Jason and Angie Bechtel Bringing Hope to Unreached People Groups About
We are Jason and Angie Bechtel. There are three major areas in our life: family, ministry with NTM, and church. Woven through all three is our love for our Creator and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
the short bio
Both of us were privileged to grow up in church-going homes and to realize our need of a Saviour at the age of 5. While some can claim to be highschool sweethearts, we were actually in diapers together. After going through highschool together, and living in the same university-town, our “best-friend” relationship took on a romantic flare, and we tied the knot within weeks of Angie completing teachers college. Within months of getting married, we were immersed in NTM’s tribal church planting training.
We have three beautiful and bright girls, Delena, Lorelei and Myelle.
What is it I do?
Since the fall of 2008, I, Jason, have been serving at the NTM Canada head office. Specifically, I work in the Communications Department. What’s that?
The Communications Department shapes what people across Canada read, hear, touch and click. Through delivering high quality print, web, video, radio and other creative environments, the Communications Department informs our friends and partners of opportunities to help reach the unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
a blog, eh?
This blog is a collection of updates on our life. I try to keep it up updated at least once a month. Please subscribe to our email list (Get our Ministry Updates on right) to stay up to speed on changes. We are also on facebook and twitter, so if that is your thing, connect with us there too.
Jason’s long bio
I am the oldest of three boys. In hindsight, my interests as a child were fanatical. I liked horses, a lot. It was primarily my interest in dogs that got me reading (finally) in fourth grade. Lego and Jeeps were also unhealthy obsessions. But in the midst of that all, I knew that God loved me, and had sent His only Son to earth to die a substitutionary death on my behalf. Well, maybe I didn’t use such big words at age 5, but I might have. I liked big words too.
My parents separated when I was 10 years old. A couple of years later, we moved closer to my mom’s family. So after spending my entire school career in one school, I started over in a new school in grade eight. It was a rough year. At the end of it I was fed up with my attempts to be popular. I realized I needed Jesus to be Lord of my life, not just my Saviour. This was a huge God-send, as I started highschool with no interest in pleasing my peers. I had tried that and found it wanting.
It was in highschool that I got a taste for graphic design and leadership. But highschool didn’t lead into the promising future I dreamed of. Plan A of going to university for architecture or civil engineering didn’t materialize (I was too busy to complete the applications), nor did joining the Canadian Armed Forces and having them pay for my engineering degree. So onto Plan C – Bible college for a year to await “divine guidance”. Within 2 weeks of arriving at Bible college I found myself on the student body council. This was an act of God, for all I had going for me was an obsessive compulsive work-ethic. Apparently you can’t be in student leadership unless you are a student, so I stuck around Emmanuel Bible College for a total of three years. (I later graduated with a Bachelor of Religious Education, majoring in Missions.)
While a student at EBC, I traded in my farm boots and construction hat for dressier attire: the marketing company for the college (Effective Edge Communications) hired me part-time. From there God opened the door for me to work at Gospel Folio Press where I honed my nit-picking ability to see inconsistencies in punctuation.
While obsessing over commas and abbreviations, I was also obsessed over a girl, a young lady in fact. While Angie and I had known of each other since we were in diapers, our romantic interest in each other didn’t find fertile ground till nearly the end of our university days. In fine form and clever cunningness, I backed myself into a corner, the corner of a relationship that would end only in marriage.
While it was commonly known that Angie liked me, I was less certain of my desire to settle down. So I told my friends I was dating her, and then quickly told her I had told them such, hoping they hadn’t spoiled the surprise yet. A week later we had our first ‘date’, which included Angie scaring and scarring me with talk of children. The date ended with her words, “I am not letting you dump me. I just finished telling everyone we are finally dating.”
That was then, and today we are happily married, enjoying wedded bliss. We have three bright and energetic girls, Delena, Lorelei and Myelle.
