Both Rick and Sharon grew up in New Hampshire. Rick joined the Marine Corps at 18, and came to Christ through the ministry of the Navigators. During this time, he was trained in evangelism/discipleship and led a team of disciples on the base for several years. After the Marines, Rick received more training by The Navigators on the University of New Hampshire (UNH) campus.

Rick and Sharon met on campus, where Sharon had become a Christian and they were married a year later. Although both had a desire for missions, God had other ideas. After college, they went to the Boston area for employment and to work with The Navigators in a church discipling ministry. After moving to Georgia in 1986, they attended Parkview Church and helped start an outreach & discipleship ministry based on Evangelism Explosion principles. They continued to “test the waters” of full-time missions, but it still wasn’t God’s time.

After short term mission trips to Mexico and Cuba, Rick and Sharon gave up hoping for full time mission service in a foreign country and decided to train and equip their children to go in their place. Several years later, the Lord seems to finally be saying: “Now is the time!” With a renewed heart for missions, especially with Spanish speaking peoples, the Lord has led them, to MTW and BEAMM in El Paso/Juarez. Rick will be serving as the Community Development Coordinator and helping with the short-term teams.

Rick and Sharon have 11 children: Matt (28), Kristen (27), David (24), Sarah (23), Michael (18), Esther (16), Hannah (14), Elizabeth (12), Daniel (10), Caleb (8), Seth (5), and 9 grandchildren.