Kovach

I, Kurt, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in a Christian home.  I realized my call to missionary service the year 2000 while I was working as an Air Conditioning engineer.  I had taken a course called ‘Perspectives in the World Christian Movement.’  Through this course, God revealed that He has blessed me with His gracious gifts so that I, in turn, can be a blessing to the nations (Gen. 12:1-3).  He wants to use me to share Jesus to an unreached people group. 

I went on a two-month OMF Serve Asia to Bangkok.  I taught English and shared my faith.  It was there that I felt a conviction to pursue theological studies.  I also paid a one-month visit to China teaching English.  I stopped by Cambodia for a week before returning home.  After talking to many missionaries, I was able to compare Cambodia with other mission fields I had visited (Ethiopia, Mexico, etc.).  And that was how I got a heart for the Cambodian people. 

I went back to the United States with the intention to enroll in a seminary near home, continue my ministry in the inner city, prepare for missions and eventually return to Cambodia.  At a conference, however, I met a seminary lecturer from Singapore.  He challenged me to consider going to Bible school in Singapore to immerse myself in Asian cultures, learn Asian theology and prepare for missionary service in Asia.  I prayed about his suggestion and discussed it with my parents and church leaders. 

I could see Jesus was preparing me for Singapore.  He fit all the pieces together at the right time and even made leaving my job easy.  I moved onto the Singapore Bible College (SBC) campus where I lived among students from 20 nations and completed an MA in Intercultural Studies.  The Lord has been faithful to take care of me through transitions in location, food, weather and culture.  I was also concerned about how God was going to provide for me a wife that would be my ministry partner.  Yet, the Lord remained faithful as He promised.  “And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:20).”

I, Sally, grew up in Singapore in a Buddhist-Taoist family.  I became a Christian when I was in secondary school and my call to the mission field was sparked after I signed up for a missions education and exposure training program with the Varsity Christian Fellowship while in Teachers’ College in 1993.  The following year I embarked on my first mission trip to a tribal village in the Philippines for one month.  My team leaders then were a veteran missionary couple with New Tribes Mission.  Following the trip, I was discipled by this couple while they served in Singapore for 3 years.  They not only shared God’s Word with me but also shared their very lives.

For me, the missionary call was a journey.  Even as I studied to become a teacher, I was growing spiritually and felt more and more burdened about the destiny of the heathen and the evangelization of the lost.  Then began a struggle to trust God for His provision of my needs.  “Should I give up my stable teaching career to go to an unknown place?”  The fear of inadequate provision was real.  In God’s perfect timing, a missionary with four children gave me a plaque that read “God is able” and encouraged me when she shared, “We have never lacked adequate provision during our years on the mission field.”  What an undeniable testimony of God’s faithfulness!

Two of my little steps of faith then were to complete my teaching bond and pursue fulltime Bible education at SBC where I met Kurt.  Up till then I had wrestled with issues of which field to serve on, which mission agency to go with and whether God was calling me to serve Him as a single.

This journey of faith will continue.  Even as I prepared to come to Cambodia with my husband, there were many uncertainties.  Yet God continued encouraging me to trust in Him and not be anxious, for He will take care of us (Prov. 3:5-6; Phil. 4:4-8).  He has called us and will always supply our needs.  For He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it (Phil. 1:6).

Since we met in 2002 and got married in May 2004, we have had the opportunity to minister together in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, India, the United States and Cambodia.  The Lord has confirmed His missionary call on our lives.  While serving with another mission agency we spent 30 days in Cambodia and traveled to Siem Reap, Preah Vihear, Kratie, Phnom Penh, and Ratanikiri.  We visited some New Tribes missionaries whom the Lord used to influence our present vision in Cambodia.

Our son Nathanael (gift from God) Xuanguang (light bearer) joined our team on August 11, 2006.

Blessed to be a blessing,

Kurt, Sally and Nathanael Kovach