It was late August 1961 when Gus and Betty Stralnic boarded the freighter in California bound for Hong Kong. Ahead lay the place where God intended them to serve Him for most of their lives. Fading in the distance stood Gus’s parents, watching their son and his wife disappear in the vast horizon of the Pacific.

How this parting came about and what happened after it is the story of a man, a woman, a mission and the God who put them all together. Gus Stralnic was a Michigan farm boy, the son of Eastern European immigrants who were Roman Catholic by birth but gave their lives to Jesus through the evangelistic outreach of the Baptist Church. So Gus was brought up in the Baptist tradition of the Christian faith but never quite let it get from his head to his heart. Then one day, while attending Eastern Michigan University, a history of religion professor opened Gus’s eyes to the fact that he knew but really didn’t know. Convicted by the words of Proverbs 29:1 and realizing he was “Gospel hardened”, he surrendered into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

After a bit of casting about, Gus landed on pursuing a degree in occupational therapy. In the 1950’s this was not a field many men pursued so he was one of only four men in the program. Betty Brown was one of the many women in the program, but would become the one and only for Gus. Betty was brought up in a good Christian home and, like Gus, knew the right things. She knew Jesus had died for the sins of the world. But it wasn’t until her senior year in college during a Sunday morning service she and Gus were attending that it suddenly became real for her. Jesus had died for her sins. Jesus wanted a personal relationship with her!

Gus and Betty pursued their occupational therapy internships in different parts of the country and completed their bachelor’s degrees. During his internship at Hines V.A. Hospital near Chicago, however, Gus attended Moody Church where he had his first conversations about mission work with the head of the missions department, Dr. Cook. While working at the state hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan Gus had the chance to meet a Syrian doctor who was a Christian. Late night discussions about faith convinced the doctor that he should pray for Gus to go into full-time ministry. The pieces were beginning to come together.

By the time they married in 1957, Betty was teaching in Pontiac, Michigan and Gus had graduated from Bible College and was serving as an Assistant Pastor. For three years they invested their lives in the ministry God had given them. At times it seemed to Betty as if the United States was saturated with the Gospel and, with a church on every corner, everyone had heard it. Little did they know that He was developing their hearts for overseas mission service. They longed to bring the saving Word of God to people who had never heard. When they shared this sense of calling with others they were told that it was already too late. In their mid-twenties they were already considered too old to start the process of becoming missionaries. Then, by God’s providence, they met Samuel Hsiao.

Samuel was an orphaned child who had been rescued by Rev. and Mrs. Leslie Anglin, founders of the Home of Onesiphorus, the founding orphanage of Kids Alive® International. He had grown up in the Lord and was serving as a missionary to China when he first met the Stralnics. He was one of the visiting missionaries brought to Michigan through International Missionary Fellowship Association. These missionaries would be assigned to visit small churches while in the States. Samuel was not scheduled to visit Gus and Betty’s church but the Lord had other plans. The missionary scheduled to speak fell ill and Sam was a last minute replacement. Gus made the forty-five minute drive to pick Sam up. During the course of the trip Sam not only disagreed with those who said Stralnics were too old, he encouraged them to apply to serve as missionaries through Home of Onesiphorus now in Hong Kong since the Communists forced them out of China.

On Reformation Day, October 31, 1960 Gus and Betty were accepted as missionaries for Home of Onesiphorus and began preparations to go to Hong Kong. The church Gus served committed one third of the support for the couple. Betty’s parents’ church, as a faith challenge, took on another third. Finally, Betty’s Grandfather, a pastor himself, promised the remainder of the support and by August of 1961 they were watching Gus’s parents fade in the distance.