Background: Hello my name is Nick Derington and I currently live in Washington D.C. How I got to D.C. is a very long story that only the Lord could have orchestrated. For your sake I will give you the short version. My life has been filled with major and minor defining moments. I will share the major ones with you. I was born in Waterford, MI and spent the first 11 years of my life living in a beautiful house on an idyllic lake. My childhood consisted of riding my bike, fishing and playing sports. My parents worked hard to provide my sister and I with everything a kid could possibly want. That life abruptly ended with my parents divorce and resulted in me moving to Cincinnati with my mom and sister while my dad stayed in Michigan. It was during this fragile time that God gave me two profound experiences on opposing spectrums. My first introduction to who God was came from a science teacher who stood before my entire class and announced that science could answer ALL questions and that God failed to exist. I refer to that as defining moment #1 in my life. Because I was young and naïve I took this lie to be truth and so was sewed the seeds of an atheistic narrative. The second experience came from my father who to this day I am not sure knows what I saw but profoundly influenced me. During my parents divorce my father stayed in our home in my playroom for a short amount of time. I can distinctly remember walking in on my dad reading the bible with tears in his eye. I don’t know what passage he was reading or what he was thinking but that is the only time in my life that I have seen my father cry. Jumping forward to high school, specifically my junior year was when I was first challenged on my atheistic views. Known as defining moment #2, I met a great friend by the name of Mark. We had known each other through middle school and half of high school. We had the same circle of friend but neither of us talked to the other one. We both had chemistry and were notorious for getting in trouble for blowing things to pieces. One day our teacher got fed up and asked us to go sit in the hallway. Mark asked what I believed and I told him. He laughed and asked how I could explain my existence without God. This was the first time I had truly been challenged on what I believed and failed to produce a coherent answer. I played it cool to Mark but in reality I had been shaken to the core. The basic theological questions pursued and in the following weeks and months I spent a lot of time with Mark and his family. I invited Christ into my life at 16 and set to learning as much as I could take in. In those two years before college I experienced what truth is and what it looks like. I developed a heart for the under privileged and knew at that time that I had been given the gift of serving.
College started off well and Mark and I attend the same school. We had a very strong group of Christian friends and became very involved in serving and mission trips within the United States. I fell in love with a girl who I knew in high school who was not a Christian. We grew very close and I began to drift away. She became everything and I willingly sacrificed my relationship with Christ. I spent three years with her and expected to marry her. I felt a great urge to start the family I so desired as a teenager, even though the relationship was unhealthy and ungodly. Also during that time I joined a fraternity and started to delve into everything that comes with that experience. In addition, I was very focused on a career path working three jobs. I was fitting more and more into my life to fill the void. In my senior year of college this all came to an abrupt end, I will spare you the details, but to say that I broke down and repented. The next day I let the fraternity, the girl, two of the three jobs go and effectively recommitted my life to Christ, defining moment #3.
I met back up with Mark and got involved with a local church plant. Several families from all over the U.S. moved to Cincinnati to start a local community based church. I was very skeptical at first and was concerned that it looked too much like a cult. However, nothing could be further from the truth. These people where seeking Christ and the life found in early Acts. I quickly moved in with a group of single guys, which included Mark. The entire body all lived within 5 miles of each other and participated in what I believe is true community. This is when I met Gavin Long and his family, defining moment #4. They had moved from Boston and lived in the apartment above me. It was cramped quarters but they always managed to have me as well as they rest of the body over for dinner or a good movie. These experiences taught me what it means to sacrifice and how important and powerful hospitality can be.
I grew close to the Long family and adored their 2 girls. They treated me like a member of their family. Gavin and I quickly became friends and he introduced me to the investment-banking world. We started working together on a part-time basis and then eventually full-time. About two years ago Gavin was asked to open an east coast office for the bank we were both working for. He asked if I would continue to live in community with them, leave Cincinnati and move to D.C. This was an extremely difficult decision to leave everything but I knew I was called by God to partner with them. Since we have moved to D.C. we have grown even stronger. We are in the process of creating Christian community and culture through authentic relationships. Community can mean a lot of different things to different people. We intend to share the love of Christ with those around us in the hopes of unifying the church. Our greater vision is to take this abroad at some point. I pray that at some point I have a family of my own but until then I am called to serve. I look forward to this mission’s trip and feel like Christ is creating defining moment #5.
Wait, so who is Nick Derington: Right, so I told you where I came from but what defines me? I am a minimalist by nature. If I don’t use it on a regular basis, I don’t own it. I love scripture and listening to sermons. I enjoy the outdoors and it’s beauty, I see it as the tangible work of God. I worked in the culinary industry for 6 years and continue to study the science behind food. Photography is also a passion of mine but consider myself an amateur. I love collecting music and have a very eclectic taste. I currently work for Apple and know my way around most technology. I am a researcher by nature, which stems from my stint in investment banking. I enjoy reading; favorite author is Ernest Hemingway. He once said “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.” If I had to pick a biblical verse that has had the most influence on my life I would say Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. I love grey t-shirts and flip-flops and pretty much wear them everyday. Lastly, I love kids and have found that they tend to love me. That is the short version of where I come from and who I am. There are many more defining moments, some happy and some sad but all have been orchestrated by God.
