About

The Full Story

Welcome dear friend,

As I sit down and start to write this introduction into our lives, and the work that God has placed before us, I am filled with thanksgiving at the mercy and miracle that Jesus has provided. Let me start at the beginning.

The ability to bring love and healing to the people of this world through surgery has been an ultimate ambition of mine since an early age. At 14 years, it was pressed upon my heart to enter the field of medical missions; at 15, to do so in the field of surgery. I have not looked back since. It has been a long path thus far, neither straight nor easy. Challenging at times in the moment, but always a blessing in retrospect; and it has brought me right to where I am supposed to be today.

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Having grown up in a Mid-West small town my roots are founded in community, faith and self-purpose. Life was comfortable, and safe and my greatest stress was understanding calculus. From Illinois, I choose to move to Mexico for medical school. Although accepted to Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, I chose the unknown, in a way, testing myself and my ability to assimilate and survive in a new and foreign culture. I emerged not only with a medical degree and bilingualism, but with an appreciation of the ingenuity, hard-work and selflessness that is required to cross cultural borders and thrive. From Mexico, I moved to New York where a one year Preinternship at New York Medical College, turned into a Trauma Research Fellowship and finally a General Surgery Residency at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY. After finishing residency I moved to Lafayette, IN and joined the Lafayette Surgical Clinic where I have worked since 2021. A step that proved vital for the restoration required emerging from the residency environment as well as the preparation for entering the field of Global Surgery. In 2023, I pursued further exploration in to the field of Global Surgery and spent four months in Togo, West Africa at Hospital of Hope and then later two months in Honduras at Hospital Loma de Luz. Through that time God saw fit to bring Jake and I together in a way beyond anything that we could have asked or thought to hope for (Eph 3:20). We were married Dec. 9, 2023 and from there, the journey towards medical missions we took together. It has been a journey of mountains and valleys filled with God's grace and mercy, His patience and always, His Love.

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Jake ‘s journey has come a more circuitous route as he pursued a path of all things mechanical. He also grew up in a Mid-West small town working on farms, in feed mills and in machine shops. He went on to obtain a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree from Purdue University. He then spent 10 years in industry working in design and manufacturing engineering roles before Jesus called him to follow and altering the trajectory of his focus towards bolstering his church family. He served his local church, filling the roles of building maintenance, AV and IT support for several years, before then pivoting again to focus on missions and entering the field as a global worker.

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I met Jake upon my move to Indiana in 2021 and what started as friends later led to love. We became engaged after my trip to Togo. While engaged Jake was able to visit me in Balfate, Honduras in 2023. It was obvious to us that God has a plan for Hospital Loma de Luz, and a wide open door was before us. After our marriage, we prayerfully began walking towards it, asking God to always go before us. The door has remained open, and today, we are able to help, serve, and love the people of Honduras in the name of Jesus.

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We will be serving in Balfate, Honduras on the campus of the Cornerstone Foundation. We will be working through WorldVenture as our sending organization, and we are supported and sent as a missionary couple by the Apostolic Christian Church in Ellington, CT and the Apostolic Christian Church in West Lafayette, IN.

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I will serve as surgeon at Hospital Loma de Luz, using the skills that God has granted to help bring healing for the hurt in a physical world. I will further disciple as relationships with patients develop and are extended to those in the community as well.

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Jake will serve as facilities engineer. Using his skills in systems design, fabrication, and maintenance he will oversee the upkeep of essential infrastructure, ensuring that all systems run effectively and safely. In addition, he will be developing relationships with the local community through the maintenance staff and local contractors helping to further the vision of Hospital Loma de Luz.

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About the region: Balfate is a rural municipality along the Northern coast of Honduras. The main paved highway from La Ceiba to Trujillo bypasses Balfate leaving instead a gravel/dirt road through the region creating dust when it’s dry and mud when it’s rainy. Roman Catholicism was introduced by the Spanish Empire and still holds a large share of the population. Native religions including polytheistic Maya, Lencan indigenous religion, and others still exist in the rural mountain communities of the area. Currently Evangelical Christianity is beginning to see an increase.

Hospital Loma de Luz, was opened in Balfate 2003, bringing much needed medical care to this area.

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I am thankful for the journey that has brought us to this juncture. Now as we prepare to once again step out into the unknown, I am filled with excited anticipation of what lay ahead. I believe that every human being is worthy of love. That they are deserving of being looked into their eyes and recognized for the innate value they possess simply by sharing the same air we breathe. I believe they have a voice and I want to listen to their story. There is much work and learning that we have ahead of us yet, but I take comfort knowing God is sufficient beyond our own small abilities.