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I was born in southern Ontario, and at age six my family moved to Seminole, Texas, where I grew up. Having had a primitive primary education, I entered the workforce at an early age where I had the opportunity to learn various responsibilities. I was an ordinary conservative Mennonite boy with common sense and a strong work ethic. My father died the day after my 21st birthday, and I was then left to manage his business for the next year. During that year I met Tina (who was a single mom) and we started dating. Sixteen months later we were married in the Old Colony Church in Seminole Texas.
We have now enjoyed 28 years of marriage and have six children and two grandchildren. Over the years we have learned to enjoy life outside of ministry as well. We have for many years blocked out one evening per week for family night where we enjoy games, making up silly songs, and laughing together. We enjoy hiking, camping, and yard work. Tina relaxes puzzling and reading, and I enjoy golfing while connecting with other men.
In the first few years of our marriage, we attended marriage conferences hosted by Family Life Today, through those conferences I was introduced to the Gospel, and I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. Three years later in 2000, we began attending Gospel Mennonite Church (EMMC) in Seminole. We soon began serving and growing in our faith and relationship with Jesus Christ. During our time in this church, we served as Sunday school teachers, Sunday school superintendent, deacon couple, and lay minister couple.
As our responsibilities increased, we began to recognize our incompetencies. We sought the counsel of our pastor and our conference pastor, and both encouraged us to get more education. Following their advice, in 2006 we packed up our family and moved to Steinbach, Manitoba where we spent the next three years learning. I graduated from Steinbach Bible College in 2009 with a BA in Bible Theology.
During our last semester of Bible college Allen and Anita Kehler (EMMC Conference Pastor at the time) began discussing with us the possibility of ministering in Belize. Through a lengthy process of discernment, we accepted the invitation. In October 2009 we again packed our family and belongings and moved to Shipyard, Belize. For the next six years, we served as pastor couple at Gospel Fellowship Chapel in Shipyard and had the privilege of serving a congregation that was eager to learn. For the next three years, we continued to serve in the Shipyard church in a less formal role while focusing more of our energy on establishing and managing De Stemm Radio, an outreach to the conservative Low German speaking Mennonite colonies.
We moved back to Steinbach, Manitoba in October 2018 where we focused on resting, transitioning back to Canadian culture, and reconnecting with our oldest two sons and one daughter-in-law who lived in the area. At the same time, we were communicating with EMMC leaders about moving to Vauxhall, Alberta to serve the church there. In April 2019 we made the move and have had the joy and privilege of serving as pastor couple at Mennonite Gospel Church and are currently serving this church. Serving at MGC has been a great journey of seeing God at work, and it will be difficult to end our time here, as this congregation has become very dear to us.
We are now again in a time of transition. Starting in September 2024 I will begin serving in the role of Executive Director for the EMMC. I look forward to getting to know and serving alongside our office staff and together discerning ways that we can make disciples of Jesus Christ. I look forward to connecting with all our EMMC churches and church leaders, and together discerning how we can raise leaders who will embrace the call to shepherd churches in the years ahead. The world is chaotic, but God is not threatened or weakened, and His commission for us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” is still in effect. His promise “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” still stands. In light of this promise, our commitment to faithful obedience continues with confidence and hope.