Our Family

The Lord blessed us with four children, all born on the field. Corinne home-schooled the first two until furlough. While we were away, our boarding school for missionary children was established in the highlands. At that time mission policy was that it was obligatory to send the children to the school. So the three oldest went into dormitories, with three short vacations per year. Duane had a year at home before he also went away to school. Our children had some bad experiences but for the most part they have good memories of their time there. They benefited from being in a Christian school with their peers and this also freed us some for our ministries. All four of our children know the Lord and are married to Christian spouses.

Judy, our oldest, is married to Jim Burdett and serves with him in church planting with NTM in the Dom tribe in the Papua New Guinea highlands. Their Email address is: jim_burdett@ntm.org. Jim is looking to complete translation of the New Testament in the Dom language and is preparing Bible lessons for the two growing Dom churches. Judy is teaching literacy to a small group with their recently revised primers.

They have three boys and one girl. Their oldest boy, Ilai (Eli), is married with two children, living in rural New York State. It’s great to have great grandchildren! Finding and holding a job is difficult where they are. Jim and Judy’s second son, Brian, finished motorcycle repair school and is living and working in San Diego, California. Their third son, Darren, is in San Diego Christian College preparing to be a teacher, or a journalist. At present only their daughter, Heather, is still with them and will be graduating in 2007. At one time we had 10 of our 16 grandchildren in PNG. Soon there will be none.

Next in line is David. He and Karen live and work in Winnemucca, Nevada. They have 2 boys and 2 girls, all still in school. They are Timothy, Sarah, Jacob and Susan. David would love to be doing Bible translation on the mission field but has been hindered by various circumstances. However, he has posted on his web site the English translation of the New Testament he is doing himself. It is not copywrited so that anyone can download it, and people from many places in the world have read his work and have commented on it. Previously, he made an excellent Diatessaron, a harmony of the Gospels in the NIV.

Our third child, Joel with his wife Ruthi and family were missionaries with NTM in PNG from 1983 to 2004. For most of their years on the field Joel was the manager of our mission Publications Department at our field headquarters. He also taught the Year Book class in Numonohi Christian Academy. They had planned to return to the field after their 2004 furlough. However, one of their boys was struggling, and they needed to stay home for awhile for his sake. Others of their children would be graduating a couple years apart, necessitating their going back to get each one of them settled. It became apparent that they would have to remain in the U.S. until the children were settled and could support themselves.

It was heart-wrenching for Joel to have to return to PNG to pack up and sell everything and to see the mission print shop closed because of no one to replace him. They have settled in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, renting a house for now. We are praying with Joel and Ruthi and family that they will be able to find work with a sufficient income to support their family. He has just started an internet business to supplement his present employment.

They have six children. The oldest, Charlie, had two years of college to train in business and in being a missionary pilot before he had to drop out for lack of finances. He joined the Marines and has just finished some training in California and liked it very much. He will soon be posted to Japan or South Korea. Joshua graduated in December with his Associates Degree in Software Development. He plans to join the Marines in February 2007. Rob graduated from high school in 2006. He is going on a short term missions trip to Kenya, Africa in February 2007. Then he will train for a month and work on a cruise ship for five months. Shane is in public high school, and Heidi and Katie are doing cyber school at home. For more news and pictures see their web site: www.littlecaddie.com/Family.html

Duane, our youngest, graduated from Prairie Bible Institute in 1987. He and his wife Lori have been missionaries to Russia since 1992. They returned to Lori’s home near Vancouver, B.C., Canada in 2004 hoping to raise enough support to be able to return to Russia. Escalating living costs have closed the door to their returning for now. They are continuing to serve with the mission, Frontiers Christian Ministries, on the home end. Duane still makes consultation trips back to the field several times each year. Their two children, Janelle and Craig, are attending public school.