Beyond Ames Reunion 2007

I lived and served in Ames from 1975 until I believe it was 1987.  In 1987 I moved to Bloomington, Minnesota and was involved with the church there.  After two years in the frozen north God moved me to Marion, Indiana to be involved with a Christian ministry that handles behaviorally disturbed teens in a residential therapeutic treatment program.  I was a teacher there for 13 years.  During the normal school year I worked at Marion.  During the summers I worked with the same type of student on a lake in a remote part of Ontario, Canada.  I was a girl’s team leader for the first two summers and taught survival training along with assorted other duties for the other eleven summers.  For most of those summers I had a small boat and motor so that I could go fishing and take staff members out and put them on fish.  I spent ten to twelve weeks each summer without electricity or running water.  I saw many a beautiful sunset and influenced many students.  This work was quite stressful.  Still, the Lord designed this time to let me have a little taste of fishing heaven.  I caught many walleye, pike, perch, small mouth bass, and lake trout.   After 13 years of this I quit and took a year off to destress before the boys with the white sport coats with the tie-behind sleeves showed up.  Then I taught science at a Christian school in Toledo, Ohio.  I didn’t really care for that.  I spent the next year substitute teaching and trying to get into teaching in China with a certain organization.  Around December I found out that they couldn’t use me.  That spring I interviewed and took a job with an organization called NICS or Network of International Christian Schools.  They directed me to teach science classes at Pyongtaek, South Korea.  I am in my third year teaching in this school.  I teach life science, earth science, physical science, biology and either chemistry or physics (they alternate each year) each day.  It’s a lot of work, so much that I’d only do it for Jesus.

   One of the most influential things in my life over these years was my encounter with a ministry called Gospelink.  They are about supporting poor pastor’s in certain countries.  These pastors must have experience in starting churches.  I supported two pastors in Zambia, Africa for a number of years.  I could write them through the organization and I would get letters from them a couple of times a year.  These guys were seeing large numbers of converts.  I decided to take a mission trip to Africa and see if these reports could be true. 

   Each summer Gospelink takes folk on missions trips.  I ended up going with about 75 people from all over the U.S.  We were broken up into teams.  I was with people from the middle of the United States.  We went out into the rural areas and shared the gospel in public schools, did some hut to hut evangelism, and showed the Jesus movie at night.  I presented the gospel (using Gospelink interpreters) and many hundreds of people responded for salvation.  It was overwhelming.  I know that our little team of about nine people had several thousand people respond to the salvation message by the end of our time there.  I have no idea how many of those people really got saved.  That summer the teams went to several African countries.  All the results were similar.  When I got back to the states I discovered that the life expectancy for Zambia was age 32.  Aids has ravaged Zambia and other parts of Africa. 

   I now support a pastor in the Ukraine, Malawi, and Mozambique.  Gospelink reaches India, Ukraine, and six African countries.  They have a web site–gospelink.org 

   If the Lord tarries and desires, I may promote this work after my teaching is finished. 

   I never married.  I am reluctantly realizing that at age 50, I am not able to keep up with the young bucks.  I walk slow, can’t always pick up consonants at the beginning of words, my vision keeps changing, the hair grows thick out of my ears etc.  I’m not dead yet but I’m realizing that the world belongs to the young.  Still, the Lord leads me in having a part in changing small parts of it. 

  I would love to connect with some of you people.  I expected to die with some of you.  The Lord has led differently.  In all my life I have never had better Bible teaching and modeling than I did when I lived with all of you in Ames.  I have had teaching as good but not better. 

Love in Christ,

Jerry Geist 

Posted on August 16th, 2007 by Jerry Geist
Filed under: Our Story