Nathan and Cydil Waggoner arrived
at the student center in 1999 as newlyweds, excited about the opportunity to be working with
mission-minded students from their alma mater.
Both Nathan and Cydil come from families with backgrounds in missions.
Nathan’s grandparents and parents were WGM missionaries in Kenya,
Africa, with Nathan spending some of his childhood as an “MK” (missionary
kid). As such Nathan developed a
special burden for MK’s which led him to pursue one year of teaching MKs in
Honduras as a VIA (long-term volunteer) following his graduation from
college.
Cydil’s family heralds from the farmland of central Illinois and has a heart for the rural people of Albania where her parents
minister several months a year with an organization they developed in 1994, The
Planter’s Seed Foundation.
The
Waggoner’s graduated from Asbury College in 1997 with a burden for missions
but unsure how they would become involved in the immediate future. Nathan’s path led him to Honduras and Cydil’s to
Washington D.C. where she was offered employment on Capitol Hill. One year later they found themselves back in Wilmore for
graduate school and soon became engaged to be married.
Having
been heavily involved in the work at the student center as a college student,
Nathan was excited to be considered for the role of Director of
the Student Center during the spring of 1999 and not long after was hired for
the position. In July of ’99 the
Waggoners were married and moved into the student center's apartment and
immersed themselves headfirst into the ministry.
Now,
more several years have passed and their desire to mobilize students for world
evangelism has not diminished. In fact, during their time at the
Asbury student center, they have had a chance to lead teams to about ten
different WGM fields and heard countless testimonies from the missionaries
they host on a weekly basis at the center's
Global Cafe fellowships. They feel these experiences have
given them a knowledge base from which they can more intelligently counsel
students in the needs of a particular field or how a particular major or
skill set can be employed in a particular country or culture.
One of the highlights of their "job" has been to hear the testimonies
of students returned from the field and see how lives have been challenged
and changed by their individual interactions with missionaries & nationals and/or
short-term missions experiences. They find further fulfillment through the
men's and women's discipleship groups they lead.
In December 2006, the Waggoners adopted 18-month-old Ellie from
Albania and are thrilled to add "parents" to another one of their roles.
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