God has woven into Jesse and Monica's lives His passion for the nations even before they knew He was calling them to serve Him in missions. Jesse was born in Nebraska but immigrated to Italy at a young age, and was saved through a church planting ministry there. Monica was born and raised in Brazil, but later moved to Kansas where her family settled down. In their teens, God began calling them to serve Him in full-time ministry. When Jesse and Monica met in college, they discovered their mutual call to missions, fell in love, got married, and began pursuing cross-cultural missions.