Ike came to know the Lord on his sixth year in the US Navy, after spending most of his thirty-plus years in wine, women, and other vices that kept him feeling "good" for a while but left him desperately empty and low inside.

Although skeptical as he opened the door to Rich Harris, who introduced himself as a Navigator disseminating information in the barracks about the base chapel's activities, Ike felt compelled to "listen" because his roommate asked Rich to come into their room. As Ike listened on his bed from behind the divider, the Lord's word definitely did not fall on deaf ears, as it started to penetrate into his searching heart.

A couple of days later, Rich came back to invite them both for dinner at his house, after which there was a Navigator meeting they called a "rally." After observing how these "Christians" were so full of joy, even without drinking or smoking, Ike got curious to find out what they have.

Ike still vividly remembers how on that morning of April 11, 1974, he knelt by the green in Whidbey Island, Washington State, after reading Matthew 27:46, and asking God why He left His Son on the cross to die. Ike sensed God saying, "because that's how much I love you." He remembers crying like a baby because of the overwhelming joy brought by that newfound love!

At that moment, Ike says he literally felt becoming a "new creature in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NASB). It's funny how, when Ike shared this with his parents in a letter, it got them curious as to what sort of "creature" their son had become, and so carefully observed him when he came home for vacation, during which he was also able to share with them his whole testimony and the Gospel of salvation.

From then on, Ike was continually discipled and mentored by the Navigators. By the tenth year of his spiritual journey, Ike started to pray for a helpmeet.

Liza grew up attending daily vacation bible school that the church in their neighborhood held every summer, although it was during a music-and-arts class in sixth grade, where the teacher shared the Gospel when she prayed to commit her life to the Lord. For days after that, she recalls being preoccupied with that overwhelming thought of how, and why, such a big God she thought was just up there, would care to come and have a personal relationship with her!

Whenever she was asked to give her testimony, Liza felt apprehensive thinking she had no spectacular or dramatic life change to share. Nevertheless, looking back now, it was that relationship with the Lord that spared her from the agonies of what life could have been otherwise.

Ike and Liza got married in Hawaii in July of 1985. They both prayed to ask God to lead them what to do and where to go after Ike retires from the Navy in 1988. The Lord impressed in their hearts to go back to the Philippines, in spite of friends' well-meaning warnings and discouragements about going back to a politically and economically unstable country, as opposed to living and working in the US Nevertheless, Ike and Liza had kept Joshua 1:14-15, where God says, "... you shall help your brothers until the Lord gives them rest ... and then you may return to your own land ..." in their hearts as God's confirmation of direction after they finish their "duty" in Hawaii, not only in terms of military orders but in terms of fulfilling the ministry to the Filipino brethren there, whom God allowed to come our path.

Sent as US Navigator staff under the International Ministries Group entity, Ike and Liza settled in Baguio City to minister primarily to officers and cadets of the Philippine Military Academy, where Jim and Peggy Skattebo, another Navigator staff couple, were ministering then. So from 1988 to date, Ike and Liza have evangelized, discipled and equipped civilian and military couples, students and cadets, who have multiplied their efforts and are now being used of God in their own spheres of influence, and with several of them now ministering with Ike and Liza as a team.

Ike and Liza have four children: Sarah, now married to Daniel, and with a daughter, Starr (who lovingly calls Ike and Liza, "Lolo" and "Lola" respectively), Grace, now enlisted in the US Air Force and stationed in Misawa Air Base; Joy is in a Bible school; and Noel is graduating from high school this year.

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Ike and Eliza, like all Navigators staff, are self-supported missionaries that trust God to provide financial partners for their ministry. If you'd like to assist in helping them continue this vital work, you may give online by clicking the button below: