I was born and raised in Salina, Kansas. I grew up in the church and as a very young teenager I felt called to the ministry. However, during high school I "successfully fought" that urge. I went to college, married, and had three children. As I look back, I was not the most obedient Christian. Growing up in a Christian home, I more or less grew into my faith and had always known Jesus was Lord and Savior. After leaving home I tended more toward worldly things and a secular lifestyle - to put it mildly. Nevertheless, I remained involved in church.
For various reasons, I drifted away from regular church attendance in my mid-thirties. But while sitting at home on Sunday mornings something just wasn't right. Of course, as I look back, I know the Holy Spirit was at work. I got back into a prayer life and asked God what he wanted me to do. I prayed and waited. At the YMCA I met an evangelist, Dave Henion, who turned out to be the local RCA pastor in Wichita, KS. My family and I began to attend Harvest Community Church. Pastor Dave is a very gifted preacher and as I listened to him I felt much like John Wesley when he said his heart was warmed at Aldersgate as he listened to the Word of God preached.
Pastor Dave and I became good friends, and one day he said to me, "I think you're going to end up in seminary." My reply: "You're crazy." However, he had seen something, and the seed was planted.
About one year later I did begin to feel God calling me to ministry again. I assumed God meant I could go someday after I retired. After all, I was the supervisor at my law enforcement job - a group of cops who searched southern Kansas for wanted fugitives. It was a great police job and one many were envious of. My wife had a wonderful teaching job making good money. We were just finishing fixing up our house the way we wanted it, and our kids were very happy with their friends and schools. My oldest boy was going to be a freshman in high school. My brother lived nearby and had a fishing boat. I had a new Dodge Ram pick-up. I couldn't leave just yet!
God doesn't seem to take "wait a minute" any better than I do when my kids say it to me.
God doesn't seem to take "wait a minute" any better than I do when my kids say it to me. One Sunday in March, 2002, Pastor Dave preached on Mark 8:34 - 39, Then he called the crowd to him along with His disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." That was it. God spoke very powerfully to me, and I knew I was being called as soon as possible.
That Sunday evening I told Tanya, my wife, I felt I was being called to seminary ASAP. I didn't expect a very positive response. She simply said, "I know." God had been telling her for some time I was going to seminary and she was just waiting for me! James, my oldest son, was none too happy. In August we sold everything. One year earlier we had tried to sell our house to buy a bigger one, but it just wouldn't sell. This time it sold in three days. The man that bought my beloved pick-up offered me $500 more than I asked. Thus, we packed up and moved to Michigan.
When we arrived we didn't have a place to live, but Pastor Dave connected us with his friend, Pastor Bruce Kuiper at First Reformed Church in Byron Center. When that church heard we were "homeless" they offered their old parsonage. On top of that, a wealthy individual was so struck that we would give up what we had to answer the call, he paid my tuition. My wife quickly found a teaching job with full family insurance. Indeed, God will provide!
Western cared deeply about graduating compassionate pastors, not simply men and women with heads full of knowledge.
As I write this two and a half years later, I have received the promise of a call from my teaching church. My children are happier than they were in Kansas and don't want to move. God could not have led me to a better seminary than Western. It was evident from the start that the academic standards were in place, but perhaps more importantly was the fact that Western cared deeply about graduating compassionate pastors, not simply men and women with heads full of knowledge. From President Voskuil on down it has been evident to me that each professor and staff member deeply cares that students leave Western with a pastor's heart.
I don't know where God will take us. My kids, who didn't want to move to Michigan, now don't want to leave. My wife and I who wanted to move to Michigan now don't want to stay - but we are. We have learned to be in prayer constantly and listen to God. God has shown us lavishly faithfulness and provision. No matter where we are called - whether we want to be there or not - we know God's promise in Matthew 19:29 - 30, ". . . everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."