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As a young lad, Jim's father, whom he loved dearly, left his family for another woman. His mother then enrolled at Chico State College to become a teacher and Jim had to stay with his grandparents which was two and a half hours away from his mother and his sisters. He also had to have a third operation on his feet because he was clubfooted.
One Sunday after Jim had said his part with his confirmation class, his mother said to him, that she thought he might be a minister some day. In his early teens he asked God to give him whatever it is that makes people love one another and God did.
He did well in high school and was offered a scholarship, and a grant to attend any university he chose, but by this time he had responded positively to God?s call to become a missionary, and attended a Bible College instead.
While attending Bible College he met an attractive girl who wanted a relationship with him, and being insecure he let her convince him to marry her just before he went on a missions assignment to Mexico. When he came back she had already started another relationship and their marriage ended in divorce. This threw him for a loop and he drifted away from God for some time, but finally realized that he couldn?t run away from God. He then offered his life back to God if God still wanted him.
Sometime later he met a Brazilian girl while training with YWAM in Hawaii, and after a lengthy relationship they got married and worked as missionaries in Brazil. Jim has written a book entitled, Against All Odds. It is published by YWAM Publishing. This book tells of the many hardships they endured in their work in Brazil.
When they began their work in Brazil, they were told by elderly missionaries that Brazilians are not able to become missionaries, but by the end of the written story, they had sent a missionary team from Brazil to Africa, and many were becoming Christians through their witness.
- Anna Kroeker
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