WOOD, GIB & KATHY

Gib . . . was born on December 16, 1956. Raised on a dairy farm in Brunswick, Maine, my family was Quaker (the non-practicing variety) and my only real contact with church was through Vacation Bible School and Christmas and Easter programs. As a teenager, my first real contact with the Gospel came through the ministry of the Woolich-Wisscassett Baptist Church. I made a profession of faith to get rid of them. It wasn’t until I was stationed at Sembach Air Base in Germany that I saw how a relationship with Christ could make a difference in a person’s life. Through the witness of a group of men that were in the fire department with me, I began to understand my personal need to trust the Lord. September 3, 1978 saw me on the back row of the Rheinland Baptist Church as a lost church member. When Pastor George Zane preached and gave the invitation in the evening service, the Lord had my full attention. I trusted Jesus Christ for my salvation that night.

Kathy and I began dating shortly after I was saved, and we were married on June 21, 1980. Even before leaving Germany, it was obvious to both of us that the Lord would have us return to minister to the American military. The Lord led us to Bible College, and I graduated from Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida in 1984. We were accepted by BMFP in June 1982, and have served the Lord in Germany since October 1986.

Kathy . . . was born on November 16, 1962.  Although I was born in Montana, I claim Tennessee as home. But the truth is that I have spent most of my life in Germany. I was saved as a young girl at the Landstuhl (Germany) Bible Baptist Church in December 1969. My dad, Dr. Wilbur McBride, was in the Air Force at the time, and he had been saved just a couple of weeks earlier, on Thanksgiving night at a retreat in a castle in Heilbronn, Germany. After Dad retired from the Air Force, we moved to Tennessee so that he could attend Tennessee Temple and receive his Bible training. We returned to Germany in 1978 as missionaries to the military. That’s when I met Woody. We began dating, and were married in June 1980. Since then the Lord has given us four children: Karin (29 August 1983), Audra (20 August 1985), Andrew (26 January 1988), and Keith (5 August 1991).