Kathy was born in Charleston, West Virginia in 1947. Her parents went to church off and on over the first few years of Kathy’s life and even taught Sunday school. Her Dad was a deacon in the church. By the time Kathy was 10, the family had stopped attending church. Kathy used to walk to church with the neighbors and it was there, when she was 12 years old, that she heard and understood the gospel and the Lord saved her. Kathy started reading her Bible and the Lord started teaching her that He wanted to use her life. At this time, Kathy knew nothing about Missions, she just knew that somehow she was supposed to help people.
The day after Kathy graduated from High School, she was given a one way ticket to Greenville, South Carolina to live with a cousin. Kathy’s cousin and her husband were attending a Bible School at night. Kathy started attending the same Bible School when the new term began and really started to grow more in her Christian walk. Her cousin also went to the same church that Jim attended and it was through Jim that Kathy heard about New Tribes Mission. Jim left to attend Bible School and Kathy continued to attend the one in South Carolina. Jim and Kathy wrote to each other and after much prayer, Kathy was led to attend the same NTM Bible School where Jim was studying.
When Kathy started NTM, she learned more about the mission field and began to get to know Jim better. Kathy began to pray and ask the Lord to show her, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whom she was to marry and knew from their first date that Jim was the one. It took Jim a little longer to know this, so Kathy had to wait a while. They were eventually married between Jim’s second and third terms. Before they got married, Jim wrote to Kathy’s parents to ask if he could marry her and send her birth certificate. At this time, Kathy found out that she was a foster child. She had been adopted at age 3 and had been raised with her real brother who was adopted earlier. Kathy has been able to use this part of her testimony to talk to children that find it hard to be a foster child or adopted. She lets them know how the Lord used this to bring her where He wanted her to be and to use her for His honor and glory.