I was born an Arizona Desert Rat – Tucson to be precise – but left there when I was three. After a short stop in Dallas, Texas, I grew up in Orlando, Florida. But my family roots spring from eastern Tennessee and that has always felt like home.
As a child I attended the Church of God with my parents, yet I had already begun to have serious doubts about many of their Pentecostal practices before my marriage to Jimmie in 1973. Still, I was slow to listen and did not obey the Gospel until 1981. Six months later Jimmie enrolled in the Florida School of Preaching and our lives were forever changed.
I had worked in the insurance industry since high school as a way to finance college courses at night and in the process had risen to a Multi-line Commercial Underwriter, so I continued working in Orlando as our sole financial support while Jimmie studied in Lakeland. But I was forced to quit my job to travel to Ghana with Jimmie on our first foreign campaign in 1983. That 6-week trip was a worst-case scenario – an attempted coup, closed borders & military checkpoints, curfews & machine gunfire at night, drought, famine, water rationing, no gasoline in the country, even a cholera epidemic. I still think of it as the Campaign to Gehenna! But that campaign also began a lifelong commitment to mission work. When we returned I joined Jimmie at the Florida School of Preaching until we were blessed with our first and only child, Julie, in 1985.
In 1987 the three of us moved to the tiny island of Tutuila in American Samoa to be full-time missionaries. For the next five years Jimmie did most of the traveling but I was able to teach ladies’ classes in American Samoa, Western Samoa and Tonga. I also began another career as homeschool teacher to Julie. We returned to the States so that Jimmie could get additional education, then the Hill family did located work in Florida and Tennessee. Soon, though, Jimmie began to use his vacation time each year to make foreign campaigns. Then Truth for the World called us to Mississippi in 1998. I joined the staff temporarily in 1999 in order to learn enough to train a replacement since the present secretary would not be making the move to Georgia, and I’m still there. I became the office manager in 2005.
I don’t seem to get much time for hobbies, but when possible I do enjoy reading, writing, handcrafts, genealogy, junking, antique auctions, and collecting Coke memorabilia. But for the past 2 years my favorite activity by far has been playing with my adorable grandson, Cole.
- Linda
As a child I attended the Church of God with my parents, yet I had already begun to have serious doubts about many of their Pentecostal practices before my marriage to Jimmie in 1973. Still, I was slow to listen and did not obey the Gospel until 1981. Six months later Jimmie enrolled in the Florida School of Preaching and our lives were forever changed.
I had worked in the insurance industry since high school as a way to finance college courses at night and in the process had risen to a Multi-line Commercial Underwriter, so I continued working in Orlando as our sole financial support while Jimmie studied in Lakeland. But I was forced to quit my job to travel to Ghana with Jimmie on our first foreign campaign in 1983. That 6-week trip was a worst-case scenario – an attempted coup, closed borders & military checkpoints, curfews & machine gunfire at night, drought, famine, water rationing, no gasoline in the country, even a cholera epidemic. I still think of it as the Campaign to Gehenna! But that campaign also began a lifelong commitment to mission work. When we returned I joined Jimmie at the Florida School of Preaching until we were blessed with our first and only child, Julie, in 1985.
In 1987 the three of us moved to the tiny island of Tutuila in American Samoa to be full-time missionaries. For the next five years Jimmie did most of the traveling but I was able to teach ladies’ classes in American Samoa, Western Samoa and Tonga. I also began another career as homeschool teacher to Julie. We returned to the States so that Jimmie could get additional education, then the Hill family did located work in Florida and Tennessee. Soon, though, Jimmie began to use his vacation time each year to make foreign campaigns. Then Truth for the World called us to Mississippi in 1998. I joined the staff temporarily in 1999 in order to learn enough to train a replacement since the present secretary would not be making the move to Georgia, and I’m still there. I became the office manager in 2005.
I don’t seem to get much time for hobbies, but when possible I do enjoy reading, writing, handcrafts, genealogy, junking, antique auctions, and collecting Coke memorabilia. But for the past 2 years my favorite activity by far has been playing with my adorable grandson, Cole.
- Linda
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