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Just a little about us

          Lily walked into my life on 7/20/83. She came in my store because her car had two flats ... at the same time. Fate? Our first date was 7/22/83. We were married 11/15/83. She will always be my bride and best friend.

     Our four boys are grown, so Lily and I are what society calls empty nesters. We are healthy, un-medicated, and not ready to retire; physically, mentally or emotionally. We try to make the most of every day.

     Lily has her own business cleaning people’s homes which she has been doing since I started seminary in 2004. Her clients have blessed her with word of mouth recommendations.

     I am a spiritual director for George Fox Evangelical Seminary and private clients. I also do video editing. Before receiving my Masters in Divinity from George Fox Evangelical Seminary I was a general store manager for Kmart, managing stores in California, inner city LA, Texas, Washington and Oregon. See the video Leadership.

     We want to be rope holders like those who helped the Apostle Paul over the wall and we want to encourage others the way Jonathan strengthened David's hand. We believe teamwork is more important than individual achievement and we recognize our best efforts are not sustainable unless we are plugged into God.

     We heard Bob Gas say that God is looking for extension cords. He said extension cords are under the rug, behind the chair, out of sight. He said no one writes songs about extension cords. God’s extension cords are only useful when they are plugged into God. Love, compassion, mercy, patience, wisdom, discernment come from intimate time spent with God.

     Especially today, with so many people out of work and others trying desperately to hang on to their jobs, careers have become the source of people's identity or their lack of identity. What you do is who you are, but this is not the way I read Scripture and this is not the way to become an extension cord.

     Our identity is in Christ and it is reflected in our relationships with others. As Christians we may nod our heads in agreement with that statement, but most of us are too busy and too distracted to ask ourselves what that statement looks like. What we do has become more important than the relationships around us. We say we'd love to be a missionary, but we fail to reach out to the people God has placed around us; on our walks, in the stores, even in church.

     We say we love God, but we make excuses why we can't spend time alone with God. We claim to know God's word, but we can't make time to read it for ourselves. We refuse to be still unless we are planted in front of the television, computer or texting away on our cell phones.

     Ours is a country on the verge of great change. We all know it’s coming, but we don’t know what it is. There is only one way to prepare for the unexpected and that is to pursue God. You can’t love the Lord with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself if you are not pursuing God.