More About Laura
I am the only daughter of Hershel Baker and Tina Howland. Like Steven, I too come from a blended family, but instead of being the youngest, I am the oldest of all my sisters. Yes, you heard that correctly, all girls! I have four younger sisters from my father's side and two younger sisters from my mother's side.
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I grew up in the small town of New Vienna, OH in a small house on Church Street. I even was "Little Miss New Vienna" during one of our town's events. As a child, I was very active in 4H, FFA, and band. I started to ride on a Baptist church bus when my sisters and I were invited to Vacation Bible School (VBS) over the summer by the Pastor and his son while they were canvassing our town.
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It was during VBS when I put my trust and faith in Jesus. After one of the night services I walked up to one of the Roman soldiers (actor) and told him that I wanted to be saved. He then explained the gospel to me and I accepted Jesus into my heart.
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Later on that year I met my husband on the church bus. During the summertime, he would ride his bicycle from Martinsville to New Vienna (about 7 miles) just to spend time with me. I wasn't allowed past my sidewalk.
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On Aug 20th, 1999, Steven and I got married. We had a beautiful wedding and spent our honeymoon somewhere in Ohio. We never traveled before and his parents booked the hotel room. We drove there and to this date, we don't know where we spent our honeymoon. All we know is there was a Taco Bell nearby because we bought everything on the menu that night and a mall we drove to the next day that was several hours away.
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On Sept 11th, 2001 our country was attacked by Terrorists. A horrific experience but one that changed our lives forever. It was after this attack Steven and I decided to have kids. Almost a year later our oldest daughter Kara was born (Aug 25th), a couple of years later we had our son, Steven III (Jul 3), and it was twelve years later when we had our youngest daughter Elizabeth (Sep 1).
We left the church, where we met, before we got married and we became church hoppers for many years. We started attending BBC Wilmington after Steven's grandmother invited us for a special event. Soon after Steven and I were baptized and became members of the church. We started growing in the Lord and both of us were being discipled; one on one. Soon after Kara and later Steven III were saved. But when Steven's mentor and a close friend died in a car accident it was hard for him to keep attending the church because of all the memories they had together. We began looking for a new church and soon gave up.
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If you haven't already, I recommend you read "More about Steven" before continuing with my page. It will help you understand the context of my information. When Steven asked me the question that changed our lives (How do you know that you love someone?) I felt very confused. Here I thought we were going to bed and then all of a sudden he asked this question. This very important question. We were up all night discussing it and it changed our lives.
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It was awkward at first going back to our home church. But friends helped us get through the awkwardness. We started getting plugged in like never before. I joined the choir and we started serving for the first time in Jr Church. I will never forget the day when we went through our house "kicking the devil out" of it by throwing away anything that was a bad influence. We read our Bibles and did family devotionals. We started praying for our meals and together as a family before going to bed. It wasn't long after that when we started leading people to the Lord.
There was a significant change in my husband and God placed a burden in our hearts. When Steven first asked me about going into full-time ministry I knew that was what God wanted us to do. It wasn't long after that when we walked down the aisle to surrender to ministry.