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 Pastor Of Discipleship MinistriesMy Life Story
I grew up in the most loving, caring family I could have dreamed of. From very early on in my
life, my mom and dad were hungry followers of Jesus and my brother Chris and I couldn’t help
but be affected in very positive ways. I knew what was expected of me and the modeling of love
and discipline helped to shape my early understanding of who God as my Father was.
I did all the right things a good Christian kid should do. I attended Sunday school and the youth
programs; I read my Bible and I prayed every day before going to school. My father shared
his testimony in a children’s program when I was eight years old and I believe that God first
captured my heart and drew me in faith to him. Listening to the story of my dad’s walk with
Christ and his anything-but-storybook upbringing rocked me and caused me to stop and look
upon Jesus with my own eyes, and not just do what was expected of me. With an eight year
olds’ eyes, I heard the message of a Saviour who was calling me to turn from my self-obsessed
life and to run to the Lord who had died for my sins.
Growth in Christ from eight years old was slow, but steady until I reached my senior year of high
school. It was there that in a short season of about eight months, I allowed a recently growing
rebellion in my heart to surface and bear rotten fruit in my life. Let out like a tiger, my desires
which were once for the Lord, now ran to things like basketball, parties and girls. Even though
the church I was in at the time was falling apart and I lacked solid teaching in my life, God
through his Spirit began crushing me under a very healthy weight of conviction. By the grace of
God alone the Spirit of the Lord who is so patient with me, called me to repentance and a total
change of lifestyle. My heart which as the hymn writer says is so “prone to wander, Lord I feel
it; prone to leave the God I love,” was returned, forgiven, cleansed and restored.
I left high school to college in Chicago at the Moody Bible Institute in 1995. There the Lord
grew me through a deepened understanding of God’s Word and the solid community of
believers. For the first time in my life I was in the company of serious Christians who were
planning on lifelong service to Christ and it inspired and challenged me in my faith. It was here
also that I met my future wife Catherine (who hails from Ohio) and we were married in early
1999. We would live in Canada for the next few years before returning to Chicago to complete a
Masters of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2007.
Hope For Harvest
After a series of events which only God could have orchestrated, I now find our family clearly
called to Harvest Bible Chapel in Oakville. I’ve seen evidence of this calling and evidence of
God’s blessing on my family as I dedicate my ministry to the glory of the Lord. It’s my prayer
that my life will be exhausted for the sake of the salvation of others, and I desperately want and
believe that the Lord will do amazing things before our eyes here at this church. I want to see
thousands come to know Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives and the Saviour of their souls.
I want to see men and women turning away from the worthless things of the world and turning
their eyes on the incalculable worth of Jesus. I want to see my own life transformed from its
love of sin to a deep and personal love of Jesus.
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”(905) 827-4888 ext. 204
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