I was born in Binghamton, NY, but I lived most of my life in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I grew up near or around the Pocono Mountains and Scranton...home of Dunder Mifflin Paper (Michael and I go way back).

I am married and have 2 children.  My wife, Melissa and I were married in September 2000.  We met at college but never dated. God brought us back together after college through our friendship as she taught school in Columbus and I served as a youth pastor in Cincinnati.  In July 2004, God gave us our daughter, Jenna, and in December 2007, we were blessed with our son, Kaleb.

I attended Davis College in Binghamton, NY for a one year Bible & Theology program, graduated from Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA with a bachelors degree in Counseling Psychology and Religious Studies in 1998 and currently I am working on my Master’s in Middle School Education with a emphasis in Language Arts and Social Studies from Mt. Vernon Nazarene University in Mt. Vernon, OH.

I have been working in youth ministry either part-time or full-time since I was 19.  Over the summer of freshman year of college and before I transferred to a new school, I was approached by a small church in Pennsylvania near where I lived to help them with a mid-week teen Bible study.  I ended up staying their 4 years and helping them start the church’s first youth ministry.  Since then I have serve here in Ohio in Cincinnati, and also in Louisiana and Wisconsin, until God brought to Ohio to the Berean Baptist Church in August 2005.

Over my years of youth ministry and working with other areas of ministry God continued to lead me back and call me back to Jr. High and Middle School students. I feel strongly that God has called me to a lifetime of serving Him working with middle school and Jr. High students.  As my life verse, Ps. 71:17-18 says, “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God  till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come. “