I just receieved this in an email.
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** COUPLE, PARENTS HEED SIMULTANEOUS CALL TO FIELDS
While praying at an altar during a Missionettes retreat, 10-year-old
Natalie Lamberth sensed a calling to full-time missionary service.
Several years later, while at a Tennessee youth convention, Natalie
and Dustin Barthalow believed they heard the same message from the
Lord: They would marry each other and serve as missionaries.
At that point the teens had known each other at their church,
Raleigh Assembly of God in Memphis, Tennessee, for a year. Both
enrolled at Central Bible College in 1996. They wed a year later.
Only one month after their ceremony, Dustin became gravely ill with
what doctors would later diagnose as leukemia.
The Barthalows had to drop out of CBC. Natalie couldn't work because
of the extensive health care that Dustin required. They moved in
with Dustin's parents, David and Debbie Barthalow, for nine months.
Friends then allowed them to stay in a vacant house rent-free for
about two years after that. Members of Raleigh AG blessed the young
couple with groceries, offerings and prayers.
Dustin went through 2 1/2 years of chemotherapy - until doctors said
his weak body couldn't take any more or it might kill him. Through
the whole ordeal, Dustin and Natalie kept the faith.
"Our parents had always taught us to trust the Lord," Dustin says.
"We knew God's will was to heal, if that meant an instant healing,
treatment or even through death."
God helped them to learn patience and perseverance. "We did not
understand why we were going through this trial or when it would be
over," Dustin says. "But we trusted Him, and eventually it was
over."
How did Dustin and Natalie's parents respond to all the suffering
Dustin endured? David and Debbie Barthalow as well as Nathan and
Barbara Lamberth accelerated their own plans to head to the mission
field.
In fact, the Lamberths ended up attending CBC at the same time as
their daughter and Dustin, who both graduated from the school after
Dustin recovered from his illness. And David and Dustin became the
first father and son commissioned together for service by Assemblies
of God World Missions.
While it's not that unusual for children to follow parents to the
missionary field, it is atypical for the parents to begin their
foreign assignment at the same time as their children.
Today, Dustin and Natalie are involved in youth and children's
outreaches in Bangladesh. David and Debbie are first-term
missionaries in Kenya. And Nathan and Barbara are itinerating for a
first term in Belize, where they will establish a children's
ministry program for the entire country.
Dustin learned about overcoming obstacles from his parents. The
youngest of three sons, Dustin had been David and Debbie's healthy
child.
Older brother Dave spent his early childhood in and out of hospitals
because of hydrocephalus, renal shutdown, heart failure,
underdeveloped lungs and various other ailments. Dave's twin died 16
hours after birth. Although Dave still has a shunt at age 31, he is
working full-time for FedEx.
The health crises served as preparation for Africa, Debbie figures.
"When a couple has been bombarded with all the trials we've gone
through and withstood all the arrows the enemy has shot at us, it
doesn't make you crack, it makes you fall to your knees," Debbie
says. "God has taken us through losing a child and almost losing our
other two, so He can take us through anything. He has been our
source all along."
David and Debbie felt missionary stirrings for years. But they had a
comfortable life. Drawing a six-figure annual combined income, David
was co-owner of a flooring business and Debbie was a schoolteacher.
Yet they felt the call of Africa. In their late 40s, David gave his
half of the business to his brother, and Debbie resigned her post.
They accepted a two-year term as missionary associates to work in
Kenya, where they returned last year as full-time missionaries.
David is in charge of building tabernacles across the country while
Debbie is working at implementing the Missionettes program
nationwide.
Nathan Lamberth owned a muffler shop and, like the Barthalows, had
been blessed financially. The Lamberths participated in many
short-term Missions Abroad Placement Service trips while being
involved in children's ministry at Raleigh AG for eight years. But
not until hearing a Sunday night sermon in 1998 did Nathan, then 40,
consider full-time missionary work.
"When God calls you - whatever your age - you need to answer the
call," he says. "It's not how I planned it. God calls some like my
daughter at an early age, even before they're able to go."
There is another challenge Lamberth had to deal with: hitting the
books again. "I never would have made it through school without my
daughter's help," he says.
Meanwhile, Dustin is not only cancer-free, but medical professionals
are shocked by his rate of recovery. Physicians warned Dustin that
the chemotherapy likely would leave him unable to have children. Yet
he and Natalie have two children - Emma, born in 2002, and Daniel,
born a year ago.
--John W. Kennedy, Today's Pentecostal Evangel