One afternoon in March 2000 Donna greeted Laurel at the door, "Let's go somewhere as missionaries." Laurel immediately responded with a definitive "Yes, let's go".
Our son Clint would be graduating from high school the next year; our teenage daughter Audrey wanted to come with us and complete high school through a homeschool program. Our oldest two daughters were married with th
eir own families.
We believe that God always gives guidance and confirmation as Christians seek to know and answer His call. That evening Laurel was reading a Christian magazine that had just arrived. It contained an article "Is God calling you to be a missionary?".
Of course, our decision that day was not entirely spontaneous. We had explored missionary opportunities in China and Haiti following Laurel's retirement from the U.S. Army in 1991; but the time was not right. Both of us had been involved in so
me form of Christian service throughout our lives. Donna was teaching at a Christian School in Alabama. Laurel had been the Program Director for an international Episcopal evangelistic ministry. He also had been a lay missionary, teaching in a Vietnamese middle school in Saigon for one year in 1971, after completing two years of military service in Viet Nam.
Over the next several months we prayerfully considered where God was calling us to serve, ultimately convinced that it would be
Guatemala. We did encounter some obstacles along the way. Most organizations are reluctant to accept couples who are over 55, especially if they have teenage children.
One morning we were asking God to guide us in finding His will. That same day we found a publication in a church we were visiting, it listed
hundreds and hundreds of Christian volunteer organizations. Through this publication we discovered the
Christian Foundation for Christian and Aging. CFCA mission statement concludes with: "Grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor, CFCA is a lay Catholic organization working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community of compassion and service."
In October 2001 we arrived in Guatemala and Laurel, Donna and Audrey began working with the CFCA Project in Guatemala City. We sorted and translated letters from the children and aging to their sponsors in the USA; helped in the distribution of benefits at the various sub-projects in the city and villages throughout the region; and Laurel taught English (EFL) at a catholic seminary that prepared Guatemalan priests to serve as missionaries on four continents. His students were those selected to serve in English speaking Kenya, Africa . 
