Inspire, Spring 2005

Inspire 21 God connected the dots of my life to bring me to this place of ministry and service. At a time when many of my classmates from Cedarville are looking forward to retirement, as the Lord enables, I am looking forward to several more years of ministry to help take the gospel to the forgotten corners of America. Don and Judy live in Malvern, Pennsylvania. American Missionary Fellowship (formerly the American Sunday School Union) is a 200-year-old interdenominational, faith-based mission with more than 300 missionaries in the rural, urban, and other forgotten areas of the U.S. Find out more about AMF at www.americanmissionary.org . M y husband, Marvin, and I were married the year after we graduated from Cedarville. We moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Marv earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Nebraska. After leaving the University of Nebraska, the Lord led us to Canton, Ohio, where we lived for the next 25 years. Marv taught chemistry at Malone College for 11 years and subsequently began doing consulting work for an environmental testing laboratory. The Lord directed our steps as Marv moved from the academic world to become vice president and technical director of Wadsworth/Alert Laboratories of Canton. The owner of the lab was a Christian man, and the Lord’s hand of blessing was obvious during those years. The laboratory grew from 13 employees when Marv began work there to more than 300 employees and the acquisition of three additional laboratories by 1991. During those years, we were very active in our church. We were both involved in a variety of ministries from teaching to being a deacon to involvement with the music program. The Lord blessed us with three children, which kept me fully occupied at home. Those were good years, and we expected to live out our days in Canton. But the Lord had other plans for us, and His plans were exciting! During the late ’80s, we began to feel a certain restlessness. It was as though the Lord was nudging us from our comfort zone. We began to pray, asking the Lord if there was something else He wanted us to do. We prayed for several years, but He did not seem to indicate a change for us. Then one very ordinary winter evening in 1992, during a Wednesday prayer service, our pastor read a letter from a good friend, Helen Wing ’65, who was requesting prayer for a special need at the Fortaleza Academy in Brazil. They were in desperate need of teachers for the coming school year. At that moment the Lord spoke: “You can do this. You are both teachers. You can fill this need.” In the Lord’s time, the necessary doors opened wide. It was late February when we made the decision to go. By August we had applied and been accepted by Baptist Mid-Missions, presented our needs in 17 churches, seen our daughter graduated from Cedarville and married, seen our oldest son graduated from high school, and we and our youngest son were in Brazil ready to start the school year. During our year in Brazil we learned of EBI (Editorial Bautista Independiente) — the Spanish literature division of Baptist Mid-Mission. Located in Sebring, Florida, EBI publishes and distributes Christian literature, including Regular Baptist Press Sunday school material (translated into Spanish), to churches and missionaries throughout the Hispanic world. The Mission asked Marv and I to consider serving at EBI full-time. Again the Lord directed, making the way straight before us, and we have been here in Florida, serving with EBI for the past ten years. Marv’s business experience has served well in his position as general director and business manager. I have been able to use my background in English in the editing department, but I enjoy spending most of my time in the shipping department. We are now seeking to meet the growing need for Spanish materials in the United States. Marv often challenges people in churches to not think they are too old to serve the Lord. The Lord will use willing people. Marv and Joan are the parents of Jennifer Stephens Winsor ’92, Jason, and Nathan ’00. Jennifer is married to Craig Winsor ’92, while Nathan is married to Kristi (Zimmerman) ’02. Never Too Late to Change M a r v i n ’ 6 5 a n d J o a n C a r t e r S t e p h e n s ’ 6 5