Virginia Stewart Metzler was born in Houston, Texas. She married John Thomas (Tommy) Barnett, Jr., a pilot, and moved to Liberia, West Africa, where they served as missionaries with R. G. LeTourneau for two years. After Tommy’s untimely death, Virginia moved back to the U.S. with her two small children, Vicki and Randy.

Virginia met Les Metzler after moving to California from Texas. They have now been married for 46 years. Virginia and Les served as support missionaries for 14 years with Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics.