Baron grew up at Tri-City Baptist Church and is a graduate of Tri-City Christian School and Bob Jones University. In the summer of 1993, while serving at The WILDS Christian Camp in Colorado, Baron came to a true saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and at that time he surrendered his life to serve the Lord wherever He called. The Lord used a trip to Europe (Germany and Romania) in the summer of 1994 to confirm that Romania was the country where the Lord could use him. In July 2001, the Lord had supplied and worked in marvelous ways allowing the Howerton family to move to Lugoj, Romania.
     Joyce grew up in a Christian home in Greenville, South Carolina. She attended Bob Jones Academy and graduated from Bob Jones University with a nursing degree in 1996. After salvation, Joyce had a burden to serve the Lord in full-time ministry. Baron and Joyce were married in May 1996. The Lord has blessed them with six children.
     In 2003 the Lord blessed in the beginning of a new church plant in Lugoj, Romania – Berea Baptist Church. Services were first held in a rented store front and in 2006 the Lord supplied funds to purchase property and remodel an existing home into a church building. The Lord burdened the Howertons to minister through the church to the underpriviledged and abandoned children in the community. Their first step in this ministry effort was through their personal adoption of Romanian twins (Gina and Joey) who had been abandoned at birth. Just this year an orphanage in a nearby village has allowed them to minister there and to bring children to church. In July, they will be taking 36 children to camp, eighteen of them being from the orphanage.

The Howerton's Birthdays:
Baron- 01/17
Joyce- 04/30
Zachary- 12/24/98
Spencer- 06/05/00
Andrew- 07/15/03
Joey- 4/22/2004
Gina- 4/22/2004
Nathan- 6/12/06
Anniversary- 05/11