TMM History:  1979

Twenty-five years ago.  Carter was in the White House, Idi Amin was overthrown, Israel and Egypt made the Camp David Accords, and the World Health Organization officially announced that small pox was eradicated.  China invaded Vietnam, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Somalia was at war with Ethiopia, the Shah of Iran was deposed and militant students seized the U.S. Embassy in Teheran.  Two of the top five nonfiction books were diet plans, 60 Minutes edged out Three’s Company as the most popular TV show, the Bee Gees had three of the top ten songs, The Muppet Movie, The Amityville Horror, and Superman were box office hits.  The Steelers beat the Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII, the Pirates took the Orioles in a 7 game World Series, and Alabama was undefeated.  Dustin Hoffman, Sally Field, Billy Joel, Dionne Warwick, and Mother Teresa won awards.  Big hair, Ronald Reagan, and disco were looming large – it was 1979.  Amidst optimism and despair, complexity and contradictions, the ‘me generation’ was dawning.

Paul & Betty Lou Teasdale had returned from Africa to the states to get their daughter established in college and to make provisions for aging parents.  While pondering ministry options with college students in the states, long time friend Robert VanKampen asked them to consider another possibility.  He had noticed in his trips with them in Africa that there were fewer missionaries going out to the difficult places.  Many of the ones who did make it were ill-equipped to maintain the equipment left to them or to open new mission bases.  After much discussion and more prayer they decided to begin Mission Ready, a training and sending ministry dedicated to preparing a new generation of mission ministers.

Paul reflects now, that this was the most difficult mission station he ever was a part of opening.  Each month this year we will be sharing with you the reasons why as we look at the key turning points listed in the column to the left as we celebrate what God has wrought among us this past twenty-five years.

Our world is still a mixture of contradictions and opportunities.  Some things remain the same.  Paul and Betty Lou and the staff seek to teach the candidates the principles of a successful life and ministry found in Psalm 37:3, “Trust in the Lord and do good.  Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.”  It takes special training to do both.  Your support is making a difference in our world. 

Thank you for all you have done through prayer and sacrificial giving.  God has used you and your projects and missionaries as His instruments in accomplishing far more than we could have ever imagined 25 years ago! 

That is the story that motivated the starting of Mission Ready – missionaries coming to the field without adequate skills and preparation for the challenges they were facing.  It is one thing to identify the problem, quite another to be able to address it.  What was it about Paul and Betty Lou Teasdale that would give others the confidence that the risk they were about to take in establishing a missionary training center would prove successful?  The Teasdales would tell you it was largely due to the unique heritage they both enjoyed.

Paul’s parents, Charles and Mae Teasdale, went to Kenya in 1924 where they served 46 years.  Fluent in Kikamba, Kikuyu and KiSwahili they helped translate the Kikamba Bible.  While establishing the church, they started a Bible School that grew into a Bible college for training Kenyan pastors and church leaders.  These men took their lessons and found other faithful men to teach and thus the work expanded.  During the war when many missionaries were unable to return to the field, Charles ran the Bible School, while Mae, even though a city girl introduced a European stock of cattle to increase milk production from the local cows.  She taught the women to card and spin yarn and knit sweaters for their families.  Her body is laid to rest in the little mission cemetery on the station where she spent her life serving the people and serving the Lord.  Charles retired to America in 1970.

Floyd Pierson went to the Belgian Congo in 1917, preceded by his two sisters, who

Floyd and Amy Pierson

 served many years as missionaries.  Amy Winsor arrived as a single lady and along with three other siblings served the Lord in the Congo.  Floyd and Amy were married in 1926.  The Lord enabled them to open two mission stations among previously unreached tribes.  There they raised their daughter Betty Lou and retired after 52 years of service.

While attending Wheaton College, Paul met Betty Lou who was studying at Moody Bible Institute.  They were married in 1957 and left for Africa two years later. They served briefly in Congo until one of the many rebellions in the land necessitated evacuation to Kenya.  They remained there for the next twenty years helping to establish mission work among five different nomadic tribes.  From putting in roads, building airstrips, and developing water systems to establishing clinics, schools, and children’s homes as part of their church work, they learned first hand what it takes to bring the gospel to those in need.  Lessons that God was using to prepare them and their sons Jim and Dan to pass on to others who would come for training at TMM.

A combined total of 352 years in missions service and influence (not counting aunts, uncles and cousins!) has gone into the training program and philosophy of TMM.  But beyond all that, it takes your gifts and prayers to make this unique training a continuing reality in the lives of new missionaries.  That combined total of faithful service will take eternity to calculate!  Let us be first to give you our heartfelt gratitude!

1991    Three new families accepted as TMM missionaries; third staff house completed; two candidate families and four single candidates from Germany and Kenya.

 1992     Dam fully completed by the fall; six candidate families and two single candidates, including one family from India, two families from Russia, and one single from Germany.

 1993     Lake completely filled by March; David Blackney joins TMM staff as Candidate Secretary; Marty Ritter and Dan Teasdale families join TMM staff‑, TMM Germany established to send interested missionary families for training; three candidate families.

 1994     Two families accepted as TMM missionaries; the Jeff Cole family joins TMM staff; two new buildings, the Women's Technical Center/Laundry and the Guest House are completed; two candidate families and one single, including one family and one single from Germany.

 1995 Four candidate families and one single candidate including families from Zaire, Kenya, and India and a single from Israel.

 1996    One family added as missionary; the David Olson family joins TMM staff‑, two candidate families and two single candidates from Israel.

 1997     Two families added as missionaries; TMM sends first missionary to Kazakhstan; one candidate family and one single candidate.

 1998     TMM sends first missionary family to Mexico; two candidate families, including a family from Romania, and one single candidate.

 1999     TMM sends first missionary family to Romania; two families added as TMM missionaries; 6 candidate families and one single candidate.

 2000          Two families added as missionaries; two families and two singles graduate from training program; HaChotam Publishing is born in Israel under the direction of TMM missionary Eitan Kashtan; Adam and Lyndy White establish first TMM missionary station in Alaska; Sola Scriptura Romania, a project of TMM, begun and mission station established in Romania.

2001          Three families added as missionaries; five families graduate from training program

2002          Three families added as missionaries; four families graduate from training program; Clarene Meyer family join the staff at TMM from Grace Church of DuPage, IL; TMM missionary Scott Kamps, becomes director of The Stable, a youth outreach ministry in Robbinsville, NC;

2003          One missionary family added; two families and one single candidate graduate from training program;

25^th ANNIVERSARY