Both Cam and Emily were born in rural Ontario, accepted Christ as their Saviour as small children, and felt called towards missions early on in their walks with the Lord. Emily grew up as a pastor’s kid, and then spent many years serving alongside her family at the same summer camp where Cameron would later work for multiple summers after completing high school.
In 2011-2012, Cam attended Word of Life Bible Institute in Owen Sound, ON, while Emily attended New Brunswick Bible Institute. Emily then studied nursing at the University of Western Ontario while Cam continued with his Bible and missions studies, eventually graduating from the Ethnos Emanate program in 2016. In 2017, Emily spent a year serving with the Gospel Mission of South America in Chile as a single missionary while Cam studied linguistics at Ethnos360’s Missionary Training Centre in Missouri. After each of them returned to Canada in 2018, Emily worked as a registered nurse while Cam prepared to go to the field with Ethnos Canada. Cam moved to Colombia in early 2019 with hopes of being part of an indigenous church plant. However, due to changing field realities he returned home shortly before the global Covid-19 pandemic. Although they had known each other since high school, Cam and Emily began dating long-distance during Cam’s last few months on the field and the early pandemic lockdowns. On October 3rd, 2020, in God’s perfect timing, they were married at their sending church in Mount Forest, ON.
Over the past year, Emily has continued to work as a registered nurse at a local hospital, seeking to serve those dealing with the negative health effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic both in their community and at home, as Cam has been recovering slowly from his own brush with Covid-19. During this time Cam has been teaching history and English both online and in-person for the Ethnos Academy in Durham.
Cam and Emily are currently making plans to serve as missionaries together with Ethnos Canada. Emily is working on her MDiv online through Clarks Summit University and will begin the Emanate training program in September 2021. Cam is currently scaling back his involvement at the Ethnos Academy to be more involved in Emily’s Emanate training while pursuing his MA in Linguistics and Translation through Trinity Western University.
Once Emily completes the Emanate training, they hope to return to Latin America to be a part of a church-planting team there.