Wow, where to start? How can I possibly relay to the reader who I am through a text box on a computer screen? Let's start with some general background; I am 23 years old, I live in Amherst, Ohio with my parents and my three younger sisters. I am the son of a senior pastor and a mom who is the bomb dot com. I have been incredulously blessed with an amazing family, both immediate and extended. I love my family and wouldn't trade them for the world!! Although I would trade them for the World Race (catch the irony there….?) I have a very sarcastic and ironic sense of humor, with many a pun and dry humor as well. I am a fun loving, goofy, flexible guy (not in the anatomical sense however). I affectionately tease those I am closest to, but never in a mean way. So for those of you that I will be teammates with, prepared to be teased! I graduated from Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan in May of 2011 with a degree in Business Administration. I have been blessed with an amazing girlfriend who supports me and will stay with me through this new adventure I am embarking on. I love most sports, but am especially fond of basketball and football, in that order. I can not rememeber an age during which I was not playing basketball. I feel closest to Christ when I am worshipping Him, more specifically singing out in a rocking worship service. I don't claim to sing very well, but I think that God is tone deaf, or he has ears that auto-correct pitch so that all of our praises sound lovely to Him. I love to serve people and I am always looking to see what I can do to help. I definitely do not claim to have this Christian life all figured out and I want to continue searching after God's heart (part of the reason i guess you could say i decided to come on the WR). My motto in life is made up of three, 2 letter phrases that my dad came up with, and are the foundation of the church that he pastors–"Love God. Love People. Live Surrendered."
I decided to come on the World Race back in early December, 2011. I found out about the race back in September and was initially captured by the idea, however the excitement faded over a couple weeks and fell by the wayside as I looked for other jobs in the major that I had graduated with. Plus, I had excuses for why i couldn't go, I told God. I have a job, etc, etc. Well, after putzing around, not really doing a whole lot with my life since finishing an internship with a local minor league baseball team in September, and only one real job that i was seriously interested in and looked promising. However, when that job fell through, I just felt as though God was telling me "Now what excuses do you have? You have no job, no girlfriend committment, not a whole lot keeping you in Northeast Ohio." Therefore, I started looking back into the World Race and watching lots of videos from Racers that were in the field, or that had recently returned and I was captured at how much fun they were having serving Christ and the "least of these." I had been praying about this and I continued to pray and felt like God was telling me, GO. I actually had a "vision" in a worship service in which i was smacked in the forehead with a 2×6 board with the word GO painted/written on it. Almost like God was saying do i really need to hit you over the head with this before you will listen to my gentle leadings?
