BELIZE CITY, BELIZE - Three of Dennis Cady's grandsons dart along the streets of this Central American city, handing out World Bible School booklets. The boys — ages 6, 6 and 4 — seem like natural missionaries, striding confidently up to everyone they see. “We're from the Church of Christ around the corner,” says Jackson Landes. “Big yellow building,” his cousin, Mason Cady, chimes in. When they run out of lessons, they head back to grandpa and yell, “Reload!” “Dad's in heaven,” David Cady says to his wife, Amy, as they watch the boys. “He's in a Third World country, walking down a sidewalk with his grandsons, and they're inviting people to church.”

It’s exactly how Dennis Cady wanted to spend his vacation — on a mission trip with his wife, his three children, their spouses and all six of his grandchildren.

“I have no desire to take my family on a cruise,” said the longtime missionary and elder of the Faith Village Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Mission work, in and out of the United States, has been a central part of his life and the lives of his children, he said. And when it comes to his grandkids, “I’d like to see them growing up not knowing any other way.”

FROM KUALA LUMPUR TO WICHITA FALLS

Dennis Cady’s globe-trotting days began in 1966 when the young graduate of York College headed to Malaysia to work as a missionary. He was one of the first participants in the Master’s Apprentice Program, a partnership between the York, Neb., school and the nearby East Hill Church of Christ.

On the bustling streets of Kuala Lumpur he gained a love of the people and mission work. He also fell in love with a young church member named Susan.

Susan Cady was one of the first converted by missionary Ira Rice Jr., who moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1961 after establishing a church in nearby Singapore. Susan served as a guide and interpreter for Rice.

When asked what attracted her to her future husband, she gave an honest answer: “I didn’t like him.” Her feelings were cultural, not personal. At the time it was “not appropriate to be seen with American men” because of the illicit relationships between Asian women and American G.I.’s in Vietnam and Korea.

But Dennis was persistent, Susan said with a smile, her grandkids buzzing about her after breakfast in a Belize City hotel.

The two were married in 1968 and, during the 1970s, served as missionaries in Indonesia and the Philippines. Then they moved to Ryan, Okla., and lived there for 22 years. Dennis Cady served as minister, deacon and elder in Ryan before the couple moved to Wichita Falls.

Dennis Cady still makes trips to Indonesia, assisting congregations on the island of Nias as they recover from the December 2004 tsunami and an earthquake that shook the island a few months later.

He narrowly escaped from a collapsing hotel during the earthquake, but injuries to his head and right foot didn’t deter him from the work.

The Cadys’ three children are involved in ministry. David Cady is equipping minister for the Southeast Church of Christ in the Houston suburb of Friendswood, Texas. Another son, Michael Cady, is controller for Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City. Daughter Sarah Landes serves on the board of Wichita Christian School in Wichita Falls.

“It was a true gift to grow up seeing your family constantly pushing and living with the desire to take the gospel to others,” Landes said. “It shapes your world to let you know that life is not about yourself.”

SEEING IT IN PERSON

The immigration officials at the Belize City airport looked a bit bewildered as they watched six children break in and out of line, hugging aunts and uncles that had arrived on different flights.

Dennis Cady said he wanted to give his family a firsthand look at international mission work, but a trip to Indoensia or Malaysia was too much for the young grandchildren and their working parents.

He began looking for an English-speaking country no more than a three-hour flight from Texas that needed short-term workers. Belize met his criteria.

Windle and Barbara Kee, of Onalaska, Texas, make regular trips to the small, Central American nation and gladly added the 14-member Cady clan to their roster.

The trip cost the family about $14,000, and Dennis Cady said that, by funding it, he and his wife were helping their children “spend some of their inheritance.”

During the five-day trip David, Michael and son-in-law Lane Landes conducted devotionals and Bible studies at the Belize City Church of Christ. Sarah Landes and daughters-in-law Amy and Kimberlee Cady taught children’s Bible classes.

Amy Cady said she was nervous about taking her kids to a foreign country, but they seemed to adapt quickly. Her 6-year-old daughter, Mackenna, said her favorite parts of the trip were “trying to wear my hair like the Belize girls — like my friend Hannah that I met,” and “seeing the iguanas outside the church building.”

Though he grew up hearing about his parents’ work, Michael Cady said, “until you experience it for yourself, it is difficult to completely understand.”

The family plans to do another trip next year, Sarah Landes said. They also hope to coordinate trips for other young families who want to introduce their children to international missions.

“We are an ordinary family that enjoys being together, and we all love the Lord and love the church,” Dennis Cady said. “My goal was to expose my family to mission work in a Third World country in a way that they could do something helpful. That goal was certainly achieved.”

David Cady remembers pouring over maps as a child. Now he’s thankful to see that same spark in his daughter and son.

“I definitely feel blessed by seeing a broader view of the world,” he said. “I want my children to grow up with a sense of the world and our mission in it — across the street and across the globe.”

June 1, 2006