Personal Highlights (achievements, hobbies, interests, etc):
Marlene and I have been married for 37 years. We have lived all over the country, moving six times from California to Michigan, and back and forth, and back and forth.....We settled in Michigan 20 years ago.
We are pleased that our children all live in Michigan within 20 miles of our home. We are blessed to see our children and grandchildren weekly.
I love to sail a Hobie Cat 16 on Lake Michigan. Marlene and I keep an Airstream trailer on the big lake and enjoy many days and nights by the water from April through October. Each of our grandchildren spend at least one night at the trailer. With Lake Michigan being as large as it is, it helps me remember surfing California. Sailing the warm Lake Michigan waters in the summer helps this former Californian get through the long, cold winters.
I retired from active building four years ago, and now manage rental properties. We also stumbled across a couple of nutritional companies that have helped maintain good health. No truer words have been spoken that if you lose your health, you lose everything.
Marlene and I started running 5K's a few years ago. The first one we ran was in Daytona Beach, Florida on the speedway. We don't do this competitively. We use it as a measure to see how we are doing physically every year. Believe me, its a good measure.
A great passion of mine is to be involved in men's ministry at my church. We call the group ManUP and I teach twice a week. Having men in my life has always been important to me. I think losing my oldest brother while in high school was perhaps part of that need or desire in me. I also see many young fatherless men wandering around today looking for some voice to speak into their life. It is encouraging to me to see men helped by what we do at ManUP.
God has been very good to us. Out all the decisions I have made in my life, the decision to follow Jesus Christ has never let me down. I made that decision at 13, when my brother first got cancer. I think the process of watching my brother battle with life and death, changed my way of thinking somehow. While it was a turbulent time in my life, God has a way of taking things meant for evil and using them for good. It is His nature to bless, not curse.
