My Journey to Christ

Hello. I’m the designer and curator of this website. I felt it fitting to be the first one to share my journey with Christ with you all. I promise there will be more to come. At Flint Creek Church of God we are about bringing un-believers to the Lord through Radical Hospitality, Fellowship, and Discipleship.

My journey started at a young age of 6. My grandmother ensured that I was in attendance for every Sunday School Class and Christian Camp available. She was a true disciple of Christ and worked everyday to share the word of the Lord with as many people that would listen. She was an avid volunteer at the Church for anything that was going on and often times could be found at the church just making sure everything was just right. I carried on growing closer to the Lord with her help.

Fast-forward to 16 years old. I was still attending worship Sunday Mornings and attending Youth Group regularly. I had given myself to Christ. Then, it happened. My grandmother was diagnosed with terminal Cancer. She slowly slipped away and then the dreaded day happened. I walked into my Grandparents house, which happened to be just a few paces from our house. As I walked into the bedroom that we setup for her final days I could see the fear on the faces of my mother, aunts, and uncle. I knew at this point a new chapter in my life was about to start. I made the foolish mistake several young believers make and blamed her death on the Lord. Why would he take such a faithful servant?

I slowly drifted away from the Lord and got caught up with the wrong crowd. I found myself doing drugs and drinking alcohol every chance I got. This went on till I was about 25. I went through a divorce and had to start over. This was the point where my life started to turn back around.

I met my current wife and she was also raised in a Christian upbringing. We were Chreasters (attended church on Christmas and Easter) just dipping our toes in, but making sure we didn’t jump all the way in. My wife and I moved to Canandaigua and started attending Canandaigua First United Methodist Church. I immediately starting feeling that pull I experienced in my youth. It was the Lord welcoming me back.

I was drawn to Youth Ministry. I wanted to make sure I could impact as many young teens as I could. We quickly grew from 6 youth regularly attending Sunday School and Youth Group. I continued to press deeper into the Lord and was introduced to a group called Closer Walk of Upper New York. The fundamental purpose of the Closer Walk of Upper New York is to enrich the commitment of Christians to Christ, to further each person’s individual walk with Christ, develop leaders within the local church, and empower disciples to impact the world with the gospel.  For this reason, the three-day retreat is intensive and intricately scheduled. The entire weekend is accounted for and used purposefully for worship, fun, communion, witness, meals, learning, singing, praying and sleep. I showed up for my weekend walk and was overwhelmed by the amounts of people that had gathered. I was frozen in the middle of the room very nervous and anxious. A person approached me and said, “Rest easy son, you are safe here. The reason I tell this story is this person was not seen again the entire weekend and know one could identify him when I described him. It was an angel from God.

These types of sightings started happening on a daily basis. I was sitting in the Verizon store where I work and I had a woman sit down with me. She started crying out of nowhere and explained she was diagnosed with Cancer, she lost her son a couple months prior, and her husband just recently passed. Without hesitation I asked her if I could pray with her and we prayed right in the middle of the Verizon store. She thanked me gracefully and I asked her to thank the Lord as it was him working through me. I still keep in touch with her.

It was also in the Verizon store for a simple tech problem that I met my current Pastor Russell Willemsen of Flint Creek Church of God. Over the next few months Russ and I continued to cross paths and we developed a friendship. Things with CFUMC started going down hill and it was time for a change. At this point I started attending FCCOG.

It was at this time I had my biggest God Sighting I needed several repairs on my car and my wife and I just didn’t have the money. We prayed daily for relief. A month later we had saved enough for the initial repairs. I dropped my car off and went to work. Throughout the day the repair shop called me several times to tell me they found other issues and the cost would be about double. We hadn’t saved that amount. I decided I would go to the repair shop and see what I could do as far as making payments since I had a good relationship with the owner. Upon arriving I walked in with a sad look on my face and walked to the counter where the owner was standing. Before I could ask about making payments on the balance, he handed me the keys to my car and said have a nice day. I said, but I haven’t paid yet. He then proceeded to tell me that some woman he had never seen before came in and paid the whole bill. I immediately dropped to my knees and thanked the Lord as he is the only one possible of making these things happen.

This is my journey with Christ and I’m so thankful for all the people he put in life throughout my journey. I currently am the IT/Sound Engineer for FCCOG as this is where God needs me know. I hope to be able to preach the word someday and share my walk with as many people as possible as just like most people I’m just average.