Faith takes Franklin County couple back to Brazil

NEW HAVEN — Franklin County native Katie Asckar is living the life she always dreamed about. Earlier this week, the young wife and mother flew to Brazil where her husband, David Asckar, a native of the South American country, will serve as pastor at his home church in Bauru.

The Asckars, who met in 2000 through the nondenominational international missionary group Youth With a Mission, served as missionaries in Brazil until May 2007 when they returned to the United States. They felt God was calling them in a new direction, so they listened.

"We follow God," David remarked. "Every year we ask God, 'Do you want us to keep doing what we're doing?' We felt like he was saying, 'Come back to the U.S.,' so we started the process for me to get a green card. That took about eight months."

A short while later, the Asckars found out Katie was pregnant with their son, Joshua, and the move to the states seemed more appropriate. (He was born in July 2007.)

Now, after a year-and-a-half living in a 100-plus-year-old former church/dance hall/general store in New Haven, the Asckars felt God calling them back to Brazil. So earlier this fall they began preparing to move and left on the 24-hour trip to Bauru on Wednesday.

Katie, the daughter of Patrick and Sheree Harr of New Haven and a member of First Baptist Church in Washington, said she has always felt a calling to do missionary work. It's a subject her parents introduced to her and her brothers at a young age.

"They would always read missionary stories to us, but I thought to do missionary work you had to go to Africa," she said.

Then Katie attended a youth conference and learned more about mission opportunities around the world. Once she heard the word Brazil, she was hooked.

"That's when I dedicated my life to be a missionary or to marry a missionary," said Katie. "And I've always had a fascination with Brazil and the Amazon."

The winter after Katie graduated her home school program in 1999, she left for discipleship training school at Youth With a Mission's site in Tyler, Texas.

"We spent three months studying the Bible and two months on lecture where we go to another country to practice. I went with a team of 18 to Brazil."

Interestingly enough, that is not when she met David — although it is when she met his family.

"His parents invited our whole team to their house for dinner and they actually said, 'Now there's a nice girl for him (David) to marry,'" recalled Katie, "and I remember telling a friend, 'That lady would be a nice mother-in-law for someone.'"

David, who also volunteered for Youth With a Mission in Brazil, wasn't there because he had gone to Texas for the same discipleship training course.

"I was working as a lawyer in Brazil when I decided to give up the law and go into mission work," said David. "I wanted to serve God full time."

When Katie came home after serving two months in Brazil, her parents and two brothers, Matthew and Gabriel, all went to Youth With a Mission in Texas for a family training school while she studied in the School of Evangelism. Still, Katie and David did not meet on their own. It was Katie's parents, who worked alongside David in the Youth With a Mission kitchen, who introduced them.

"They started talking and were intrigued by him being from Brazil," said Katie. "And they found out he believed in 'courtship,' rather than dating, just like I did."

Once David and Katie actually met, they only had two weeks before they were headed in different directions again — he went back to Brazil to do missionary work, and she left with an evangelizing team for a trip around the country.

"We talked on the phone a lot and we sent e-mails," said Katie.

Then a year-and-a-half after the two met, Katie and her whole family moved to Belo Horizont, Brazil, a city of about 3 to 4 million people, to work with street kids.

Life for "street kids" in Brazil is rough, the Asckars said.

"They may be on the streets because they were left by their parents or because they ran away from home because their parents were abusive," said David, noting the youngest street kids may be only 5 years old.

"Then the street kids start having kids, and things get really bad."

Some missionaries, like David and Katie, spend their time going to places where the children stay and try to build enough trust and friendship that the children will leave the street life for a missionary house.

"We try to convince them that they can have a better life," said David. "We try to bring them to a (missionary) house for a trial period so they can play games and interact with other kids."

If the children become serious about wanting to get off the streets, they are taken into a missionary house so they can learn how to take care of themselves and to study, said David.

Other missionaries, like Katie's parents, the Harrs, spend their time doing preventative work. They visit poorer neighborhoods and slums to engage the children in the hope of preventing them from turning to the streets.

"They work at a community center, helping families keep or rebuild that bond," said David.

The Harrs returned to Franklin County in December 2001 because Sheree found out she had cancer and Patrick needed to have surgery. Katie stayed in Brazil for another month but then returned home in January 2002 to plan her and David's wedding.

They were married May 18, 2002, in an outdoor ceremony at Purina Farms in Gray Summit. Then they headed back to Brazil to continue their missionary work in his hometown of Bauru, a city of about 350,000.

The young couple depended on supporters for income. They sent out a newsletter telling people about the work they were doing and people responded with donations.

Earlier this year, David's hometown church in Bauru contacted him about returning to serve as pastor. After praying about the request, the Asckars said yes and began making plans to return.

David's work as a pastor will provide the family a more reliable source of income and more stable lifestyle, but the couple say they will continue to do missionary work.

Looking ahead, the Asckars say they can never be sure where God will lead them but for now, "We are planning to be in Brazil indefinitely," said David.