About Me
SORRY THIS IS NOT IN PARAGRAPH FORMAT, IM TRYING MY BEST TO GET IT TO NOT BE A HUGE RUN-ON STORY...Being my mothers first child and my father an alcoholic (little memory) in 1978, with the birth of my brother in 1980, the doctors noticed that I wasn't walking yet... I myself, having a slight disability (Cerebral Palsy 5%, right side). I've experienced numerous hardships throughout my life. I was a broken home child, with minimal positive influences between my parents and child support issues, and moving several times. Those hardships have propelled me to the person and place I am today.--Bo Jackson's "1990 career ending hip replacement injury". Bo's comeback inspired me to become a Disabled Athlete, from that point on things had started going upward for me, even though I was always the underdog in every athletic competition I was involved. I had a few close friends in Ben and Connor who were always apart of my support structure, while living with my overworked/ never home father...At the start of high school wanting so bad to play football my ego grew, knowing I would not be big enough with my disability I spent 2+ years in the weight room. Until the end of my junior year in May 1996, when my HS Football coach pulled into his office stating he noticed my hard work and discipline in the weight room for the anticipation to play football my senior year. His next sentence was the hardest words to ever travel through my ears. "You can not play football here, get pissed off, upset, commit suicide, I don't give a ****, you will not play football for my team!"That summer 1996, I struggled with depression but more importantly how can I regain my self-esteem and self-image. To prove to everyone that I am able to get knocked down to get back up just to get knocked down again and again... Well my senior year Football season came and passed with struggles of not being under the helmet, Connor knew my feelings being a football star. While in my weights and fitness class the teacher/football coach asked who is trying out for basketball, so all the basketball types responded. Then he asked if anyone is turning out for wrestling, so I proudly & defiantly stood up. To get his stunned reaction.So I became a wrestler & those next 4 months completely changed my life to so many better things. A volunteer wrestling coach (Jim, a Young Life Leader) befriended me, and kept pulling my mental and faith strings during practices and was always at home and away matches supporting me as a father figure, while my father was working 10-12 hours days running his business.
I also had a teammate that that I was spending time with, his sisters smile and willingness to care for everyone that she came in contact with. Sara invited me to youth group making an impact. Along with the introduction of Ben, Connor, Jim, Sara are Nikki and Cheryl who had significant influence in the transformation that began at this time.So spring break 1997 is upon us and I was asked to join a group of friends on a ski trip to Lake Mead, Arizona. That trip drove straight to my soul; learn about Our Lord Jesus Christ. Wanting to know more, so after graduation there was another trip up to Malibu Canada. On July 17th 1997, I handed my life Jesus, am so grateful for all that Jim (and Michelle) has shown and taught me in the ways that I've become the man that I am today and will carry myself in the future as a vessel of God's word. This drove a wedge between my dad and I that lead to silence, as I had become a born-again.In the same time period Ben found Jesus through the path of his guitar/ worship/ and bands like Blindside and P.O.D. Ben and I saw and knew each other prior to and now with Jesus.So from that point on I've decided to give back that which I've received from Jesus, for 8+ years as a Young Life youth leader at my HS, while working 40 hours a week and obtaining my bachelors degree through night and weekends classes. Since graduating with a bachelors degree, my parents and I found a difference of opinion of my career path. My beliefs have led me to follow the Lord into disabled ministries, as depicted in Mark 2 I was once a loweree who has become a lowerer. Whereas, my parents views see 5 or 6 figure salaries for based on the fact that I have a degree.Through the years I was given the strength and knowledge I needed in the Lord, to begin to repair the silence between my dad and I. We still have our differences yet the understanding that we are helping eath other grow.Since, I've been lead to become a youth leader for teens with disabilities @ Calvary Fellowship in MLT, as well as a Special Education teacher in the Shoreline SD from the slight learning to the severally disabled. As well as a Band-Aid which has included: promotions, touring, filming, merchadising, roadie'ing, security, sound tech, background vocals, maybe everything at the level of being behind the scene's of the unseen success that musicians can gain, being the vessels of God under the heat of the stage lighting.Considering the fact that I have choosen to give my life to inspire(Hebrews 10:24) & love(1st corinthians 13) my students, as well as everyone around me to reach beyond their expected potential and excel themselves to make a difference in this world.Hence, my screen name of 1st corinthians 13, which reads:Love
1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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