Brother Jake was raised in a home where Bible reading and church attendance were not part of his upbringing. He was taught to try and live a good life and do good works and hope that when he died and stood before God that his good works would outweigh his bad works in order to enter Heaven. This left him with a sense of fear of dying because he never knew if he had been good enough to make it to Heaven. Then at the age of thirty, someone shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him and on October 29, 2000, Brother Jake trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and joined Pembina Valley Baptist Church. There he served in the youth department and Sunday school for over nine years until he graduated from Canadian Baptist Bible College and he and his wife, Anna, moved to Mexico as missionaries in 2013. Anna trusted Christ as her Saviour at a young age, but grew up attending a church which taught works for salvation and had no assurance of Heaven. It was not until Brother Jake and Anna started to attend Pembina Valley Baptist Church that she began to grow in her faith. Anna served with her husband in the youth ministry and Sunday school, and also worked in various other areas of service, including as secretary for Brother Brian Booth at the start of CanAmera. In 2010, Jake and Anna surrendered to the call of God to be missionaries to the Mennonites of Mexico and served there with missionaries Will and Cindy Klassen for five years. During their fifth year in Mexico, God began to direct their hearts to CanAmera, and through much prayer and fasting and counsel from their pastor, Jake and Anna moved back to Canada where Brother Jake now serves as General Director for CanAmera Baptist Missions International. They are thankful for the time God gave them in Mexico as it has given them hands-on experience, insight and personal understanding in the things missionaries go through on the mission field and has better enabled them to help other missionaries face the same difficulties.

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