Cool Man Jack
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Impact Student Ministries

My first mental picture of Jen is of her loading Coca-Cola into the youth cabinet in the Pirmasens Chapel Kitchen. It was August 5, 1990 and we had just arrived in Germany. Jen was an intern with Malachi and working for my Dad.

Jen’s parents were both DoDD’s teachers overseas until their retirement to Roanoke, VA in 1998.  Jen was born in Japan and lived in Germany until she went to college at Toccoa Falls College in Georgia where she received a degree in counseling. She is currently working on her Masters.

My father was a chaplain in the army for 20 years, so we moved frequently growing up. I graduated from Zweibruecken American High School in 1992 and spent a few months hitch-hiking because I had no idea where I wanted to go to college. God was drawing me to himself and I decided I wanted to go to a Bible College. My grandparents wouldn't let me hitch hike to the college that I wanted to go to so I bought a bus ticket to see my uncle who teaches at Baptist Bible College and ended up really liking it. I left four years later having earned a degree in Bible with a concentration in youth ministry.

Though we only had 10 days together in August of 1990 before Jen had to go back to college we hit it off really well. We wrote each other a couple times a week that year. (I still have the letters to prove it!) We became very good friends and often liked each other but dating never entered the picture. In the summer of 1994, Jen was coming back to the states to raise support after working as a missionary for a year in Germany. I was between my sophomore and junior year in college. Jen flew into visit me one Friday afternoon. As I was driving to Ronald Reagan Airport in D.C. I remember thinking, "I am not going to like her this time." (6 months earlier I had contemplated skipping the whole dating thing and asking her to marry me) In the first 5 minutes I told Jen my plan not to like her this time. But by that time my resolve was already wavering. I am sure Jen took that declaration as a challenge. Whether or not she did, I was wrapped around her finger in another 5 minutes.

Jen went back to Germany after raising her support team and I finished my two years of college. We were married on October 13, 1996. We planned on taking some time to work in the "real world" and enjoy being married before heading into ministry.

On October 6, 1997 we were accepted as missionaries with Cadence International. Malachi is the branch that works with students. In May of 1998 we were 3 weeks from stepping on a plane to Turkey but God wanted to mold us some more. The plans fell through the day we were planning on giving notice at work. Instead of a contract we received a notice asking us not to come to Turkey. We spent a few months grieving and contemplating the future. We decided we wanted to stay with Malachi even if it meant having to be "real" missionaries and raise support. (The base in Turkey would have provided about 65% of our needed support)

On August 18th of 1999 we took off to begin deputation full time.  You can check out our travels on The Journey pages.  On February 16th, 2000 we found out that we were pregnant with our first child Adrianne.  On February 17th we landed in Okinawa to begin our ministry to Junior High Students.  We enjoyed that ministry for 3 1/2 years.  Adrianne coming into the world changed our lives quite a bit.  We thought life was tough until Jack came along in May of 2002.  We realized we had it easy all along with A.  We never even had to child proof our house with Adrianne we just told her what she could touch and what she couldn't.  Jack is another story all together.  Just this week Jen caught jack carrying a small step ladder to the front door so that he could reach up and open the door and escape to freedom!  Yikes, he keeps us on our toes for sure. 


In the summer of 2003 we were asked to lead the Senior High ministry on Kadena called Impact Student Ministries and have really been enjoying that.  Our new field director is Dave Lambert and he is pulling double duty as the Jr. High leader for Quest here on Kadena as well.  



Mailing Address
PSC 80 Box 15702
APO AP 96367
Phone number 81.98.932.0096
buddyandjen@rathmell.com
Birthdays
Buddy January 13th
Jen October 26th
Adrianne October 14th
Jack May 13th
Megan??  ??
Anniversay October 13th



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