Terry's Story  

The Facts, followed by The Story

Born:  November 27, 1954 in Tacoma, Washington, USA; raised in Seattle

High School:  graduated from Chief Sealth High School in 1973

College:  only did a few courses at the University of Washington

Work history:  In High School I earned certificates in secretarial and clerical courses.  With those qualifications I worked at:

    Safeco Insurance Company, 1973-74, microfilming their archives

    University of Washington, 1974-1979, various secretarial positions

    World Concern, 1979-1981, Personal Assistant to Director of R&D

Married:  to Ed Sherman on February 27, 1982

Mother:  to David, born June 28, 1986 and Chris, born December 13, 1988

YWAM schools:

    School of Music Ministry, Musicians for Missions, Amsterdam, 1981

    DTS at Heidebeek in 1982

    Dutch Language School at Heidebeek in 1984/85

    SBS (first 3 months) at Heidebeek in 1991

YWAM work & ministry: 

Secretary to Heidebeek base director (Jeff Fountain) 1982-84; DTS registration 1985; worship team member and worship leader 1985-present; after David & Chris went to school I’ve worked part-time in various areas:  translating in schools, secretarial help, mentoring single staff women, overseeing one of our staff/guest houses, member of the Housing Committee and Personnel Committee, doing the administration for Ed’s HIS School, and most recently setting up training and ongoing input for our staff in the area of support development.  I’ve also begun teaching on this subject in the SOFM.  I sometimes accompany my dear friend Belinda van de Loo to teach/lead worship in YWAM Schools, Women’s Aglow, and Dutch churches.

Since 2002 I've been developing teaching about personal support raising for missionaries.  My dream is to see much more of this training available in YWAM around the world.  Too many gifted people are not able to go out into missions because of a lack of training in the biblical foundation, the spiritual nature, and the "how to's" for raising a team of ministry partners. 

The Story

I never imagined living many years in a country outside of my own, but here I am, going on 28 years in Holland. 

I first came to the Amsterdam base (Samaritan’s Inn) in Holland in 1981 to do a YWAM school called Musicians for Missions, School of Music Ministry, led by Karen Lafferty.  I did my DTS at the Heidebeek base in the spring of 1982 and have been YWAM staff at Heidebeek ever since (22 years!).  But how did I get this far?

The first time I consciously decided to talk to God was when I was 15 years old.  Up until that time I didn’t believe that God existed and had no spiritual background of any kind.  But 15 is a tender age, and I was going through that phase of establishing my identity and asking questions like “Why am I here?”, “Where am I going?”, “How can my life be important or mean anything to anybody?”. 

During this time someone handed me a tract while walking in Lincoln Park in Seattle.  A few months later during my identity crisis I hunted up that tract, read it, and prayed the prayer at the end to ask Jesus to forgive my sin and become my Savior.  I didn’t totally understand what all that meant, but I do remember praying, “God, if you really are there, please come into my life and help me become the person You want me to be.  Show me my purpose in this life.”  That was the beginning of a life-long journey - getting to know Father God, His amazing character and love.

I got involved in my boyfriend’s church and became part of an Action Group where, with a small group of teenagers, we were discipled/mentored by our youth group leaders.  Those Friday evenings were very special times of learning the Bible together, discovering how to pray and trust God to move in our church and in our lives.  I’m very grateful to my “spiritual mother”, Nancy Krokos (Sundblad).  We then moved to another church and joined a large, dynamic youth group where I was further discipled and grew in my relationship with God.  Kent & Myrna McClain were very influential in my life during those years.

I got to know Ed in 1976 at our church, The Trinity Church, where I got my first experiences in leading worship.  He became a very trusted friend and brother.  The story is too long to tell here, but when he fell in love with me, and I didn’t reciprocate his feelings, we had to learn how to maintain our friendship in the midst of that added tension.  (This story is worth a book someday!)  Then Ed left to do his DTS in Holland in 1979.  I felt relieved that he, a source of tension in my life, was gone.  He went through a life-changing year and totally died to all hope of spending his life with me.  I went through my own life-changing year and applied to staff a new office for World Concern in Nairobi, Kenya. 

During these years, our pastor, Gib Martin, and others from our church had a deep, positive influence in my life.  Another person who impacted my life greatly was Keith Green, through his music.     

When Ed returned from Heidebeek in 1980, I fell in love with him – although this was the last thing I ever expected to happen!   He returned to Holland as staff, and 7 months later I resigned from World Concern and followed him.   I did the Musicians for Missions School in Amsterdam and spent as much time with him as possible during my 7 months in Holland.  We returned to Seattle where we were married in Feb. of 1982, returned to Heidebeek 3 weeks later, and in April 1982 I did my DTS at Heidebeek (went on outreach to Algeria).

More to follow about David and Chris's impact in my life.....