Present Your Body a Living Sacrifice... and Watch What God Does with It
The first director of the mission retirement center, New Tribes Mission Homes, was Jack Butler. After he and Mary retired, Dan Taube became director. My wife, Nancy, and I had the privilege of working at the retirement center with the Butlers in Oviedo, Florida. When the retirement center moved from Oviedo to Sanford, Florida, we then had the privilege of working with the Taubes. Observing their heart to serve the Lord by serving our retired members was atypical and challenging! Eventually, Dan and Donna Taube decided it was time for their own retirement. With both now retired, we wondered who would fill their shoes, never thinking it would be our own feet.
In 1994, we joined the Homes staff in Sanford to start an Assisted Living Facility (ALF). My ministry was ALF Administrator and Nancy, ALF nurse. At that time, the Homes had a maintenance team, a housekeeper, kitchen staff and a driver. Along with them, we were the ALF personal care staff team. As we prayed, the Lord brought the right people along to fill staff needs in the ALF. These were not the typical ministry positions within NTM (Ethnos360). Yet God supplied, and we were grateful.
How does a missionary end up in a place like this? We, like most NTM candidates in training, had intentions to head overseas to “reach the unreached.” During our last phase of language and culture training, we were encouraged to consider a support ministry role. The Lord had engifted us to serve but not in language and translation. After we finished the training, we spent our first eight years in various [stateside] maintenance support roles. Early on, we found out that I had a serious congenital spine problem. Therefore, after eight years in a support role, this ministry role was no longer feasible.
Our desire was still to serve overseas. We began to consider a school ministry. After taking night classes for a year, I was certified as a science teacher. We chose to serve in an MK (missionary kid) school in the beautiful highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Nancy was a center nurse, and we helped in a local village on the weekends. However, back pain and headaches made it hard to concentrate and serve in the school, dorm and village. Yet, we persevered. We thought we could last four to five years and then return on home assignment to get medical help.
The Lord intervened when leadership came to us after we had been in PNG two years and encouraged us to leave to get some relief. Leaving was hard. We thought we were where the Lord wanted us. We had made friends. There were tears and sorrow in saying goodbye. It took 10 years to get here, and now we were heading home. We felt we had failed.
After surgeries and therapy, I experienced some relief. Shortly thereafter, we had a call from the NTM leadership informing us that our medical furlough time was ending. We would need to head back or resign from ministry. Since I was still in a full-body brace, it seemed the Lord was leading us to resign. This, too, was a hard time. Again, we felt we had failed.
Over the next nine months, we continued seeking the Lord’s guidance. I had started serving in a local Christian school. I was out of the brace and improving. Nancy was working in a nursing home, and the kids were in school. Then we had a call from leadership at the Home Office in Sanford. We were asked to consider coming back into ministry at the retirement center in Sanford, to start up the ALF. We did not know what this was but said we would pray and consider this. Since we had enjoyed the retirement center ministry earlier, Nancy and the kids were eager to say yes. I, on the other hand, was remembering the pain of resigning, the emotions, the feeling of failure. Could I possibly go through this again?
Yet, it seemed we should proceed. We were still challenged by 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “… You are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
As we prayed and considered the Scripture passages which had originally challenged us into an NTM ministry, we decided to accept the mission invitation. We were reinstated as members, and most of our supporters began supporting us again. We arrived at NTM Homes in Sanford in August 1994. Many of the retirees and some of the staff were still there from the Oviedo location. It was a reunion of sorts. We settled right in and began the State of Florida ALF training. Administrator certification, licensing and staffing were the first matters to set in order.
By this time, my back health had improved. Then in 2000, I was in a car accident that resulted in chronic neck pain and headaches. This added a new dimension to our lives, which I have struggled with since. But God is faithful, and we were able to press on despite daily headaches.
When Dan Taube retired in 2003, we were asked to consider taking on that role, and we accepted. (Editor’s Note: In 2019, NTM Homes was renamed The Homes of Ethnos360, following the mission’s name change.) After 26 years in retirement center leadership, it was my turn to retire in 2020. (Nancy retired in 2023.) Brian Shortmeier, whom we had met back in PNG, saw the need, prayed about it and then was willing to take on this role.
Looking back at all the twists and turns of our ministry experience (even our short trek to PNG), The Homes was a good fit for us! In every previous experience in our lives, we can see that the Lord was preparing us for the next step in our walk of faith and service.
Both Nancy and I continue to live and serve as retired volunteers at The Homes. We are involved in similar ministries here with part-time hours. The headaches continue, but God has blessed us in spite of it.
I marvel at the goodness of God. We saw the Lord encourage our retirees and their families. Each time we needed certain skills at the retirement center, the Lord brought along the right staff to help. It has been an amazing privilege to serve Him here, and we have been blessed to work with a team of leaders and staff with servant hearts. I find that no one can really fill someone else’s shoes. In my experience, I have found that the Lord supplies a team of people committed to serving Him and allows us the opportunity to serve together.
This reminds me of a song written by Sue C. Smith and Belinda Lee Smith titled, “God’s Been Good.” A chorus phrase states, “Though I’ve had my share of hard times, I wouldn’t change them if I could, ‘cause through it all God’s been good.” Amen!
How about you? Is God leading you down paths you didn’t expect? The Lord encourages us with blessings along the way. Yet, it may include unexpected twists or unwanted pain — a thorn in our flesh, as described by the Apostle Paul — all to stretch our faith and conform us to His image.
