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SH: Well, to jump
right into the interview... you mentioned from the start that
you were not raised in Pentecost. So how did a young girl who
didn’t become involved in a church until her mid-twenties, find
herself eventually where you are today as a Missionary’s wife?
SS: Well the first
time I was associated with Pentecost was when I was 12 years
old. My family and I went to Bro. Spencer’s church in Saint
Louis and I was baptized and received the Holy Ghost there. We
only attended about a year and a half however and for the most
part, we were Assemblies of God because my step-dad tended to
move from church to church. Then when my husband and I married,
he joined the navy and we went to San Diego. I was 25 when my
husband and I really became a part of the church in 1975.
SH: Now at what
point did you and your husband begin to feel a calling
specifically for a ministry to Thailand?
SS: Several years
after we had assisted in the ministry and even pastured
ourselves, a group from our church was going to Thailand and my
husband ended up going too. He wasn’t there for 24 hours when
the Lord began to put a tremendous burden on him. He couldn’t
talk to me on the phone without crying. It took him 2 weeks to
simply tell me what the Lord had done for him and through him
there. So that was when the Lord called him in about 1999. Then
we went back on AIM in 2000 and came back home to see if we
could pastor here in the states. Nothing seemed to feel right
though, and that’s when we felt God wanted us to go back to be a
permanent missionary and wife in Thailand.
(Sis. Simmons wrote out Apostolic
Girl in the Thailand dialect- and how it's pronounced, showing
where the vowels are written as well.)
SH: Now, you
mentioned that your husband really felt a burden for this
country, but did you immediately feel the same?
SS: Honestly I was
more along for the ride with my husband. Being in the military
before had taught me to follow the head of my home, and it was
the same once again but this time with Jesus as our Commanding
Officer. I know a lot of ladies struggle with the thought “Well
God didn’t call me, he called my husband” but you have to
remember that God put our husbands in a place of authority. We
may not always agree with them, but we have to hold them up in
whatever area that God calls them. We are one. But when we
landed in Thailand on AIM, it really hit me that this was where
God wanted us.
SH: How is
Thailand different from America?
SH: It’s very
ancient. Where America is really only a couple years old, so to
speak, Asia is thousands of years old in their culture.
Socially, I think there’s a whole lot more of a respectful
attitude that we could learn from them, but they are in darkness
as far as God is concerned. Where America is slowly letting go
of God, Asia is actually just finding out about the one true
God.
SH: You mentioned
that Asia is very old in their customs and traditions. So you
deal with a powerful grip of the “old ways of life” that can at
times really bind people from receiving more from God. So what
advice can you give to girls who may be dealing with other very
powerful forces such as depression, low self esteem, and
addictions that are binding them as well?
SS: In Thailand,
there is just a lack of knowledge that has been hidden by
traditions and the past civilization. Giving them knowledge of
who God is, gives them an identity. I think that young girls a
lot of times find them selves reaching for things because
they’re searching for an identity that can only be found when
they truly connect to Jesus. The Bible says that people are
destroyed for a lack of knowledge. It’s the knowledge of the
Lord that will loose any bondage no matter how powerful. If
young ladies will know the Lord and hunger after knowledge of
our wonderful God, there’s nothing that they can not over come.
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