John is from Ontario and Joyce is from Alberta. They each trusted Christ as their Saviour while young.
The Lord continued His work in each of their lives to direct them into missions.
For Joyce her parents were missionaries in Mali, West Africa and returned back to Alberta when she was a baby. Missions came to the forefront through her parents, missionaries visiting their home, and then solidified while attending Bible school. After graduating from Ethnos Canada’s missionary training program, Joyce settled into a support role at Ethnos Canada’s home office in Durham, Ontario.
In John’s case, his parents were challenged later in life into mission work. They served in the Philippines doing grounds and building maintenance at an NTM Aviation flight base. Little did John know how moving to the Philippines at the age of 14 would direct the course of his life. By rubbing shoulders with the aviation team and watching the planes, God began to give him a desire to serve missionaries as a pilot/mechanic. That was the road that he followed after returning back to Canada after high school. After further training with Ethnos, he headed over to Papua New Guinea in 1994 to join the aviation team there.
While on home assignment, John met Joyce and they married in the summer of 1999. Their daughter, Jaycee, was born in 2001 and Jared, their son, in 2003.
With gratitude and joy they have served a number of missionary teams from beginning to end: survey and move in flights, seeing a New Testament translated into the local language, to moving out flights many years later after a thriving church is established.
Psalm 65:8 says, “Those that live at the ends of the earth stand in awe of His wonders” NLT.