Private

Engineer

Private

I grew up overseas as the son of missionaries and have lived in many places. While I've had extensive experience moving, I cherish stability and I would be happy if the Lord kept me here for some time. My parents have been on the mission field for over thirty years, focused on church planting and seeing the gospel spread in a third world country. Growing up in the jungle was an incredible experience that I look back on with nothing but thankfulness. Whether it was the joy of homeschooling, Bible study in the mornings, my Dad teaching me how to build and fix things, hiking and playing with the natives....all were life experiences that would have looked very different had I grown up stateside. I'm the eldest of four with one brother and two sisters. We all spent our younger years with our parents and returned to the States to finish out the last bit of high school and hit college. Growing up overseas contributed to our independence and we all attended different colleges and fanned out across the entire country post graduation.

God, in His sovereign mercy and wisdom, saw fit to work in my heart senior year of high school. God's timing has been a testimony and a source of great conversation over the years. Finishing up high school, my sister and I were in California and my experience with churches has taught me that the majority struggle with conceptualizing how a person can grow up on the mission field, see the Lord work in countless ways, hear the gospel daily and yet still reject the truth. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Outwardly, I looked great but inwardly I was as sinful as anyone when the Lord began His work of salvation. What a blessing beyond measure to know Him.

After being a part of many churches over the years, the Lord has given me an understanding of what it is that I value most in a church; the solid expositional preaching of the gospel. Legalism, a lack of love for believers with different backgrounds/perspectives, a belief that salvation comes from a personal choice/decision rather then a direct work of the Lord.....these are but a handful of attributes that I do not believe lead to a healthy, Biblical church.

Now there's an amusing question that can be taken many different directions. The honest answer would be both yes and no. Yes in the context of knowing that God has not purposed that I be married all these years. Yet, I would have to answer no in the context of a deep desire I've had (for many years) to share my life with a companion. Someone to come alongside and support me, join me in fellowship over coffee and food with friends from church, laugh at the crazy things I'm occasionally known to say, raise a family together if the Lord so wills........

A love for the Lord and the foundational truths of the Word. That the Word alone is the absolute source of truth and that the Scriptures are finished. That through repentance from our sin and faith in Christ alone are we able to attain the free gift of God's grace and mercy. Down to earth, laughs easily and pushes me to expand my horizons. Someone unafraid of challenging me when I'm wrong (which never happens but just in case :)). Some will laugh at this but I'd have to say being politically/socially conservative is important as well. A person's political/social views shape and tune their perspective on life. While age has mellowed and tempered many of my views, at heart I am unquestionably a strong conservative.

Rather then favorite lines, I'll list a few of my favorite movies and tv shows: Gladiator, Braveheart, Blood Diamond, Anna and the King, Band of Brothers, North and South, Last Man Standing and JAG.

I'm an engineer.

I love my job and am deeply thankful for the Lord's provision.

I was born in California and have traveled extensively all over the entire United States as well as numerous countries in Europe, Scotland and elsewhere.

I enjoy a simple life: spending time in fellowship with friends over coffee, hiking up mountains (a little challenging in my current location but a recent vacation in CO was awesome), traveling to other countries (typically about once every other year) and staying busy working on my house. Home improvements are a major hobby of mine; currently in the middle of re-doing my guest bedrooms.

I would like to meet someone who is open to discussing the possibility of homeschooling. Growing up out of the country, homeschooling was a necessity rather then an option but for any parents who are able to homeschool, I've always thought the benefits outweighed the negatives. Homeschooling allows parents to raise their own children and grant them greater opportunity through love, discipline and teaching to raise them in "the fear and admonition of the Lord". A parent can do nothing in themselves to save their children and see them come to salvation. The Lord, however, often sees fit to use parents faithfulness in teaching their children as a means to work in their hearts and bring them to repentance.

Lloyd Jones, Charles Spurgeon, John Owen and Matthew Henry are a handful of the tremendous spiritual leaders that I respect. My church's pastor is a younger man who graduated from Master's (John MacArthur's seminary in CA) and what a blessing it has been to hear him quoting those men in sermons and holding fast, not to the ideals of the "modern church", but to the faithful preaching of the gospel.