American Missionary Fellowship

The Bible describes Jesus Christ as the one and only Son of God, the Savior of the world, and Lord of all.  Expressing amazement that a person can live without hope in spiritual darkness and refuse to accept God’s free gift of salvation, Gordon describes his life as “a testimony of God’s persistent love, despite my rebellious foolishness, and the grace and mercy of the Savior.”

As a teenager attending a Christian winter retreat with his youth group, Gordon heard the Gospel presented clearly.  The speaker described him perfectly when challenging the teens with the Scriptures pointing to personal sin, independence, pride, self confidence, and rebellion.  Gordon was convinced that he didn’t need God in his life. 

On the second day of the retreat, he experienced a series of events that shook his self-confident world to the core. While heading to the slopes to go inner-tubing with his friends, he became separated from his youth group in a snowstorm.  Desperately trying to find them, Gordon lost his footing, rolled off a cliff, and landed on his feet.  Knowing full well that his life could have been snuffed out right then and there, Gordon had to admit that God had gotten his full attention.  He gratefully opened his heart and life to the One who created him and had the very best design for his life. 

Gordon received Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord at the foot of that mountain.  The search and rescue operations of his youth group were successful, and he was reunited with his friends as a new believer.  That night in the chapel, he went forward to tell the world that he was now a born-again follower of Jesus Christ.

Gordon was discipled by his home church and by the Navigators in college and then in the military. The Lord later led him to Western Seminary to prepare for full-time ministry.  While attending seminary he met Debby, and they were married on June 17, 1978.  Upon graduation, the Lord opened the door for the Andersons to begin full-time ministry with American Missionary Fellowship.  They served as area missionaries on the Olympic Field in western Washington State, providing pastoral leadership to communities throughout six counties of the Olympic Peninsula. 

In the fall of 1989, the mission’s leaders asked Gordon to prayerfully consider taking a larger responsibility as Southern regional director and moving the family to Dallas, Texas.  Following the Lord’s leadership for their family, the Andersons loaded up the U-Haul truck and moved to Mesquite, Texas, to begin a ministry that would influence the work of AMF in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.  Fourteen years later (2003) Debby and Gordon were asked to prayerfully consider moving their family back to the Northwest to direct the work of AMF in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.  “We are continually praising the Lord for blessing us and allowing us to be a blessing to the AMF missionary family,” Gordon says. 

“On December 19, 2007,” he recalls, “we received a call asking us to prayerfully consider my becoming the director of ministry resources for AMF.  Our willingness to serve in this capacity is based on our wholehearted commitment to God and our belief that He could and would use us as part of the mission’s leadership to lead AMF toward revival and continuing fruitfulness in obedience to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.” 

The Andersons continue to live on the West Coast, where Debby is a kindergarten teacher and children’s book author/illustrator. (Her books are published by Crossway.) Both Gordon and Debby have a passion for sharing Jesus Christ with their neighbors and reflecting God’s love in creative and relevant ways in their community.