Who are we?
Here is where you can find information about where we grew up, what we have done in life etc. Since we have led very different lives prior to our paths intersecting, we have split up the details so you can match names with things. If you want to know about Paul see directly below, or you can select Becky to learn more about her. For more information on what we are doing now visit here, or if you already know that then find out the latest developments by visiting news.
Paul
I was born in Perth, Western Australia (WA) in 1969. I am biased I know, but I simply have to say that Perth is the most beautiful city I have seen - possibly the most beautiful city on the planet. After some baby and toddler years on our family farm in Bunjil in the "wheat-belt" of WA, we went to New Zealand for a year and then finally settled in the hills of Perth. By this time my younger brother Ian had come along.
So the reality is that I am a city kid - I still can't really take Country and Western music seriously. Of course, that hasn't stopped me publically performing "Stand by your man" more than once. That said, the hills of Perth have a kind of semi-rural feel to them and hence create the impression that the city is a long way away - a distant memory. You get beautiful views of Perth (named "The City of Lights" by John Glenn the NASA astronaut during his space mission fly-over 30 years ago) from the enscarpment of the Darling Range at night. I lived there from 1975 until in 1995 when I moved out of home and down into the suburbs with a friend. Several moves ensued over the next few years.
Prior to that I had studied Computer Science at Curtin University of Technology and graduated in 1990 with 1st class Honours. After being at Maptek for 6 years I left and started Virtual Genius Pty Ltd - working as a computer consultant on various projects. This included working for some time at the Government Employees Superannuation Board (GESB) in their PC support and development team.
I became a Christian as a boy when I realised that I couldn't make myself right with God - I needed Jesus of Nazareth to do that. My life has been an journey of discovery as I have grown in my relationship with God and learned to enjoy Him more and more. It is my conviction that Jesus Christ is essential for life - both now and in the future. I want everyone to have the opportunity to hear about Him and decide for themselves.
In January 1999 I went on a trip with Destination Summit to Papua New Guinea to learn about New Tribes Mission and their work among tribal groups. You can see some of my photos from this trip here. My time with New Tribes Mission in PNG really challenged me to get involved, so I enrolled at New Tribes Bible Institute (NTBI) in Jackson, Michigan. After travelling around Australia (you can see some great photos here from that trip), I sold up everything and Qantas'd (great airline!) my way over to the USA.
I arrived in Jackson in August 1999, moved into a dormitory and started the Bible course. I also started working with the PC's in the NTBI office and developing the NTBI website. You can see some of my handiwork to the left. Living in a dormitory certainly took a bit of getting used to. Becky and I met soon after I arrived and started getting to know each other.
When I arrived in Jackson in August last year I had jet lag so bad I didn't sleep at all for over a week. I was a wreck. It is ironic that it was under those circumstances that I met Beck for the first time. Talk about first impressions(!) She was doing her laundry in the NTBI laundry room. I thought that she was really attractive and I remember enjoying talking to her. She very kind and understanding, so I knew she was someone I wanted to get to know better. I had been hanging out often with Paul and Deedee Syson and their kids, and Becky (being Deedee's sister) was there a lot as well. Becky & I started running together. We talked a lot, so I got to know her pretty well. After a while I knew that this was starting to be more than just a friendship for me. However, I was committed to developing the friendship and not letting my heart get ahead of my head. I was spending a lot of time praying and struggling with my feelings. One day we got back from Ann Arbor and I told her how I felt. And, much to my surprise, she was feeling the same. That was when things got really interesting. After hanging out a lot and being her running partner for a while it didn't take us long to realise that we were really on to something good together. We got engaged soon after (Jan 16th) and were married on the 1st of July 2000.
I continued studying at NTBI and completed my Junior (3rd) semester in December 2000. Following that I worked fulltime in the NTBI office until late January. You can find out more about what I am doing now here.
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I was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin while my parents were at the New Tribes
Language Institute there. At the time they had already produced two older
sisters and an older brother for me to play with, but I am now one of six.
They were NTM missionaries and by the time I was 8 months old we had moved
to the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
In Santa Cruz we lived 2 blocks from the city soccer stadium. Every year when our city played their greatest rival the crowd would riot and go running past outside - away from the police with their tear gas canisters. Santa Cruz was the cocaine capitol of the world for a short time in the early eighties. One of the Colombian cities must have that honor by now.
I went to boarding school at the NTM school at Tambo at the foot of the Andes mountains, and this is where I felt most at home. It was a six hour bus ride from Santa Cruz to Tambo, so we didn't go home for weekends. I was very shy as a child, but fortunately I made many good friends and also had my big sisters to keep me company. Children of missionaries often grow up with a 3rd culture experience, where both their parents' culture (USA) and the culture they are living in (Bolivian) are not their own. As a result, it took me a while to adjust to living back in the USA, but I look back with many fond memories on my time growing up at Tambo.
It was during my time in Bolivia as a child that I accepted Jesus as my savior. Even at age five in February 1972 I understood that I was a sinner and that things were not right between me and God. I asked Jesus to save me and He did.
During my school years my family spent 2 one-year furloughs in the USA. In 1973 when we lived in Los Angeles for a year while I attended 1st grade. We spent the summer traveling across the country to visit friends and family -even today I remember seeing streets filled with hippies. When I returned to the USA after completing high school I attended college in Oregon before moving to Jackson in 1985 and attending NTBI here. After two years of Bible college I went on to the missions institute in Baker City Oregon for a year, then completed the NTM training at Language school in Camderton, MI. By this time my parents had moved to Panama and were working with NTM there. This helped lead to the next big transition in my life.
After language school I was approached to be the Spanish language teacher for the NTM missionaries coming into Panama. This sounded like a wonderful opportunity to use my backburnered Spanish skills, so I moved to Chame in the middle of the Panamanian peninsula and after brushing up on my Spanish, started teaching it. My family was also living there for some of the time I was there, so it was an enjoyable time.
Prior to living there fulltime, I was travelling to Panama to visit my family for Christmas one year but President George Bush decided to invade Panama three days before I got there - so everyone was housebound for days. It was the first time stealth bombers were used in combat, and my family got to see one fly over. They lived just off the Panamerican highway (starts in Alaska and ends in Tierra del Fuego, passing right by Tambo along the way).
After 4 years in Panama I decided it was time to return to the USA, so I accepted a position at NTBI working as secretary to the Chairman, Bob Strauss. I have lived in my own apartment in a house outside the building during that time.
I love black coffee and have it at least once every day. One of my favourite
varieties is Panamanian Ruiz mountain grown coffee.
Paul arrived on the scene in August 1999, and has certainly made quite an impact in my life (to say the least). Near the beginning of that August, Bethany Stroud, who was filling in as the summer Admissions secretary at NTBI, looked out her office door and saw me at the counter in the main office waiting at the photocopier. She brought out an applicant's folder and was just busting to tell me about this 30-year-old Australian guy coming for the Fall semester who sounded wonderful. While I have always thought it would be nice to meet Prince Charming, I have never liked the idea of speculating about potential prospects. So when Bethany suggested that maybe this would be the guy for me I assured her that she and all the young, beautiful students could have him. This guy turned out to be Paul. One evening after Greek class Paul and I were chatting and found out that we both liked to go running. So we started running together several times a week...and then we started doing stuff together on Friday evenings...and Sunday afternoons..and pretty soon we were hanging out together a lot more. After 3 weeks apart when Paul was in Florida in January 2000 he arrived back at Detroit airport with a dozen roses, some Starbucks chocolates and a hand-written marriage proposal in an envelope. I was so excited to see him that I ignored the envelope, so it wasn't until baggage claim that I read it and said "YES!". You can see above the engagement announcement that Paul put together and put on the web on the 5th of February. We wanted to have to engagement ring to show people, so we waited until we picked up the ring on the 5th of February before officially announcing it to everyone.
In May of 2000 I transferred over into the Training Coordination Committee (TCC) as an administrative assistant and have been working in that capacity ever since. We recently moved to the other end of the building into newly renovated offices. After 5 years at NTBI I finally have an office with a window and a little sunshine! June 2001 marks my 12th anniversary as a missionary with NTM. You can find out more about what I am doing now here.
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