| Payap University was Thailand’s
first Christian university. The Christian setting affords many
opportunities for students and staff to worship together and to
explore and nurture faith. In 2003, a small group of music majors
agreed to meet together on Monday nights at Annette’s house,
which is next door to the music department, for mutual prayer
and encouragement. The students call it their “cell group.”
This is an answer to prayer for Annette, who in years past had
often tried unsuccessfully to start Bible studies or prayer groups
within the department.
“The music ministry in Thailand is a culmination of many
of my spiritual and musical skills and dreams,” writes Annette.
She grew up in Indiana, studying flute from the age of 8. The
two Presbyterian churches in her community often invited her to
play in their worship services and special events. She majored
in music therapy and music education at the University of Georgia
and sought a career that would put her in the position of helping
people and showing them God’s love through music activities.
She found a satisfying combination of duties in a position in
North Carolina as music therapist in the chaplains’ department
of an institution for persons with severe mental retardation.
During that time, she was required to obtain a degree in special
education. The master’s degree from North Carolina State
University that earned for that reason gave her the qualifications
necessary to accept the position at Payap University when the
call to mission work became too strong to ignore. The work in
Thailand requires her to use all her career skills and gives her
the challenge and joy of learning at ever-deeper levels, the language,
culture and thought processes of the Thai people.
Birthday: August 15
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