our calling was affirmed. Next, we made application with Mission to the World, the PCA's missions sending agency, and we were accepted as Intern Missionaries. We served a 1-year Internship in a rural black community in KwaMhlanga, South Africa during 2006. Our involvement was with Mukhanyo Theological College and Mukhanyo Community Development Center. We served in many areas including the mentoring of Pastors in Training, Local Church Support and Community Development focusing on orphans and vulnerable children, people living in poverty and people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. God has extended our calling and we will continue serving in this area, partnered with MTW, for a 2-3 year term.

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