We were a missionary / helping family just like yours.

We were passionate about reaching the lost and serving in full time missions. We had been in Central America for 6 years. At the time, we were assistant team leaders of a missionary team of 33 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We were discipling boys at an orphanage, evangelizing in the bordos (slums) of the city and had founded and directed a school of ministry... all while raising a family and trying to keep our marriage healthy. Balancing ministry and family soon become more of a challenge than we were prepared for. We soon found our marriage hanging on by a thread and our family struggling. After many attempts of trying to push through, ignoring the issues in our home, we decided to be upfront with our directors about our circumstances. They gave us a gift greater than we could have ever hoped for. The gift of time. Instead of sending us home, back to to the US, they delegated our ministry responsibilities to other team members and encouraged us to receive counseling and prioritize our marriage. Although we kept directing and running the school of ministry, we soon found ourselves on a journey with God into healing and wholeness we had never experienced before. Not only was our marriage saved, but we received personal breakthroughs and growth as individuals. After some time, we began ministering to the other families on our team out of that experience. It wasn’t long before we saw the need in so many other missionary families around us. It was here that we felt impressed by God to pursue further training and equipping to serve missionary families. Since that time, Jesse pursued and obtained his masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, received lots of training, equipping and mentoring in the area of inner healing, started a counseling department at a missions organization, became a debriefer and worked with TCK training doing missionary family debriefings, opened his own private practice, got certified as a Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) consultant and as a Saving Your Marriage Before (and after) it Starts (SYMBIS +) facilitator. Now, seven after our directors gave us that gift of time, we are launching Righteous Oaks International (ROI), which was birthed out of the experience and testimony of God’s goodness and how he saved our marriage and our family.