Pastor Jeff and Verna Willhoite: Missionaries to China and Indo-China  

Photo of Pastor Jeff Willhoite, wife Verna, daughters Samantha, Jenna and Hallie during their missionary days in China.  The young man in the photo is one of their students

 

By DANIELLE REID

Patriot Publishing

(First of two parts)

“Some plant. Some water. But God gives the increase,” is a perfect example of what Pastor Jeff Willhoite and his wife, Verna accomplished as missionaries overseas with University Language Services, headquartered in Tulsa, Ok.

Along with their three young daughters, Samantha, Jenna and Hallie, the family spent nine years teaching and ministering to people in China.

Later, the family would minister in Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, when Pastor Willhoite became Regional Director for Indo-China Relations.  This portion of their ministry spanned years 2000 to 2010 in Thailand; 2009 to 2011 in the Philippines; and 2011 to 2016 back in Thailand.

It is said that God sometimes uses unusual ways and unlikely people to accomplish His work.  This was the case with the Willhoites before they  accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior; and became His missionaries.

“Jeff did not grow up in a Christian home. He was not a Christian until June 1985, at age 24.  This was after we were married and after I became a Christian.   Jeff used to hear his father say, ‘If the Lord wants me, he’ll give me a burning bush experience,’” commented Verna.

Verna experienced her conversion while at home with one-year-old daughter, Samantha.

She explained, “I had attended a mainstream Christian church all my life and had done all the things they suggested you do to be saved.  When I became a young adult, I realized I wasn’t saved.  My friend, Sheila, worked with me and she talked about Jesus like she knew Him.  As I spent time with her and she shared her music and talked about the Lord, I felt my heart bursting with anticipation!  I wanted to know who this Jesus was.”

“One day, I was listening to Don Francisco’s song ‘Adam, Where Are You?’ when I envisioned Jesus on the cross.  I knew at that moment that He died for me.  It became real.  Before, it had just been a story.  Deep inside me, I heard the question, ‘Verna!  Where are you?’  I started praying, ‘If You are really real like my friend Sheila says, can You make Yourself known to me?  And He did,” exclaimed Verna.

(to listen to the song go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llab0E7X-CI )

Jeff confessed, “I could see a change in Verna when she became a Christian. She tried to preach to me a bit, but it didn’t help.  I knew she loved me and I knew she loved the Lord.  I thought, ‘Given time, she will come back to her old self – but she didn’t.’  Then, over time, I had my own radical conversion.  I was driving for a beer distributor when the Lord gave me a vision where I realized He exchanged His life for mine.”

At that time, Verna was attending a small Spirit-filled church that met outside. The members were very evangelistic and preached on the street.  Jeff joined her.

“That was kind of like a fast-track experience for us.  We were attending other churches on Sunday night and one of them showed a video of Christ for the Nations.  It was a kind of infomercial, but it led us to going into the ministry. The only ministry we applied to was Christ for the Nations (CFTN).  We had to be believers for six-months before we could apply; then we ended up going to their Bible school in Dallas, Texas,” said Jeff.

While attending Christ For the Nations Institute (CFNI), they moved from Kentucky to Dallas.  He felt called to minister in Israel and began studying Modern Hebrew.  One day, while walking down the hallway to his Hebrew class, he saw a bulletin board in big letters, “Are you called to China?”

“I felt the Lord tugging at my heart to read this sign.  We had two daughters and another on the way.  My family tried to discourage me.  They said I had visions of grandeur, that this was not from the Lord; and suggested we go minister in Chinatown in San Francisco instead.”

Jeff put aside the China vision and continued studying Modern Hebrew, planning a trip to Israel during the summer.  In the interim, he joined a short mission trip to Jamaica, which he said opened up his understanding that the world was reachable with the Gospel.

As a further confirmation, during the school’s Missions Week presentations, the organization from the China mission had scheduled a day when their representative was going to be on campus to talk to prospective student missionaries.  Jeff said he ‘fleeced the Lord’ by praying, “Lord, if this is really You, and You want us to minister in China, let me be the only person to show up in the meeting.”

“I got to the meeting, which was in the same classroom where I studied Hebrew, and when I walked in, the missionary representative was there by himself.  I was the first person to show up.  I guess he was glad someone showed up!  His name was Dwight Ghant, and he had founded the organization because he loved China and the Chinese people.  We waited past the time to start his presentation, which was to take 45 to 50 minutes. He began sharing his burden for the Chinese people, as a one-on-one presentation with me.  After 15-minutes, he stopped and asked if I had any questions, which I didn’t because he had already answered them in his presentation.  Just then, a group of around 15 students came to the room and said they had been looking all over for it – but couldn’t find it.  I had my confirmation,” stated Jeff.

Although Verna didn’t try to talk Jeff out of his China mission confirmation, her reaction to Jeff’s announcement was, “No!  I don’t think so.”

She explained that as a child, the only connection she had with Asian people was through the WWII movies.  Besides, she was six-months pregnant with their third child and wanted Hallie to be born in the United States.

From that moment of decision, it would be two-years before the family could leave for China.  The CFNI training was for two years but Jeff needed a Bachelor’s degree to go with the China missionary program.  He continued to study and received a B.A. degree in Pastoral Ministering and Evangelism in December, 1989.

With two young daughters, and a baby on the way, Verna was not on board with the China missionary trip, but God has a way of changing hearts.

“It was really cool the way the Lord helped me get in agreement.  Jeff did not push me either.  It was October 17, 1988 when I gave birth to Hailee and walked into our apartment.  The Lord reminded me, ‘See a year is not very long.’  I knew then that I could go to China for a year,” Verna said.

Several months later, in June 1989, the Tiananmen Square Pro-Democracy Massacre happened.  It appeared that the Bamboo Curtain was closed for Jeff and Verna.  During the interim, Verna recalled how the Lord was teaching the couple to walk in faith – how  to trust the Lord with everything, both little and big.

Travel to China did eventually open up and Jeff and Verna, along with three young daughters, were able to leave for the country in August of 1990 – with a contract to teach English for one year.  The hosting group in China understood their organization was Christian so the couple had to sign a “Cross-Cultural Studies Contract,” stating they wouldn’t baptize; but the couple knew they were going to teach and do friendship evangelism with students and teachers.

Life in China as missionaries wasn’t easy for the Willhoite family.  Jeff had just graduated from Bible college and they had a limited income.  The environment was very different from what they were accustomed to, including sights, smells, food, housing, noise, language, transportation and culture. And then there was the oppressiveness of Communism where everyone lived in fear and spiritual darkness.

“When we finally got to China, the Word became more real in everyday life.  Remember the parable of the Sower where seed would fall on good, stony, or thorny ground – the daily cares of this life choke out the Word – and it becomes unfruitful?  The daily cares of life in China tried to choke out the Word, but the Holy Spirit let me know God was with us,” said Verna.

Their first assignment was at a university in An hui Province, which was at the end of the western train track from Shanghai.  Their living quarters were on the university campus consisting of four rooms, which normally would have housed four families.  They were there only two years when they were asked to leave because they were caught sharing the Gospel with students and teachers.  Ten students accepted the Lord, and one in particular very sincere student would visit them at their next school on the island of Hai Nan.

But the Lord opened a door for them to teach English at a university in a mountain city called Tongza. They taught for two years before going on furlough.  It was a time of healing for the family, studying Bible Translation and fundraising.  They returned to China in January 1996 as students, studying Chinese.

They heard about a private Language School established by a woman from Kentucky.  Jeff taught English to students, as well as power plant engineers, who had been educated in China.  Teaching the engineers helped improve their finances.

Another encounter happened with school leaders who objected to the Willhoite’s reaching out to the underground Christian churches in China.  They were asked to leave and had no way to stay in China.  Jeff had a mentor in Hong Kong who invited him to visit, and that provided a way to leave China on New Years Eve, 1998; but remain on the mission field in Thailand.  The family’s first day in Thailand was January 1, 1999 and it was like a breath of fresh air for Verna.

They stayed in Thailand for five months then traveled to Taiwan for their daughter, Samantha’s high school graduation.  At that point, they went on furlough back in the U.S.  While on furlough, they received a phone call from Evangel Bible Translators.

The organization couldn’t help with financial support but had a relation with the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Oklahoma.

“The Lord opened a door and we decided it was a good fit for us in the Appalachian Conference – and we came to Dublin.  We began to preach in churches in January 2000 until August 2000, when we returned to Thailand,” explained Jeff.

The Willhoites now belonged to the World Missions of the IPHC.  They asked Jeff to be the Regional Director for the Indo-China Region.

At that time, Valley Harvest Ministries in Dublin raised the funds to purchase a high speed duplicator for the underground churches to produce Christian literature in China.  As Regional Director, Jeff would travel monthly to China.  Later he would travel frequently to Cambodia, Burma, Laos and the Philippines, working with the nationals to facilitate various ministries and plant churches.

Jeff had a vision to establish a Bible School and Training center in Northern Thailand.  Pastor Steve Willis and the congregation of Valley Harvest Ministries in Dublin caught the vision and were God’s instruments in helping the Training Center become a reality.

The Bible School and Training Center would be used to teach missionaries the Bible, equipping them to share the Gospel in their home communities, focusing on minority people groups from the surrounding regions.

Jeff purchased a rice field in Northern Thailand in 2008, bringing in hundreds of truckloads of dirt to build up the land.  It was a pretty significant transition from what it had been used for.  Step by step, day by day, the transformation took place and the first building was completed in 2010.  It had two-stories and contained a conference room, two apartments upstairs – one for the Willhoites and the other for visitors.

A second building, started in 2011, was three-stories with a cafeteria on the first floor, two dorm rooms on the second floor and pumps and tanks on the third floor for their water system, which they built for the Training Center.

In 2014, they broke ground on 1600 square foot Education Facility, containing student dorm rooms, conference rooms, and a cafeteria for students.

In 2016 the Willhoites felt they were in transition and prayed about their next step.  They returned to the United States on furlough and heard about a church in Pulaski that became available.  Jeff submitted his resume and was accepted in September 2017 as the Lead Pastor of Family Worship Center on Memorial Drive in Pulaski.

Next week, the Willhoites describe their experiences, ministering the Gospel while living in a Communist country.