I (Duane) was born and raised in Denver in a Christian family.  I believe I was saved during high school after struggling with doubts about my eternal destiny for some time.  No matter when the exact date of my conversion, I am trusting Jesus Christ, and Him alone as my Lord and Savior.  This is the message we hope, by God's grace, to share in Thailand. 

Hannah was born in Chicago, but grew up mostly in the Minneapolis area.  When Hannah was in elementary school her father left a business career to follow God’s leading into ministry.  He became Pastor of Evangelism and Outreach at Fourth Baptist Church in Minneapolis.  In 1997 Hannah’s dad and a group from Fourth Baptist Church (with help from Fourth Baptist) planted Family Baptist Church in inner-city Minneapolis.

After I moved to Minneapolis to attend Central Baptist Seminary I began attending Family Baptist.  It is there that I met the lovely Hannah Ormiston who was attending Northland Baptist Bible College at the time.  To make a long story short, we were married the summer of 2002.  We now have three children, Elaine and David and Autumn.

When we were married we were both confident of God’s leading to missions.  When we applied to Baptist Mid-Missions we were not certain of where in the world God was leading us. During the candidate seminar we saw a report about Baptist Mid-Missions works in SE Asia, particularly Cambodia and Thailand.  Both were relatively new works with Baptist Mid-Missions.  Immediately the Lord began to impress upon our minds the needs of SE Asia.  As we did research on SE Asia and corresponded with the other BMM missionaries there, we became excited about the new opportunities developing there.  We particularly were drawn to Thailand as a place where the gospel has never taken root on a large scale, but where doors seem to be opening.  By all accounts there seemed to be an increased receptivity to the gospel in Thailand – perhaps as never before. 

After visiting the BMM missionaries in both Thailand and Cambodia during the fall of 2003 we made the final decision to pursue career missions to Thailand with the Baptist Mid-Missions team. 

During the period of time Hannah and I were struggling through just where God was leading us, we took a class in urban church planting at Central Baptist Seminary.  God was already beginning to give us a sense of calling towards Thailand.  Over and over again the city of Bangkok came up in our reading for the class as a city that needs to be targeted with the gospel.  It is a city of ten to twelve million people, is the center of economic and political life in Thailand.  It is infamous for its red light districts, but it is also well known for the many kind and generous people who live here (as is true of all Thailand).  And of course it is known for its dedication to Buddhism.  Hannah and I began raising support in 2004 and arrived in Thailand June of 2006.

We have been studying Thai here in Bangkok for nearly two years (as of June 2008).  We are looking forward to begining work towards a new church here in the Bangkok area soon.  We will be working together with our co-workers, Nate and Maam Beckman.

To learn more about the current work of Baptist Mid-Missions in Thailand, see the co-workers page on our website.