Chris's Lymphoma Journey

We returned to the United States from Thailand in October 2024 to get medical care for Chris in his second round of cancer, lymphoma in his spine. He has been in remission since April, 2025.  After more than a year of settling in, prayer, and discernment, we made the decision last month to make Grand Rapids our new home base for ministry.

We’re based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This has been our US hometown for the past 20 years—we both graduated from Calvin College (now Calvin University), we have multiple supporting churches here, and most of Becca’s family are nearby. We love West Michigan! Wycliffe is supportive of this location and allows us to work remotely from home.

Yes! God provided amazingly. Thanks to the generous support of many partners who helped with logistics, we were able to purchase a home in Grand Rapids. We’re so grateful for this provision during a challenging transition.

Several factors converged to point us in this direction. Chris is fighting lymphoma and needs to stay closer to excellent medical care—he has scans and tests every three months at Northwestern University in Chicago. Our kids are getting older (17, 14, and 12) and closer to launching, and we want to give them time to adjust to American life before college rather than making that huge transition when they graduate. 

Additionally, our ministry roles work well from a US base with occasional travel.

We praise God for nine months of remission so far! All scans and tests look good, and the doctors are pleased. Chris continues to have scans and tests every three months at Northwestern University in Chicago, and we’re happy to travel there for excellent care. We anticipate regular three-month scans and monitoring through 2027.

Chris takes a specific medication to reduce the likelihood of cancer recurrence.  The downside of this medication is that it is an immunosuppressant and one of the side effects of this medication is a potential increase of chest infections.  We have experienced this to be true.

While Chris is in remission his health is not the same and his overall recovery may be a long journey. We praise God for the health he has, but we also realize his body has changed and needs additional rest and often more support to battle normal viruses.

Chris serves as Director of Strategic Language Technology Initiatives with Wycliffe. This involves upper-level management of global language technology special projects—currently focused on analytics and metrics for all of our language technology tools. The role has a global scope but is grounded in deep, long relationships in Southeast Asia built over 14+ years. Chris can do most meetings online and will travel occasionally for meetings and conferences, hoping to visit Thailand once a year.

Becca serves on the Well-Being Services team, ministering to the Eurasia group of SIL. This covers all of Europe and Asia—a huge region with many workers who need counseling and member care support. This role can be done online with occasional trips.  She was recently asked to support the application and vetting process of future counselors in the organization.

We’ve been in the US over a year, and our budget has already changed to reflect being based here. Living and conducting ministry from the US comes with different costs. We currently have about 80% of our support from committed regular partners, with the remainder coming from occasional givers. God always provides through faithful partners.  

While we will be serving from the US we remain supported missionaries and rely on the committed regular financial support from churches, families and individuals like you!

Honestly, the emotional challenge of leaving Thailand is significant. We had all hoped to return to Thailand to continue our life and work, it had become our home and we love our community there. Because our belongings are still there, we need to return to pack up and say goodbye properly. That will be difficult. We also continue to navigate Chris’s health journey with regular scans and the uncertainty that brings. Helping our kids fully adjust to American life—while they’re doing well, it’s still a big change for third-culture kids.

Almost everything is still there! We have had other missionaries use our home while we have been away.  We’re praying about returning this summer to pack up, sell most everything, and have a short time of ministry and meaningful goodbyes. Please pray for discernment about the timing and logistics of this trip.

Our kids are adjusting pretty well. It has been a difficult journey over the past year and a half, and now that we’re more settled with a home and a school they like, we all feel more at peace. They’re taking advantage of academic, extracurricular, sports, and music opportunities that weren’t as available in Thailand. Strategically, we feel like we’re giving them extra time for transition—allowing them a more gradual adjustment rather than waiting until they’re college students facing that large transition quickly and alone.

How long do you have?! The community and relationships we built over 14+ years, the food, the culture, the beauty of the country. But we’re really grateful that God allowed us to be there for all those years. We’ve always told supporters that we’d stay “as long as God keeps the door open”—and He kept it open for over 14 wonderful years of ministry, life, and family.

We’re excited about being regular participants in our extended family’s lives and for them to participate in the life of our family! That was not something we were afforded when we loved in Thailand. We’re also grateful for the Christian school our kids attend and the opportunities they have here.

We don’t know what the future holds, but we do hope to maintain our relationships there and it is likely we will return for short trips due to our ministry roles. Thailand will always hold a special place in our hearts. For now, God has clearly pointed us toward being based in the US, and we’re trusting Him for each step of the journey.

We have enjoyed living abroad and will trust God if he opens the door for us to return to live abroad at a later time in our life.  We know many missionaries that have returned to live overseas once they have cared for their aging parents or launched their children.  We can trust the one who holds all things together.

Wycliffe has been incredibly supportive throughout this transition. Both of our roles work well from a US base—Chris’s technology leadership role has always had a global scope, and Becca’s counseling work for the Eurasia region can be done remotely. The organization values our experience and relationships built over 17 years and sees this as a continuation of effective ministry, not an ending.

Thank you for asking! 

1. Please pray for ongoing health recovery for Chris—we praise God for nine months of remission. 
2. Pray for discernment about returning to Thailand this summer to pack up and say goodbye. 
3. Pray that the Lord would continue to equip us and provide partnerships for this next phase. 
4. Pray for Luis, Lucas, and Emalene as they continue adjusting and making the most of their opportunities here.

1.  Prayer is the foundation—please join our prayer team by signing up for our blog updates highlighting regular prayer needs.
2.  Financial partnership is also crucial as we continue serving from the US. You can give online through Wycliffe at You can give online through Wycliffe at wycliffe.org. 

Simply staying connected through our newsletters and updates means so much to us. We value partners who’ve journeyed with us faithfully, some for multiple decades!

3.  Advocacy is a gift to us.  We would be honored if you would introduce us to others or your church who may want to join in partnership.  We are happy to share about what God is doing through Bible Translation.  
4.  Additional ways to partner: 

The Wycliffe Foundation’s website is an excellent resource for information on various ways to give, and its staff has served hundreds of missionary ministry partners just like you. We encourage you to check it out if this might be a good fit. Click below for their resources.

• Wycliffe Foundation
• Giving through IRA
• Giving through Donor Advised Funds