Teri's Story

(Why I’m still at it)

In May 2001, with Jim & Jane, we traveled 350 miles from Tegucigalpa to Palestina-Patuca, Olancho, Honduras, on the border with Nicaragua; home to many former Contras. We set up in a school, and my “security” for the 20 Americans and 20 Hondurans for whom I was responsible was a 2- strand barbed wire fence and a gate with no lock! The local police came by and told us not to be concerned if we hear automatic weapons fire at night; “men get drunk and like to shoot their guns”.

2 men with AK-47s came into town and told the people they were going to rob us. The townspeople told them “Those people are God’s people...leave them

alone”...and they did.

It was a tough trip, but after the 3 days, 1,800 children and adults had been  medically evaluated and received medicine, and Gideon Bibles.

The line of people waiting outside of the fence and check-in

The team was made up of medical students from UMKC and KU, members of our church in Gardner, KS and of a church in Garden City, KS, some of the folks from our previous trips including my Canadian nephew, and our Honduran partners. Dr. Beth was running the pharmacy again.

It was a special joy to have Andy (despite all that happened the previous year) and his daughter Teri join us.

Andy, Dennis (KU med student), Teri and team members from Garden City celebrating a cold Coke. The little tienda poured the coke from the glass bottle into a plastic bag, stuck in a straw and tied the top.  

Andy lost his wife to cancer when his only daughter Teri was in High School, and she was his life. At the time of the trip, Teri was a pitcher on the softball team at Missouri Southern in Joplin, and Andy drove to most of her games.

She was the neatest young lady; great fun and with a wonderful attitude.

In 2002 Jim and Jane resigned, and the Mississippi Baptist Convention closed the mission house and moved the ministry to San Pedro Sula.

2002-2003 I was missions pastor at Daybreak Community Church (SBC) in Shawnee, KS. The pastor was a missionary kid in Peru, was fluently bilingual, and had missions contacts in Central America. He had connected with Cesar who encouraged him to bring a mission team to Guatemala.

In January 2003 Pastor Steve, Andy, Dr. Leann (then a senior med student at UMKC) and a RN and her husband from Daybreak came to Amberes, an aldea SE of Guatemala City and did a medical clinic.

We returned in June, and on this trip were joined by Dr. Beth, Teri, Pastor Steve’s son, Leann’s High School coach, and more church members from Grace Baptist Church in Gardner and Daybreak, and Betty from L.A. who would later become our primary ministry partner. We also met Dr. Mario and Dr. Shenny with whom we would work for several years thereafter. The ladies had a great time together and it was a joy watching Teri interact with her father.

Teri just graduated from Missouri Southern and had entered the Master of Social Work program at KU. And then she met a guy, who had been a pitcher for ASU. He had full custody of a daughter from a previous relationship; the mother was uninvolved. Teri filled that role, and they were married in the summer of 2004. She then started her Practicum at a community mental health center in Johnson Co.

Her future was before her, with a man and now their daughter that she loved.

One of her clients was a High School male with multiple psychiatric diagnoses since childhood. One of Teri’s responsibilities was to make home visits and confirm compliance with his meds. While visiting the young man the afternoon of August 17 he stabbed her in the neck with a hunting knife (the coroner felt she died quickly) then cut up her body with a chain saw, while Insane Clown Posse was at full volume on his stereo. He then set her car on fire. His mother arrived shortly thereafter and called the police.

Pastor Don, some of the deacons and I went to be with Andy that evening. Don and the deacons had known Teri since childhood and had watched their own children grow up with her. There were no comforting words to be said at that moment; we were simply there to share some of Andy’s pain. Teri was buried a few days later.

Beth and I moved to Phoenix in September, but I of course stayed in contact with Andy. At that point we were running medical mission trips to Guatemala with Betty and Drs. Mario & Shenny every 6 months, always with Andy’s participation, and another trip was coming up in January of 2005.

I didn’t expect Andy to come, but he told me that not coming would give Satan the victory, and he wasn’t going to let that happen, for Teri. He later missed one trip because of a court hearing, but only that one. On about every trip, he and I would sit on a cot and cry together thinking about Teri.  

When the young man was finally sentenced, Andy was given an opportunity to speak. Andy looked at the young man and said he knew Teri was in heaven with Barbara (her mother), knew he would be with them one day, and wanted him to be in heaven also. He then gave his daughter’s killer a Gideon Bible.

Andy continued to do international Bible distributions and spoke at Gideon Camps and in churches all over the U.S. thereafter sharing this story.

Over the next 20 years (it’s now 2025) there were times I felt discouraged, frustrated, and uncertain regarding our ministry in Guatemala. I have thought “I just can’t do this anymore.”

But every time I also think of Teri and Andy; his bravery and faithfulness. His determination to not let Satan win.

So I ask for God’s grace, strength, and peace, and start working on the next trip…for Teri.