I was born into a very tumultuous and painful childhood. Before 7th grade, I moved over a dozen times, missed most of 3rd and 4th grade and experienced several remarriages and divorces of parents and stepparents. Yet through this constant turmoil, God was gracious in slowing life down at providential moments.
One of those moments was in Kindergarten, when I attended an Awana club and heard a clear gospel message one evening. I remember thinking that what I heard was true--that I believe Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. God gave the gift of a childlike faith, and I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit sustained me through childhood.
Life slowed down once again starting in 7th grade as I was able to attend the same school system and church through high school. Megan and I met in high school and began dating our Senior year. God used a very strong youth group to mature my faith through my teenage years. When I graduated, I was baptized before going to college.
Megan and I continued dating through college and married after we graduated. I started work at a financial company in Chicago as a programmer, then changed jobs to Fox River Financial Resources a year later. I have worked for that same company since, though it has been bought most recently by FIS. While that job has been the same, our family has gone through several other changes since then.
Not long after starting the new job, Whitney was born to us, and she is our oldest at 11 years old. We began attending Christ the King church when she was an infant, and that church was a blessing to our whole family. Megan and I have been a part of the music ministry for nearly the entire time we attended.
While dating, Megan and I developed a heart to adopt, and it was a blessing to have the privilege to do that. In 2007, we began the process of adoption, and in 2009, two year old Simeon joined our family from Taiwan (he’s 10 now). It has been a bigger blessing to love and raise this boy and see so many gospel parallels to God’s adoption of us as his children in Christ. The theology of adoption encouraged us to adopt children, but adopting children has given us a deeper understanding and appreciation of what God has done for us in His Son.
Since then, Elie (7 years old) was born to us, and we adopted Ruby (5 years old) at birth in 2011 from Tennessee, and finally adopted Judah shortly after birth in 2015 from South Carolina. Judah is two years old now, and both of our boys have Christmas birthdays. Our children are a great joy and we cherish them dearly.
In my time at CtK, God has placed a desire and calling to shepherd the flock on my heart (1 Pet 5:12). In an evening reminiscent of how God changed my heart at Awana so many years ago, I sensed a new change to serve the church in the ministry of the Word and prayer (Jer 20:9). Within a few months of that evening, the church affirmed that calling and I’ve served as elder for six years.
As we merge, it has struck me that there are some who have been a part of this congregation longer that I’ve been alive. But I am very excited that with any and all differences, we share one Lord, one faith, and can worship and grow in the gospel together. I’m looking forward to the road ahead with you.