Owen

Beginnings

Our story is like so many others, yet offers unique insight into God-working-in-history to bring about a kind of “fullness of time”.

I (Todd) was born in Rockford, Illinois, about three months after Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. Rather than being born with a silver spoon in my mouth, my folks dressed me in blue-collared shirts. Dad did all sorts of things during his life: he built some of the hammers and rock picks that Armstrong used on the moon, built off-road tires, made TV cabinets (when they still were made with wooden cabinets and sat on the living room floor, looking like a table with a big eye underneath). The year Garfield debuted in newspapers around the country (1978) we moved to a small town in southeast Kansas, just across the state line from Joplin, Missouri, a college town with a few schools, most notably for our story, Ozark Christian College (OCC).

While Garfield was making new friends, so was I. I met another 4^th grader named Todd, who invited me to church. Southside Christian Church was where I met Jesus and where I was nurtured into a love for Jesus, a commitment to discipleship, and a desire to serve God with my whole heart. The preacher who baptized me had a sister named Eunice, who happened to work for Pioneer Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea.

Meanwhile… in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, exactly a month before Apollo 13 returned to Earth after a touch-and-go 6 days in space (1970), a young preacher and his wife welcomed their fifth child, a girl, into the world. Ken and Sharon Reed had always prayed for and encouraged their kids to serve the Lord in everything and hoped to have some of their children serve the Lord on the mission field. Ken filled a special niche that many men are incapable of: he managed a 1,000 acre farm while preaching in new or small churches, helping establish or strengthen several churches. Their youngest daughter, Angela, decided after high school to attend Ozark.

The year that Mathias Rust flew his Cessna into Red Square in Moscow (1987), I graduated from high school hoping to become a scientist and beginning studies at the University of Kansas. During that year the Lord brought me to the realization that He would much rather use me in ministry than working in a lab. So, the next year I transferred to OCC to learn to preach.

Angela graduated from high school the following year and we both ended up beginning our studies at OCC the same semester.

Dreams

Angela’s dream began when she was about ten years old: “I knew then that I wanted to be a wife, mother, and a missionary.” She began to pray and seek. During her teen years she participated in several missions trips (to the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Thailand) and went to OCC with a mind to be a missionary—whether that meant alone or as a married woman.

My dream was birthed in those formative years in Bible college and I prayed for two years that God would provide me with a wife who desired to serve as a missionary. It would take a few years and changes of direction, but in August 1991, I helped Angela begin to fulfill her dream for life, by becoming her husband. As Angela has oft said since, “The Lord promises that if you follow Him, He will grant you the desires of your heart.” I have reflected over the years, especially in times of doubt, that the Lord answered Angela’s prayer for a missionary husband with me. (So buck up camper! God put you here for a reason!!)

Having considered many options, the way seemed to clarify one semester when the registrar told me that I couldn’t take a sixth semester of New Testament Greek, but I had to take a course I’d never heard of before: phonetics. The teacher was a furloughing missionary who was teaching at OCC for a semester, who just happened to be a Bible translator with Pioneer Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea. (Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of them before…)

My introduction to the discipline of Phonetics set the direction of the rest of our lives.

On The Way

In 1991 Angela Reed became Angela Owen (getting her MRS. degree) and in 1992 Angela Owen became Angela Owen, A.D.N (Associate Degree, Nursing). 1993 Todd became Todd Owen, B.Th. (Bachelor of Theology, Missions).

The summer of 1993 found us on the road traveling to church camps, VBS’s, generally getting the word out that we were preparing to leave for the South Pacific, and moving our few belongings to Duncanville, Texas to begin our studies in linguistics and translation at the University of Texas at Arlington.

After a few years of grad school and a year and a half of putting together a support structure (financial supporters, prayer partners, forwarding agents, finishing training requirements) we finally were able to pack a few bags, a few kids, and make our way to Papua New Guinea.

On The Field

We arrived in Madang, Papua New Guinea in February, 1997, spending our first four months attending Pacific Orientation Course—no this wasn’t to orient us to reef fish, great white sharks and salt water—it was to introduce us to Melanesian culture (the over-arching culture of the group of islands made up of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and the New Hebrides), the trade language (Melanesian Pidgin), and how to live and work in a jungle/village setting.

Though we had originally been interested in working with a certain group of people who inhabit a very swampy area in the Lower Ramu River area, we soon realized that we wouldn’t do very well in that environment. So…

Our directors suggested an alternative: The Somau Garia people, whose villages lie anywhere from 1000 feet elevation to 3000 feet elevation in the foothills of the Finisterre Mountains. We could get there by road (rather than by plane or helicopter or boat or any combination thereof), the people had already started a literacy program, and a translation program had begun there, though the original missionaries changed direction and moved back to the U.S. We were not of a mind to argue with our directors and after an initial visit and village stay, we decided to work with these people.

Since making that decision, we have had three daughters (yes, that makes 2 boys and 3 girls), two furloughs, numerous health problems, disappointments, sorrows, victories and joys. We’ve learned two languages, built a permanent house, trained translators, and have begun translating the Gospel of Mark.

Lessons Learned

• God’s promises can be trusted.
• Our knowledge, skills, strengths, and resolve are not capable of transforming a people for Christ—any good accomplished is solely through God.
• God sustains us, especially during the darkest hours of our lives.
• Learning an unwritten language, totally unrelated to anything I’ve ever studied, is possible.
• The mission endeavor is as much for our benefit as it is for those to whom we go.

Birthdays:

• Todd - October 12
• Angela - March 17
• Andrew - January 20
• Samuel - August 23
• Abigail - December 16
• Hannah - October 16
• Josie - January 23

Wedding Anniversary:

• August 17