Kristina - South Africa

Nickname: KFphotography

In her first trimester, my mother contracted a rare flu virus that caused me to be born with several medical conditions. I was born prematurely on June 5, 1971, however, being born proved to be the easy part.

I was diagnosed with a hole in my heart, my right lung was collapsed as my organs were pushing up into my lung cavity (diaphragmatic hernia) and I had difficulty breathing. My right hand had a deformity of an extra digit, and I had not responded to the tests for sound or coherency.

I was born in Winchester, Virginia, and immediately after being born, I was air-lifted to Washington DC, taken by ambulance (right past the White House!) to the Children’s Hospital for my first in what would turn out to be, a series of operations.

The medical team had put me in an oxygen tank with a tube into my head so that my brain would not be deprived of air with my lung being collapsed. The doctors told my parents that they had never performed this type of operation before on such a young person and that IF I survived, they said I would most likely be deaf, dumb, and retarded; and the doctors told my parents that they may want to institutionalize me.

My parents are born-again Christians (my father being a pastor almost all my life), and they refused to believe the worst. Instead, they told the doctors that they would pray that God would give them wisdom and that God would fully heal their little girl. Eighteen months later would show another diaphragmatic hernia on the left side of my lung.

Thirteen operations and over thirty years later I am writing this testimony as a testament to God’s wonderful grace and healing on my life! I believe it was this godly influence in my life that led me to receive Christ as my personal Savior at the young age of four in half-day kindergarten.

Even as I was in-and-out of hospitals growing up, taking medication for my heart condition and battling with a weak immune system, I was constantly reminded of His loving mercy and reassured that He had a special plan for my life!

Through college, I was told by numerous doctors that I would never be able to have children because of the many operations that had been performed on my young body. As a result, every young man I dated was informed up-front before the relationship took us into serious territory that I may never be able to conceive. Clearly this seemed a problem to most of these men, except one.

Memorial Day, 1991, is a mile marker in my life. This was the day I would meet my future husband. Standing in front of the admissions booths of Miracle Strip Amusement Park with my girlfriend, I noticed a tall, handsome, dark-haired, college student behind us. He was standing next to a guy that turned out to be a mutual friend of my girlfriend. Introductions were made, and we spent the day together getting sick on all the rides - but forming what would be a long-lasting relationship! We wrote all summer long and started officially dating when college started again in the fall of 1991.

Five years later on April 20, 1996, we were married and started our lives together in Pensacola, Florida. That first year was a stepping stone into our lives as we got the call from a missionary school in Manaus, Brazil, to teach the third and fourth grades and in the high school. After much thought and prayer, we started the process of getting our visas and leaving for the Amazon in August of 1997.

It was then I started feeling very ill and found out that I was pregnant! This was an unexpected surprise as I had been told that this was impossible! As it says in God's Word, however, “Nothing is impossible with God!”

Three months pregnant, and bringing with us whatever we could fit in a suitcase, plus a dog and cat, we boarded the plane for Brazil. The Lord was ever faithful to us and provided for our every need! That year proved to be the first step in years of career missions that would eventually lead us to the southern tip of Africa!

Currently, we have lived in the Western Cape of South Africa in the Cape of Good Hope, spreading the Good News of the Gospel of Christ to the wonderful people of South Africa.

During this time, I have also been able to use my photography skills and talents to show our supporters and the churches back in America the faces of this land. I have also been able to donate my services doing weddings, school photos, portraits and special functions.

I thank the Lord for allowing me to use this God-given talent for Him in this beautiful country He has called us to serve!