Introduction

If you asked me at 25 where I would be in 20 years, I may have said retired from, or still in the U. S. Army, I would have assumed that I would still be an Air Traffic Controller somewhere. I would have stated I was hopeful that I would be married and have a couple kids. These are the things I would have said out loud, but, in my mind I would have added if I live that long. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t suicidal, I wasn’t looking for death, or anything like that. I just had seen too many of my friends names pop up on the Killed In Action reports, and with the direction my military career was headed at that time, I just didn’t think that far ahead.

Now 20 years later, my life, is nothing like I imagined it would be. It is so much better! If someone had told me then, that in 20 years time, I would be married to my best friend, and that we would have 14 kids, 2 add on kids, and 3 grandkids, that I would be finishing my 12th year of ministry as a full time pastor and we would be living Wisconsin, I would have laughed at the improbability of it all.

When Becca and I got married we decided it was important to raise our kids in church, that decision, along with Becca’s consistent prayer for me to be the spiritual head of our home, laid the foundation for me to finally say; “Not my will but Yours Lord”.