I came to know Christ as my personal Savior on January 24, 1988.  Within about a year the Lord had claimed my life for full-time Christian service.  I knew that I would need to get Biblical training to fulfill that call.  I considered Bible college but because I already had a bachelor's degree in mass media and was looking to be challenged, I chose Northwest Baptist Seminary.  "Challenged" was an understatement.  As a young Christian, I was seriously over my head. As I studied long hours, I took to pacing in my room at night in order to stay awake and finish just one more chapter.  By the end of the first quarter I was ready to drop out of school.  But one of my professors refused to let me quit and challenged me to trust the Lord.  God enabled me to finish that first quarter and, eventually, a Master's in Biblical Studies in 1992.

While at NBS I was compelled to wrestle with the Scriptures and go beyond the pat answer.  I was forced to be a thinking Christian and a thoroughly Biblical one. I learned the value of being precise in my explanations of Scriptural truth.  Northwest Baptist Seminary gave me a love for the Scriptures and a lifelong thirst for Biblically accurate teaching. I was encouraged to always take what I learned in the classroom and use it in real life and ministry.  The godly demeanor and graciousness of my professors has been an example to me.  One can be a champion of truth and firm in conviction without being arrogant and antagonistic.

A month or so after graduating from NBS I was accepted for missionary service in the Far East of Russia under Baptist Mid-Missions. I served there until January 2000 when the Lord brought me back to the United States to work with Campus Bible Fellowship, Baptist Mid-Missions' outreach to secular college students.  I serve in Cleveland, OH working with students from Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Institute of Music.

Recent studies show that college students are increasingly interested in spiritual matters.  However, they tend to have rather eclectic "theologies" that are based largely on whatever they think is right. Biblical authority is absent from their thinking.  The knowledge of the Scriptures that I gained at NBS, allows me to show these free thinkers an anchor of truth that does not change like shifting sands. I challenge my Christian CBF students to go to the Scriptures to find the truth.  It is a thrill to me when they search the Scriptures to see whether what I and other Bible teachers tell them is accurate.

I am now seeing students that I have discipled going on to disciple others in various parts of the world.  That is the theme verse of NBS working out in real life: "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" 2 Timothy 2:2.