About The Howard Family

Heath's History

I was born to Patrick and Brenda Howard in Lakin, Kansas on April 15 1978. I grew up in Garden City, Kansas with my younger sister, Rachel and younger brother Rodrick. I began attending Cornerstone Church with my family at it's birth in 1984. I became a Christian at the young age of four, and I was baptized in the Arkansas River when I was eight.

High School & God's Call

My Sophomore year of High School I went on a missions trip to an Indian Reservation in Arizona. It was there that I began to learn what it was like to truly live like the new creation God had already made me. In the summer of '95, after my Junior year I went on another missions trip to Juarez, Mexico. We built a house in a large shanty town for an impoverished family. It was when I saw the poverty of the people both physically and spiritually that I first heard God calling me to be a missionary.

Later that same summer, when I was at a camp in Dallas, Texas I received confirmation. We were all praying when a perfect stranger approached me and said that she felt God telling her to tell me that He wanted me to become a full time missionary. From that point on I have had no doubts that God wants me to be a cross cultural minister.

College & Training

After I graduated from High School with the class of '96, I began attending Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas, majoring in a B.A. degree in Bible/Cross Cultural Ministry. Under the guidance of Mr. Rusty Thornley I began my training to become a missionary. Even though I had grown up under the guidance of the Church and attending Sunday School and Youth Group, the intense study of the Bible every day opened up a whole new world of both spiritual and intellectual growth to me. I was also faced with the new challenges of living away from home. In me God developed a newer and stronger faith than ever before.

Love & Marriage

Toward the end of the first semester my freshman year I met a girl, Jennifer Gail Dafforn. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen; with golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes she had me captivated. We began doing things together with groups of friends, and more than once, we found ourselves being the last two people in the lunch room talking. She was a year older than me and way out of my league, but in February, after lots of thought, prayer, and sweat, I got up the nerve to call her and ask if she would go to a coffee shop with me, and she said yes. Soon we found ourselves doing things together all of the time, and on spring break I told her that I loved her for the first time.

Finally a year latter on February 13, I asked her to marry me. On August 8th 1998, we were married at her home church in Medicine Lodge, by my home church pastor, Kent Crockett. We honeymooned at a resort in Boca Raton Florida on the beach and made a visit to Disney World. We returned back to the real world about a week later and began the long tedious process of moving in to our new apartment and gearing up for another semester of school.

Post College

After our internship in Cote D'Ivoire (The Ivory Coast) in the Summer of 2000, we moved back to my hometown of Garden City. Although we both knew that God had called us to missions, upon finishing our time at MCC, we hadn't received a calling to a specific country or ministry. So, we sought God's leading for the next stage of our lives, until the time that He would call us to His next mission for us.

I started working with my Dad, producing web pages for his computer business. After a couple of years, we joined with another man to form a business called The Paraclete Group. We stayed in Garden City for 5 years, during which time we bought our first house, our first car, our first pet, and were blessed by the births of two amazing baby boys.

Here and Now

In August of 2005, I accepted a position with CCH A Wolters Kluwer Business, doing web page design for their Site Builder Division. CCH produces tax and accounting software and other tax-related products. The Site Builder division provides customized templates web pages for CPA firms.

We were sad to leave Garden City and all of our friends and family there, but we have been blessed through our move to Wichita. We recently bought a house, after living in an apartment for 10 months. The boys, now 4 and 2 1/2, are enjoying having a back yard again. I am taking classes in computer programming one night a week, and I will hopefully finish my bachelors in computer programming in December of 2007.

Jenny's History

I was born in Medicine Lodge, Kansas on August 24, 1977 to Charles and Bonnie Dafforn. I have a brother, Jeff, who is 2 years and 1 month older than me.

I grew up attending First Christian Church in M.L. I can't remember not believing in God or the Bible, and when I was nine at church camp, I confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior and was immersed. I truly wanted to please God, but had an immature faith which led to a lot of wandering and wondering through my teen years. When I was sixteen, at church camp once again, God touched my heart and pulled me away from the bad things in which I was involved. At this point, I really gave my whole life over to Him and began to grow in my walk with God, and subsequently He led me to MCC and in September 1995 called me to missions.

After finally finding contentment in God alone, regardless of romantic interests, God brought Heath and I together in winter 1997. We began a deep friendship and courtship based on seeking God together, which led to our engagement and marriage in August 1998. I know I am blessed to have Heath for my husband. God provided me with someone who is smart, funny, kind, loving, wise, talented, idealistic, and a wonderful leader of our home and outside the home. We share the same ideals and perspectives, and most of all, we share the same faith, love for and desire to please God above all else.

I graduated in May 2000 with a B.S. degree in Bible/Cross-cultural Ministry. After our missions internship in summer 2000, we moved to Garden City. I worked as a legal secretary at the Finney County Attorney's Office for 2 1/2 years, until leaving in February 2003 to stay home full-time with our son Jacob (born 6-17-02), and later with his brother Ethan as well (born 2-4-04). Being a full-time mom and wife is the most challenging job I have ever had, but I also feel like I am learning and growing and becoming the person God wants me to be more than I could have in any other occupation.