Neil
and Carol Anderson started their journey in Spokane Washington,
in the U.S. They met at a church youth group and started dating.
They both shared an interest in missions. One summer when Carol
was working on staff at a summer youth camp, Neil proposed to Carol
right in front of the jounior high girls that Carol was mentoring.
Carol blushed and excepted his proposal, and the girls giggled with
glee. They got married at Fourth Memorial (the church they were
attending) in December of 1965. Shortly thereafter, Carol became
pregnant with their daughter Heather. Carol's pregnancy was not
an easy one, but Heather
was born and the young couple were parents for the first time.
After
finishing his degree at Eastern Washington University, Neil decided
to attend Seminary in Oregon. But not long into Seminary he decided
to take a differnt direction, and apply directly to a mission organization
called Wycliffe. At this time Carol was pregnant again, this time
with their son Daniel. They were invited to attend a summer course
in linguistics. Daniel was born only two weeks before the course
was to begin. They packed up their belongings and moved to Seattle
to attend the course. Shortly after the the summer course, they
traveled to Mexico to attend Jungle Camp training.
The
training in Mexico was challenging but rewarding, and returning
back to the States took even more faith. Their vehicle broke down
and they barely made it to the airport, but they made it back to
Spokane in one piece. The following summer, Neil and Carol attended
another linguistics course. Nearing the end of the course they had
to decide on which country to go and be missionaries to. They felt
perhaps God was leading them to go to Papua New Guinea, so they
informed their home church of the decision and began to raise support.
Many from their church supported them and sent them off to serve
as Bible Translators in New Guinea.
Ariving
in New Guinea, they spent their first few nights in Lae (small city
on the eastern coast). Relaxing under the Palm trees at the Lae
guest house, Carol over heard two missionary women sharing their
struggles.
Next
Page
