How it began:
I grew up, along with three brothers and a sister, on a dairy farm in
mid-eastern
Wisconsin
. After graduation, I decided to apply
for the First Year Missionary program, through AIM, to
New Zealand
. After being accepted, they told me
that
New
Zealand
was full but asked if I would go to
Mexico
instead.
So
a few months later there I was, in
Matamorros
,
Mexico
. During my FYM year there (Sep04 to
May05) I felt God calling me into a life of missions. My leaders took me up on
this and I returned the following year as part of the leadership team.
From
being a eight-teen year old smart-alik with little heart for those who don’t
know God personally, mainly because I knew Him little (in a personal way)
myself; to having Gods heart being thrown into me (by request and by much
brokenness) and seeing life 180 degrees differently than I knew it.
Honestly,
I never chose this as a purpose for my life. I chose God and started to seek
Him with all my soul mind and strength, and in that seeking He led me to where
I am today and showed me who He says I am. Perhaps tomorrow I will be somewhere
else doing a different thing than today. That’s alright with me because my real
purpose is to puruse my heavenly Father.
As for now I
am now in my second year with AIM and part of the leadership team for the FYM’s
in the
Dominican
Republic
. While here I am overseeing the internship ministries and
have various other responsibilities. I also have plans to explore the option of
starting a coffee hangout directed at teen ministry. Many in the city have
nothing better to do than “hechar polvo” (waste time, bum around) so I will try
to find the best way for them to do such a thing. The aim is to build
relationships and share Christ through being a living example.
The future for me is wide open. I don’t
feel a strong calling towards any particular country or people group
for me to say that I will be in a certian spot the next year or two.
My heart is for the comming generations of christians to have vibrant
and intimate relationships with Christ that it affects those that the
people around them. To know the Bible and do what it says is not enough.
As I have been involved with the FYM program for a bit, I have had the
privelage of seeing the Lord change many of my peers and use them as
channels for his purposes.
Theres nothing more joyous than seeing the “cripple” run free and help other “cripples” find healing!
