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Ray :: Tammy
Tammy Oostdyk

I was born to loving, Christian parents in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.  My family moved to Texas when I was four years old because of a job opportunity for my dad there.  It was during our time in Texas, when I was six years old,  that I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.  My parents had always taught me about Jesus, but I had never made that important decision for myself until one morning in Sunday School.  The teacher explained the plan of salvation and gave an invitation.  Even though I was only six, I understood that I was sinful and that only Christ’s redemptive work on the cross could cleanse my sins, making it possible for me to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

When I was seven years old, my parents received a prayer letter from a New Tribes missionary family in Venezuela.  The letter asked for prayer that God would send some teachers to their school for missionary kids.  My parents are both teachers, so they decided to go to Venezuela for one year to “fill in” until some permanent teachers could come.  Well, that was in 1985 and my parents are still there teaching!  God used my childhood experiences in Venezuela, to give me a burden for missions.

I came back to the US when I graduated in 1996 to attend Moody Bible Institute.  It was there that I met my husband, Ray.  We were at school together in Chicago for one year before he moved to Tennessee to finish his schooling at Moody Aviation.  I stayed in Chicago to finish my degree in Church Music/Piano and graduated in May 2000.  Ray and I got married that summer and then I joined him in Tennessee.   Our son, Matthew, was born in June 2001.  When Ray graduated from Moody Aviation, we moved to Roanoke, VA, to raise our prayer and financial support.  Two weeks after Micah was born in VA, we moved to Florida to begin serving with the M.F.I. staff in July 2003.