Roger  & Suzanne Doriot

Bio: Roger Doriot

   Hi!  I'm Roger Doriot and I am married to my best friend, Suzanne!

   I was raised on the Doriot Farm near Fayette, Ohio which has been in the family since my great-great grandfather, Gustave Doriot, settled there shortly after immigrating from Switzerland in 1850.  I have three brothers, Leslie, Veryl and Merle. Our brother Merle is now with the Lord after sustaining fatal injuries from a farm accident when he was eight years old.  I was a student at Franklin Township Elementary School and Archbold High School.

   Growing up in a Christian home included regular attendance with the family at a local Evangelical church.  I knew much of the Bible and was introduced to and understood the Gospel from an early age.  At the age of ten, the Holy Spirit had been convicting me of the presence of sin in my life and while attending summer Bible camp in Greenfield, OH, I accepted Christ into my life as my personal Saviour.  Two years later and at the same camp I committed my life to the Lord, in light of Romans 12:1,2, and was determined to do whatever He wanted me to do for the rest of my life.

   After high school, I left the farm to study the Bible for one year and then pursued a career in Civil Engineering.

   While working in West Virginia, I sensed God calling me into some type of Christian service.  I left my job to begin Theology training at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary where I heard a presentation in a chapel service about the need for Bible translators world-wide.  One year later I transferred to Dallas Theological Seminary believing that the training offered would be more appropriate for working in that field.  This resulted in two personal milestones: 1. Preparing for a life of church planting, linguistics and Bible translation and, 2.  Meeting and marrying my wife! (In that chronological order, but not necessarily in order of importance :-)

Bio: Suzanne Doriot

   Hi!  I'm Suzanne Doriot from Dallas, TX, USA.  I'm also happily married to my best friend, Roger!

   I was born into a Christian family in California.  We moved a lot as my father was employed by the US Navy.  During those formative years I lived in Kansas, Rhode Island, Georgia, Guam and Japan.

   God's call on my life began before I was born!  That's correct - He knit me together in my mother's womb and knew everything about me. Psalm 139:13. 

   Being raised in a Christian environment meant going to church where I learned about and memorized Bible scripture, hymns and songs.  My mother was a great influence on my early spiritual life.  I remember her reading many Bible stories including those about Jesus.  Even before I started school, I understood the significance of Jesus' death on the Cross and subsequent victory over sin and  death.  More important was that I understood that He did this for me!

   At the age of 6, I accepted Christ as my personal saviour during revival services at our local church.  Our pastor came to visit me the following week and was pleasantly surprised that at such a young age I understood what I had done.  At church a few weeks later I publicly declared my salvation and was baptised, signifying my new walk in life with Jesus!

   About a year later, a missionary nurse came to visit our local church.  I recall her talking about tribal people from far away that did not know or care who God was.  She explained that these people needed medical help and by offering it to them, they would be more willing to listen to the message of Salvation through Christ.  When our family arrived home from church, I told my mother that I wanted to me a missionary nurse because I knew that this is what God wanted me to do.

   A few years later I read a magazine article about an African boy who walked many miles to go to school.  This saddened me and it was then that I then felt that God wanted me to work with the black peoples of Africa.

   After graduating from high school, I moved to Waco, Texas to study nursing at Baylor University.  During a party held in a church basement, I met Roger Doriot.  We hit it off and began to see each other when we were not studying, so it wan't too often. (That's my story and I'm sticking with it ;-)  We had some really interesting conversations about world missions and it was during one of these discussions that I first heard about Irian Jaya.

   Many discussions later, Roger and I were married at Reinhardt Bible Church in Dallas, TX during the summer of 1970.  Both of us were still university students so our first year together was often challenging with both of us working on our senior studies. 

 After graduation, Roger accepted a pastoral position in preparation to go to Indonesia.  During this time we had two children and in 1975 we said goodbye to our families and friends as we left the USA to work in the jungles of Papua (Irian Jaya) Indonesia.

   During our first few months in the field, I was surprised that so much seemed quite familiar to me.  I attribute this to learning a similar Asian culture when I lived in Japan.  I was very happy that the Lord had brought me to these people and had directed my path to this work from when I was young.

   Roger and I learned that we were not the first to work among the tribal villagers in Papua.  The groundwork began during the 1960's with the first spiritual awakening occurring during the 1970's.  In 1974 the first believer was baptised with more than 40 taking this step of faith over the next two years later.  As the tribesmen were introduced to Jesus, the Good News began to spread to neighbouring villages.  These early believers did not have a written copy of the Scriptures in their own language so they memorized many verses and songs that we taught them.  In turn, they shared them with the many villages in this remote Indonesian outback.  Many accepted the Lord and gave up many of their dark spiritual customs including the burning of their fetishes.

   In 2007, Roger's work has changed to emphasize training of the nationals to translate the Scripture into their own mother tongues.  Since 2011 we have given much of our time while in America to speaking to churches about the need for and recruiting new translators that will be a part of the Vision 2025 strategy. Since 2016 we have returned to the USA annually primarily because of personal medical needs that could not be met in Asia. We now travel to Indonesia for a few months of the year only. We pray that we can continue to be a catalyst to bring healing to the hurting people of Indonesia that still need Him.