From Treasury to Missionary

Suzette Tianzon



It started out as just another day at the PFM office.  For the last eleven years, I had served in the treasury department.  I was what we call a, “home base missionary.”  It was at the office that I met my husband, James, and it was there that we eventually got married.  Every day I would leave our little apartment, walk to the office, participate in worship, and then crunch numbers on a computer all day.  That’s who I was, and that’s what I did.  That is, until the day it all changed.

That day had actually been coming for a long time.  Eleven years is a long time to spend crunching numbers on a computer screen all day.  When James and I married we had almost nothing, but over the years our tiny apartment started to get choked with all the junk one tends to collect.  After our daughter Shaliah was born, James and I seriously started to wonder if that was the kind of place we wanted her to grow up.  There was nowhere for her to play outdoors, and you could hear the neighbors talking through the walls at night.

So, I have to admit that the thought of moving out of the city and going as field missionaries had crossed our minds.  When the day finally came, though, and PFM formally asked us to launch to Bakun as field missionaries, I was caught off guard.

Really it was the logical place.  Bakun was where James served as a missionary back before we were married.  Who better could mentor the members there, and train them to start going as missionaries themselves to the nearby villages and towns?

But beyond just logic, we sensed God’s leading in this move.  I’ll be honest, the invitation of going to the field came as a surprise, and we were a little unsure at first.  After all, I’ve never been trained as a field missionary.  But as we prayed and considered, we recognized God’s hand at work.  We chose obedience, and it was the right choice.

And so that’s how it came to be that James, Shaliah and I moved to Bakun to serve as field missionaries.  Life as a missionary has had its ups and downs.  It is a lot different than sitting in front of a computer.  But the joy and fulfillment of being an active part of people coming to Jesus is the greatest satisfaction anyone can ever know.

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