| EVER WONDERED HOW MUCH A a childhood event can affect a person?
Meet Ken and Gail Kiehlbauch.
They’ve spent a combined total of 67 years
on the mission field as a result of being
challenged by missionaries when they
were children!
Gail first considered missions at a
youth camp, while Ken was hooked after a
missionary asked his Sunday school class how
people would hear about Jesus if they didn’t
tell them.
When Ken eventually graduated from
Moody Bible Institute and a state university in
Wisconsin with a physics major, he wondered
how to use his science background in missions.
So he turned to the same missionary who
challenged him in 4th grade! A Different Type of Mission Field
“Have you ever considered teaching at
a school for missionary kids?” the missionary
asked. Ken had never thought about
missionaries even having kids... and he certainly wasn’t aware
that there was such a thing as a school for them!
But he soon found out that Faith Academy in
the Philippines needed a physics teacher. After quickly
raising support (in 1969, a single person needed only
$275 per month!) and choosing FEBC as his outside
mission agency, Ken was on his way to Manila.
Meanwhile, Gail was attending college to
prepare for a career in teaching... but God was still
tugging at her heart to consider missions. In 1976,
she traveled to Urbana, hoping to combine her
passion for teaching with serving the Lord. Here she
found out she needed to attend Bible school, which
she did at Multnomah School of the Bible. While at
Multnomah, she heard about Faith Academy’s need
for teachers, and by 1978, she was on her way to the
Philippines… where she eventually met Ken.
"We had known each other for a couple of
years when we started dating," Gail explains. "Four
months later we were engaged, and three months
after that we were married in my home state of
Colorado. That was 26 years ago!" While in the
Philippines, Gail and Ken had three daughters, who
now live in the States.
"One challenge of serving in the Philippines
was living apart from our extended families for so
many years," says Ken. "But our commitment to Faith
Academy and the missionary families we were serving
made it seem like a small gesture in view of all God
has done for us."
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