LANCE'S CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY
I was saved January 8, 1967, when I was 12 years old, in the pastoral office at East
Side Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado. My uncle and pastor, Dr. Carl Boonstra led me to the Lord.
When I was 14, the church youth group made a mission trip to Crownpoint, New
Mexico, to the work of Dr. Harry Philips. It was there that I first began to have a real burden for
missions.
OFF TO COLLEGE
After taking the missions course at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, I
went on to get a degree from Bob Jones University. I thought the Lord might be
calling me to the mission field, but I was suffering from a severe malady known as singleness;
at that time the BBFI was not accepting single male missionaries, so I did the next best
thing: I joined the United States Marine Corps.
I went to Officer Candidate School, was commissioned a second lieutenant, and
went on to flight school where I trained to be a fighter pilot in the TA-4 Skyhawk. Our
training included air combat and carrier landings.
GOD USES A NAVY PILOT
Then the Lord began to miraculously intervene in my life. With the military build up
during the Reagan presidency came four new carrier battle groups. The Navy was short of pilots
and came to the Marine Corps looking for help. Being one of the "few and the proud," I wasn't
interested in switching to the Navy, but when I was offered orders to the Philippines, my first
thought was "mission field," and I knew it was the choice I had to make.
I was sent to Top Gun, trained to be an adversary pilot, and provided air combat
training in the A-4E to Navy, Marine, and Air Force squadrons on their way to the Gulf War.
FINDING A GOOD WIFE
In the Philippines I joined the First Olongapo Fundamental Baptist Church, an
indigenous, self-supporting Filipino work. There I met Leah Dequina who later became my
wife. Leah was also saved when she was 12 years old, and was baptized along with her best
friend, Nory, in the waters of Subic Bay. Nory went on to become a missionary with New
Tribes Missions, (she died of cancer in 1992) and Leah also became burdened for missions.