DaytonDailyNews.com

Julie Resch of Bellbrook can pinpoint exactly when her whole life changed. After completing a mission trip to Lithuania in 2005, she and her family found their lives transformed by everything they saw and experienced.

"We realized that you don't have to have it all," said Resch, a closing officer at GW Land Title Ltd. in Centerville. "You can be satisfied with what you have."

Resch grew up in Kenton, Ohio, and graduated from Kenton High School in 1990. In October 1990, she married her high school sweetheart, Jeff Resch, and moved to West Carrollton, where her husband, a De Vry Institute electronics graduate, had a job.

"I just wanted to get married and have children, but I worked at Bell Industries while we lived here," said Resch, who moved back to Kenton in 1992 after her husband was offered a job there. "I'm blessed to be a mother of three."

The couple's three children, Jenna, 12, Jared, 10 and Jada, 9, were born in Kenton, where there were relatives to help out with the small children.

In 2000, the couple moved to Bellbrook after Jeff Resch was offered a job with SBC Ameritech.

"We felt like God placed us in the right spot ... where we need to be," said Julie Resch, who earned a real estate license in 2001 and worked in the field until 2005.

It was while out for lunch one January day in 2005 that the couple discussed becoming missionaries.

After contacting the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, they signed up for a family mission trip to Lithuania and were sent to Kaunas, the same city where Resch's father lived as a child before fleeing Lithuania with his family in advance of Russian troops during World War II.

"My grandfather was anti-communist and somehow the Russians found out, so the family had to flee to Germany, where my grandfather worked in a factory for two years before coming to America," said Resch, whose maiden name is Grigaliunas.

"My father spoke Lithuanian, but my mother is American, so we didn't learn Lithuanian. I have a cousin there that I've been in contact with for about 17 years and I was able to meet her. We e-mail and instant message now."

The combination of Jeff Resch's annual work bonus and money from a fundraising campaign allowed the family to buy plane tickets and have enough money for food and other living expenses during the two-week mission trip.

"We saw such a change in the kids after the trip," Resch said. "You don't have to have a lot to be happy."

Contact this reporter at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.

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