With 19 years of secular business under his belt, Jay felt a calling to the mission field while serving at Main Street Church in Walbridge, Ohio. With the support and blessing of family, friends, and church, Jay and Karen moved to Gainesville, Georgia with two of their children to serve with a short term mission agency until the end of 2000. At that time, Jay was appointed Executive Director of The McDowell Mission, part of the WV Conference of the United Methodist Church based in Elbert, West Virginia. Over the past 16 years God has grown the mission into a multifaceted independent ministry, renamed The Community Crossing (CCX) in 2007, and now headquartered in Welch. 

 

Karen trained and worked as an occupational therapist before they went into ministry. She then spent many years homeschooling two of their children, Makahla and Kyler, until they graduated in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Karen now supervises the Parents as Teachers program. Three of their children have worked for the mission over the years. Their oldest son, Chris is married with four children, and lives in Michigan. Brandon is their second son and is married with four sons and lives in Oregon. Their daughter Makahla is married and lives in Ohio. Their youngest son Kyler is on staff at CCX as the Operations Manager. He was married in January 2013.