Traveling the world only to find their greatest mission at home
From India to Africa, Europe to South America, Laura and Jeff Eades have traveled around the world as missionaries. Though each would start on different paths, their love for children and passion to share the Good News united them. Together, they found their greatest mission was in their own backyard. A mission serving as Mom and Dad to the children that call Show-Me “home.”
A Calling and Bonga-Wonga Land
Laura felt certain of two things after she gave her life to Christ at age five: she was called to be a missionary and serve children. Hearing the stories from the missionaries that her family hosted planted seeds in the shy, quiet girl. She dreamed of one day opening an orphanage in Bonga-Wonga Land and being surrounded by children.
Laura was inspired by the sacrifices her parents made and the challenges they overcame in answering what she viewed as the “higher calling” – helping kids that were not their own. She knew firsthand the daily struggles their family went through with her adopted younger sister. Growing up, Laura helped her mom, who served as a Daycare Director in inner-city Charleston, West Virginia. She saw how children didn’t always have a safe place to call home. She saw how safety and stability – even for a few hours – could change their attitudes and give them hope.
From Shy to Courageous
Over the next two decades, Laura crisscrossed the globe as God refined her gifts and skills in the service of missions. She went to Israel on a Biblical archaeology trip. She lived with tribes in Papua New Guinea. Using her accounting degree, she served as a bookkeeper aboard a ship that traveled to 35 countries handing out Bibles and educational books to people in the least-reached areas. “God used me even if I didn’t always speak their language,” recounts Laura. “Even if all I could do was smile, I could show them the love of Christ in a way they could understand.” Moved by the images of life for street children, she learned Spanish and spent five years helping unwed mothers with their babies in Medellin, Columbia.
Caught Not Taught
Jeff’s passion for missions was more caught than taught. It wasn’t what he was told, but the life changes he saw. The transformation he witnessed when his father became a Christian inspired Jeff in his teens to want to become one, too. His father’s excitement for scripture became contagious.
“I wanted to find creative ways to get people excited about Christ,” stated Jeff. As a kid, he loved films. He would make his own movies at home with a Super 8 film camera. He went to Oral Roberts University and received a degree in Film and Video Production.
To pay his bills, Jeff worked for a local film company shooting weddings, events, and corporate training films. On the weekend, he did videos for his church showing various creative outreaches across St. Louis, like scraping frozen car windows or painting public areas that had graffiti. “We didn’t say much; our action was our testimony,” recounted Jeff. “People would show up at our church, wanting to know what would make people do what we were doing.”
Going back to work on Mondays became harder and harder. What was the point? Was there a way to use his creative film talents and do missions for a living? In 1996, he learned at a missions conference about Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), an international children’s ministry based in Warrenton, Missouri. What started as volunteer work would become his full-time dream job. For the next decade, Jeff traveled the world to create videos about CEF’s ministries.
Catching the Vision
In 2010, Laura and Jeff met at a CEF workshop on children’s ministry. A year later, they were married. Years of travel began to take its toll. Now in their 40s, the couple wanted to start their family and prayed for a children’s ministry in the United States where they both could serve.
Those prayers seemed to be answered when some friends from CEF approached the Eades about helping them start a youth home in Troy, Missouri. To help catch their vision, the friends suggested that the Eades visit Show-Me Christian Youth Home. “Show-Me is everything we want our youth home to be,” stated the friends.
The Eades didn’t just catch the vision, they fell in love. “From the school to the home, it was a well-oiled machine where every kid was doing what they were supposed to do,” remembers Jeff. “Each child knew what was expected and how to do it.” Jeff was particularly impressed with how the private Christian school moved at the child’s pace, not the class pace. “When a child is allowed to stay at a subject until they learn it, they don’t get lost as the class passes them by,” stated Jeff. By the end of their visit, the Eades asked if there were any openings at Show-Me.
A Never-ending Juggling Act
In the summer of 2014, the Eades arrived to serve as houseparents in La Monte, Missouri. Three years later, they moved to the growing Drysdale campus in Barnett, Missouri, where Jeff could help with the school. Over the next decade, 21 children would join the Eades family.
The Eades found there was no magic formula for parenting. It is a never-ending juggling act: cooking, cleaning, school, appointments, counseling, games, church, etc. As chaotic as schedules can be, the biggest challenge is building a relationship of trust with each child. Without it, the child may never be willing to accept the help they need or understand God’s plan for their life.
“Before they open up and let you see what is really going on inside, they have to know that you are going to be there,” stated Laura. “If the longest they have been in one place is three years, it is going to take over three years before they believe that you are not going to leave.”
Deciphering the Hidden Messages
The Eades learned that you can’t take things personally when working with children who suffer from trauma. The more you love them, the more they may push away. They may act out because chaos is the environment they are most used to.
A child’s actions may have nothing to do with you; they could be upset because a parent didn’t call, or they had a bad day at school. Things like wet beds or tantrums aren’t kids being “bad” or defiant; they are part of the defense systems for their former environment. It is important to celebrate the small victories like when the kids start singing the same praise and worship song on the way home from church or when they ask if they can help at the local soup kitchen.
A Child and His Craft
Art and music are a big part of the Eades home. Before they can watch TV or play a video game, the kids must practice a hobby or work on a craft. “At CEF, I learned that you never come between a child and his craft,” stated Jeff. “Their project becomes the gateway to building a relationship and opening bigger, deeper conversations.” A child is interested in learning the story about the picture they are coloring or memorizing the words of the Christian song they want to learn to play.
Finding your Mission Field
You don’t have to travel around the world to find your mission field. Like the Eades, all we must do is open our heart and be willing to serve where the Spirit is guiding us. It may be as close as home.
“It is a privilege to serve God’s children – from the little ones who cannot help themselves to the not-so-little ones who don’t understand why they feel the way they do or why their lives are not the way they would like,” stated the Eades. “It may seem sometimes that we go three steps forward and two steps back,” stated Jeff. “However, the rewards are so worth it. Relationships are strengthened and the gospel is clearly communicated to the kids’ hearts. God’s Word does not return void.”
