I don’t look this good in person.
Hmmm… what should I tell you about me. Well, I’m 23, married to my high school sweetheart, a ship yard worker and part time youth pastor. I love the outdoors and camping/hiking, that sort of stuff. I also love doing dramas/plays and playing music.
I was raised in church, I gave my heart and life to Lord when I was 12. When I was 14 my church went on a short trip to Mexico and my tiny sheltered world was blown open. I had never known or seen suffering and despair like I saw in the slums of Monterey. After two trips I knew that God had plans for me in the mission field.
I continued to go on different short trips through high school and had planed to go to a small bible college after graduating but God had other plans. Near the end of the summer my best friend, from the earliest of my memories, went home to the Lord. Completely broken I stayed home and over the next year learned lessons I will never forget. I learned first, to never hold to tightly to anything. Wither relationships, friendships, or things of this world holding on tight only makes the pain worse once its gone, and I’d feared for many years the very loss I suffered, yet through it God had shown me that I should hold only to him. That his grace and love were enough to carry me though this life.
I learned that every friendship and interaction we have together should emulate Christ’s love and our relationship with him. Many people who knew Russell would have given him the title of best friend because of his love for them. Christ’s love shown through him in every way, it was a fearless, reckless, courageous love. He would give without question and help without reason and seeing his life in its closing, I saw what a relationship with Jesus could be and how it could affect everyone who sees it. Learning this has helped me become the something close to what my wife deserves and needs. That year was hard on our relationship but because of it our love grew stronger.
We were married for nearly a year when God began to lead us into youth ministry and again taught me the importance of trusting him. See I’m really kind of shy and mostly quiet around groups of people, so I’ve naturally never had thoughts or fantasies about preaching or teaching in front of anyone…..and if I ever did it was probably in a nightmare that I blocked out due to the sheer terror it caused me. So yeah, God does have a since of humor and he really can (and does) use the most scared and messed up people in the world for the betterment of his kingdom.
So how did we end up here? Believe it or not I was trying to plan a mission trip for our youth group when I found the World Race link on the AIM website. I spent a little while poking around on it and was immediately intrigued with the idea of spending a year away from all this stuff…doing the lords work. I never really thought that Lacey would give the idea a second thought, but it was all she talked about for the next few weeks. So we prayed…….a lot and now here we are, preparing for what will probably be the most life changing event of our lives, I cant hardly wait…..
I was raised in church, I gave my heart and life to Lord when I was 12. When I was 14 my church went on a short trip to Mexico and my tiny sheltered world was blown open. I had never known or seen suffering and despair like I saw in the slums of Monterey. After two trips I knew that God had plans for me in the mission field.
I continued to go on different short trips through high school and had planed to go to a small bible college after graduating but God had other plans. Near the end of the summer my best friend, from the earliest of my memories, went home to the Lord. Completely broken I stayed home and over the next year learned lessons I will never forget. I learned first, to never hold to tightly to anything. Wither relationships, friendships, or things of this world holding on tight only makes the pain worse once its gone, and I’d feared for many years the very loss I suffered, yet through it God had shown me that I should hold only to him. That his grace and love were enough to carry me though this life.
I learned that every friendship and interaction we have together should emulate Christ’s love and our relationship with him. Many people who knew Russell would have given him the title of best friend because of his love for them. Christ’s love shown through him in every way, it was a fearless, reckless, courageous love. He would give without question and help without reason and seeing his life in its closing, I saw what a relationship with Jesus could be and how it could affect everyone who sees it. Learning this has helped me become the something close to what my wife deserves and needs. That year was hard on our relationship but because of it our love grew stronger.
We were married for nearly a year when God began to lead us into youth ministry and again taught me the importance of trusting him. See I’m really kind of shy and mostly quiet around groups of people, so I’ve naturally never had thoughts or fantasies about preaching or teaching in front of anyone…..and if I ever did it was probably in a nightmare that I blocked out due to the sheer terror it caused me. So yeah, God does have a since of humor and he really can (and does) use the most scared and messed up people in the world for the betterment of his kingdom.
So how did we end up here? Believe it or not I was trying to plan a mission trip for our youth group when I found the World Race link on the AIM website. I spent a little while poking around on it and was immediately intrigued with the idea of spending a year away from all this stuff…doing the lords work. I never really thought that Lacey would give the idea a second thought, but it was all she talked about for the next few weeks. So we prayed…….a lot and now here we are, preparing for what will probably be the most life changing event of our lives, I cant hardly wait…..
