We both grew up in Christian homes in Kalamazoo, Michigan and for as long as we can remember loving Christ has been a central part of our lives.
Our Spiritual Life
We both have rememebered since our early youth a desire to love and serve the Lord. We are thankful to the Lord for Christian parents who brought us to church twice on Sunday and through sacrifice provided a Christian education for us.
We were both baptised as infants and attended church weekly (Barb - Second Christian Reformed Church and Chuck - Milwood Christian Reformed Church). We regularly attended Sunday School and catechism (Heidelberg Catechism) classes.
To understand infant baptism, please read the second web site below.
During high school, we both were active in church and high school outreach activities such as at witnessing at migrant camps, rescue missions, nursing homes, jail services and beach ministries. While in high school, we both professed our faith in Christ as Savior alone and gave testimony to Christ also being the Lord of our lives.
We met at high school and started dating during the end of their senior year. We continued to date for two years and were married On August 16, 1974 in Kalamazoo, MI at the Second Christian Reformed Church.
Our Family Life (When were our kids born?)
Our family grew when Isaac and Maria were born on June 8, 1978. Two years later Rachel was born on November 29, 1980 and Jenny followed on August 16, 1982. Our children have been a delight to raise and all are following the Lord. All our children were born in Kalamazoo, MI at Borgess Hospital.
Our College Life (What colleges did we go to?)
Chuck attended Kalamazoo Community College for two years and graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in 1974. He continued his college career by attending Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI and graduating in 1981 with a BS degree in business. Barb attended Calvin College for a semester, but moved back to Kalamazoo to take an additional semester of college at a community college and work in a medical office in Kalamazoo. In 1996, Chuck completed his Master's degree in "Organizational Management" from Dallas Baptist University.
Our Work Life (What did we do after college?)
While in high school and college Chuck worked for the Family Foods grocery store in Kalamazoo, which he enjoyed. He was their youngest night manager in the company. He gained experience in the grocery business as a dairy and frozen manager, produce manager, baker, and meat clerk before he eventually managed several grocery stores for the Kramer's Foodland chain in the Western Michigan area.
Our Missions Life (How did we get started with Wycliffe?)
In the early 1980s we began hearing about the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators first hand from Barb's sister and her husband, Willie & Kay Gesh and their four children who were serving with Wycliffe and its sister organization the Summer Institute Of Linguistics (SIL) in Peru.
That exposure coupled with the Micheals' involvement in the JAARS Mission At the Airport Program held at that time annually in Kalamazoo, Michigan, led us to consider service in missions.
Our Wycliffe Missions Life (Where and what have we done with Wycliffe?)
We moved to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1985 after hearing of an opportunity to operate a supply store for SIL (SIL Members' Store) at Ukarumpa for the 1000 missionaries serving with SIL in the country. Chuck's job involved providing food, household and literacy supplies for the translation and support families serving with SIL in PNG. He also spent many hours training Papua New Guineans in the area of business. In 1985 he had a staff 18 national employees and two Wycliffe missionaries working in accounting and ordering.
Barb helped raise their family and helped occasionally when the kids were younger in the store and with the SIL Clinic by helping with nearby village health clinics. During our first term Barb had hepititus once and malaria several times so most of her time was spent at home.
During our first term in PNG, we had the opportunity to be the support team for Tom and Becky Feldpausch and their two children Aaron and Isaac who were working with the Namia people in the Sepik province of PNG. This work involved talking to them weekly on the short wave radio to encourage them and to take orders for food and medicine, which were shipped out to them via the SIL planes provided by JAARS.
The Micheals went to PNG for two years, but served for 2 1/2 years. When they arrived in PNG in 1985 there were 25 New Testament translations completed in the country and about 185 total translation projects had been started.
Our First Term Finishes With Wycliffe (What did they do when we returned home?)
We returned to the USA in 1987 with a desire to return to the grocery business stateside. However, after several attempts to buy a small grocery did not work out, the desire to return to PNG continued to grow. Meanwhile Chuck returned to work in a neaby grocery store but the work was not as fufilling as before. After a short period working at this store, he quit and took a job as a salesman at a local lumber yard.
The need for support workers in PNG continued to be large and the importance of the Bible being tranaslated continued to also be large, they decided in 1989 to return to PNG with Wycliffe and serve as career missionaries.
Our Return To PNG(How did we get back to PNG?)
In preparation for returning they moved to Dallas, Texas in 1990 after raising additional support and attended Wycliffe's Management Development Orientation Course (MDOC). After attending MDOC Chuck help organize a Sino-Tibetian Linguisitc Conference for SIL in Dallas.
In 1991 the Micheals returned to PNG where Chuck served full-time as Store Director at the SIL Members' Store at Ukarumpa. Chuck stayed in that position until the end of 1999.
After the kids were more grown up, Barb worked in the Ukarumapa High School Library as Librarian. Her job involved helping all the students at Ukaraumpa get a good quality education by looking after the library.
We helped host a music group comprised of high schools students. who toured around PNG. We were also youth group leaders for three years and looked after both Isaac, Maria and Rachel's youth group. We spent two years leading a Christian discipleship group made up of young national students from the nearby Aiyura National High School. We both helped on the high school banquets and in 1996 were Host & Hostess for the banquet.
Chuck both sang in and lead several choirs and Barbershop quartets at Ukarumpa, wrote a Christmas play and occasionally preached in the Sunday services at Ukarumpa. We were also the support team for two other translation families noted below.
Johan and Janny Lotterman and their three children (Christi, Petra, Matthea) were from the Netherlands and were translators for the Tanggu people on the north coast of PNG. We talked to them weekly on the short wave radio, helped them purchase supplies and made several trips to their village to see their work firsthand.
Kazuo and Chiyoko Hashimoto and their two children (Yosuke, Kotoha) and were from Japan and were translators who worked with the Ata people on the island of West New Britain, PNG. We did not make it to their village, but also talked weekly on the shortwave radio and helped them purchase supplies. Kazuo died in 1997 while he was on furlough in Japan. His wife continued on with the translation work along with another young Japanese woman, Nozomi Kume who concentrated on literacy efforts.
During a furlough year in 1996, Chuck completed his Master's degree in "Organizational Management" from Dallas Baptist University. That degree helped Chuck, who was continuing to have a greater role in the leadership of the SIL PNG Branch. He was soon selected to head up the Job Evaluation and Wage Review Commitee which oversaw the wage and benefit package for the more than 200 Papua New Guinean employees who served with SIL in PNG. Chuck was also elected to the Executive Committee of the branch and served for six years on that committee, one term as Vice Chairman of the board.
In 1999 we began to make plans to return to the States after our youngest daughter Jenny graduated from high school in PNG. We decided to serve as missionaries with Wycliffe at the North Central regional office so we could be close to family and supporting churches.
When Chuck left the store in late 1999 he had 34 national employees and he was the only Wycliffe missionary as the other two Wycliffe postions had been nationalized. For about a half a year before they left PNG Chuck helped start a management training program at Ukarumpa and was able to help train several Papua New Guineans who were taking over many management positions at Ukarumpa. This also allowed another manager to take over the store while Chuck was still in the country.
When the Micheals left in PNG in 2000 there were 125 New Testament translations completed in the country and about 285 total translation projects had been started.
We thank the Lord for all of you who stood with us in prayer and finances while we were in PNG. It was wonderful to see 100 New Testaments completed in the 15 years we were in PNG and another 100 translation projects started.
Now, You've Read Our Story, What's Yours?
Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Is God moving you in greater service in His Kingdom? If so, we'd love to hear your story. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, please contact us at: Chuck_Micheals@wycliffe.org. We'd love to be able to share with you how you can know Christ as Savior and Lord of your life.
Here is what our family is currently doing:
Isaac completed his missionary service as a Partner Missionary with the Christian Reformed Church's World Mission program where he had been teaching for two years in a high school (Quisqueya Christian School) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He returned to the USA on June 17, 2004 and was a substitute teacher in the Holland, MI area for a short while. .
Three years ago Isaac became a high school social studies teacher at Black Forest Academy in Germany. He also became a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators as a missionary teacher for the school. The school supports missionary families who are serving in Europe and the middle east. Isaac continues to raise needed support to continue his missionary teaching role.
Josh & Maria Mishler, Ryan, Kody and Maya joined Wycliffe in 2003 and recently moved to Germany to serve with Wycliffe. Josh works as the office manager and supports the work of SIL in this area. Maria is a stay at home mom.
Before moving to Germany, Josh worked with Wycliffe's Management Development Orientation Course (MDOC) part time while they raised support. To find out more about their ministry and needs, please contact them at:
Chris & Rachel Wassenaar, Hannah and Caden moved to Grenta, NE. Chris works as a CPA in the Omaha area and Rachel is a stay at home mom. They are very active in their church where Chris serves a deacon. Their contact information is:
Kevin & Jenny Struyk - Kevin is a student at a local seminary. He also works at a local church as a pastoral assistaqnt. Jenny graduated from a Bible college in Michigan and began graduate studies in the fall of 2005 at a seminary in Florida. She finished a semester of study at the Bible Institute of South Africa which started in late January 2004. She returned to the States in June 2004. She currently works in the Florida area.
