Childhood

I grew up in an active Roman Catholic family of five kids and spent 8 years in a Roman Catholic grade schoool.  My mom always figured that if she could have been a nun and a mom, that would have been her calling.  Since that wasn’t possible, she chose motherhood over sisterhood.  I have to admit, as selfish as that may sound, she made a pretty good decision.  My mom and dad continued to set a great example of living a life of faith right up until they went to meet Jesus.

My parents surrounded us with love and stellar examples of how Christians should live. Many of our family friends were/are solid faithful Christians. They made sure that we had nothing but the best of everything that was important. While raising five kids on a single factory income wasn’t exactly easy, they were able to provide us with a fair amount of our wants too. We never went hungry and we never had a right to be bored (no matter what we said).

I fondly remember many of the parish Priests and educators from my childhood. Each one of them had varying influence on my life. People like Sr. Mary Lou, Sr. Carol, Fr. Don Schmidt and Fr. John Simon were/are really wonderful faithful people and were instrumental to laying the foundation for my walk in faith. My life has been enhanced because some of them were not only spiritual leaders, but family friends. I will be forever grateful that they shared their gifts with me and my family.

Adulthood

In 1991, I married my best friend. Lori, a lifelong Christian who grew up in a family (two kids) with a faith life somewhat like mine – just Lutheran. Her aunt and uncle (a Lutheran pastor) spent forty plus years as missionaries in Japan. She has a few cousins that are serving as pastors in other parts of the US and in Canada. Her parents remained very active with their local congregation in Fond du Lac until they went to their permanent home with Jesus.

Early on, Lori & I agreed that we need to worship together as a family. So in the early nineties, we decided to join a local Lutheran church in Fond du Lac. Today, we are active members of Fond du Lac’s Ascension Lutheran Church.

God has gifted us with such wonderful examples of Christian believers from Jesus to the disciples, biblical authors and preachers, our grandparents, parents, relatives, family friends, clergy, our kids, their friends and an endless list of believers. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Lori and I continue in our walk of faith. While the scope of this ministry may surprise some (I know it has surprised me more than once), I simply pray that this is an intended part of the path that God has placed before us.

Ascension Lutheran is a wonderful community of believers and has helped us grow in many new and exciting ways. I won’t pretend that we have everything figured out, but we work hard to grow together in faith (not to mention worship, care and share). If you are not attached to a church community, consider visiting us at Ascension. If you don’t have a faith community that is helping you to grow in relationship with God, I would encourage you to examine the causes and take action to correct the issues. I firmly believe that you need to begin to grow with your community again. If you can’t figure it out, I would encourage you to consider visiting and worshipping with us at Ascension. If not at Ascension, how about visiting with another local congregation.