December 15, 2008

My Testimony

    Let me start at the beginning.   I am the eldest of three girls.   My dad was a wrestling coach; a man with the gift of helps.   My mom was a homemaker and had Good News Clubs in our home.   She instilled in me a love of teaching.   It was from her that I first learned how to be a teacher.   Dad and Mom taught the three of us to have faith in Jesus.   
     I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior as a child in a Good News Club in Boulder, Colorado. It was good that I came to Jesus at an early age.   My personality was so strong that if I had come to Him later in life, it might have been too late.   I am so thankful that God got a hold of me when I was still young.   I will always be grateful for that.  
   When Mom started having Good News Clubs in our home, she slowly began helping me learn how to teach.   I first taught the songs.   Then the Bible verse.   Then the missionary story.  One step at a time.   I then began helping at our church with the summer Bible clubs and other outreaches into the neighborhoods. I even began teaching at Vacation Bible School.   I began to see that I loved teaching and being with kids.   
   When I was 15 years old, after saving my money for three years, I flew to Germany and spent 9 weeks with a missionary family.   It was a wonderful time for me.   I saw Europe, learned how to speak German, learned how to hang clothes on a clothesline, washed a lot of dishes, and saw missions first hand.   It was an important time for me.  I began wondering what God wanted me to do with my life.    
   After high school our family moved to Bloomington, Indiana.   I went to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.   I majored in elementary education with a minor in early childhood.   I also participated in cross country and track.   I ran all of the long distance races: the 3000m, 5000m, and the 10,000m.   But, my love was cross country.   I loved running through the woods, jumping over ditches, getting muddy, smelling the dirt, and just being with the other gals on the team.   Being on those teams was important for me.   It taught me about working together to accomplish a common goal.   
   During college I was a summer missionary with Child Evangelism Fellowship.   One summer I taught 5-Day classes in Colorado and another summer I taught on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.   It was during the summer in Cyprus when I realized that God wanted me to work on the mission field. God wanted me to teach the children of the world about Him.   
   While I was in Cyprus a missionary family, the Clevelands, visited my parents at their home in Indiana.   The wife, Helen, asked my mother, "Do you think Valerie would be interested in coming to the Philippines to homeschool our children?"   Mom said she would mention it to me.   Well, to make a long story short, after one year of teaching kindergarten in Indiana, I flew to the Philippines in September of 1988 to homeschool missionary kids.  
   I have now been in the Philippines from 1988 to 2008.   It has been a twenty-year journey that has changed my life.   I am not the same Valerie that left Indianapolis in 1988.   I am a new Valerie; a woman who is no longer completely in control and in charge of her life.   I am a woman who has learned to let God have complete control.  I am a woman who understands that God knows the way that I take each day.   That one small bit of information has helped me through each minute of each day.   
   Now, I will try to take you through what I can remember of the past twenty years.  I will try to share with you as many amazing stories as I can.   I will try to share with you what God has done to mold me into the woman that I am today.   I hope you will enjoy walking with me -- the way that I take.   

Until we meet again .....