Here is some of their story:

... within a few years all of the business entities had been sold and we as a family were leaving our country to spend five months with Youth With a Mission, completing a Crossroads Discipleship Training School in Kona Hawaii (University of the Nations), the latter two months would be on outreach in Philippines and Indonesia.

At this time our children were 16, 13 and 10 years of age, and really we had no idea what was unfolding ahead of us. God had miraculously provided the initial funding for this Crossroads DTS but we really had no idea what the future held following this time. We did have our own home (freehold) as well as the Trust Rental Property at Torbay but the Kiwi Dollar was quite low at that time ($NZ 0.7500 against the US) and once our rent arrived each month it did not provide anywhere near enough to live on.

This Crossroads Discipleship Training School was a totally incredible experience for our family and following the outreach phase we returned to Kona and immediately we stepped on to the Campus at the University of the Nations, we were ushered into an office and asked to pray about staying on Staff with the University. At the same time we were advised that there was no housing available on the Campus and we would have to find our own housing in the Kona community. This “staff” position was completely volunteer work and the only money we had, was from NZ and the dollar had already dropped several points at that time. We had no other means of financial support and had no idea how to go about raising any. Our church did not support us at that time (but would later on for a season) but we felt before God that we were to press on and trust God for housing and “our daily bread” so we offered ourselves.

Within three days we saw God begin to move on our behalf and housing opened up in a condo next door to the University. Our NZ rentals would just cover the rent and we could eat at the Campus so provided the food was OK for the family we could survive it seemed. We set off on a financial (and spiritual) roller coaster for the next period of our lives that was very exciting, scary, humbling (and humiliating) at times.

Almost six years on, and we are still serving God from here. We have seen Gods incredible provision for our family. We set up the Trust Mortgage in such a way that we paid ‘interest only’ to maximise the amount of funding sent across to the US each month. The first 18 months, we moved house every three months and had a child in our bedroom for that whole period. We could not afford a home with three bedrooms. This state is the most expensive to live in the United States. This Campus is not here because of the sun or the beaches. It is here because God said that it was to be here, strategically established to send young and old out in to the Pacific and Asia (and other nations) to disciple Nations as God commanded in Mathew 28 “Go and make disciples of all nations…” We have seen the NZ dollar drop to an all-time low. But have never missed a rent payment in the time we have been here. How I never know. At times we have been in debt (with bills still to pay) and someone has walked up to me and said God has seen your tenacity and he is going to bless you financially and the next day a fax arrives to say someone deposited $2,500 in our NZ account paying all the bills and that months rent. We have flown all over Gods earth taking teams for this University to people who have never heard the Gospel.

We have been in debt $10,000 and a man walked in to my office and said you cannot run your ministry with that hanging over you and the debt was cleared. We have been flown to San Francisco, Texas and Colorado (different times) to have a vacation when we were ready to pullout and go home because we had no money and were exhausted, yet our incredibly faithful God continues to meet our every need. We don’t understand His timing on all these things, but maybe one day we will.

So what do we do today from a function perspective? Alison works in the Healthcare College training Primary Healthcare workers to go to the third world and teach the basic healthcare principles that we as New Zealanders take for granted. She has led teams in the Philippines and Honduras following the tragedy of Hurricane Mitch. Presently Alison is working at home in her primary role as Mum to our three children and as my wife. I am the Director responsible for Operations and Campus Development. My responsibility oversees 18 different departments responsible for the day to day Operations of the Campus, such as Food services (10,000 meals per week) Computer Services, Grounds and Building Maintenance, Transportation, Construction and Campus Development and Master Planning etc, etc. I am also a member of the Kona Leadership Team. I do spend time in other Nations however my primary call is here on this Campus, to equip those to go out and reach His Nations positively from a Biblical Worldview, in all seven spheres of influence: the Arts, Church, Communication, (Family) Counselling and Healthcare, Education, Humanities and International Studies, and Science and Technology.

We continue to live by faith and God continues to touch people’s hearts to become a part of our “home” team, both prayerfully and from a practical financial perspective. We even have non-Christians who financially support us. God is sure creative.

By receiving the interest free mortgage our monthly payments have actually increased but we are believing that it is time to reduce this indebtedness and in a short few years we will be debt free. This will mean the benefits to our family can increase and further our work.

From a personal perspective I have watched the Liberty Trust work for the last few years with a great degree of appreciation for the way in which the Trustees have responded to their mission field. Many have been blessed and many more will continue to do so in the years to come. I believe in the principle of the Storehouse and would like to see it work in other ways.