of the Alliance Christian Fellowship (ACF), affiliated
with the Christian Missionary Alliance (CMA), at
Penn State while I was there in the mid-nineties. He
eventually entered into leadership positions in the
CMA church. I met him first when we had a "United
in Christ" week, where all the Christian fellowships
of various denominations gathered together for a
week of events. He was one of the primary facilita-
tors. I got to know him really well. He was always
very open, very honest in his speaking, always irre-
proachable. Every now and again he would select a
couple of students to go with him to a prayer confer-
ence. I was fortunate enough to be picked for one of
those trips, a very moving, powerful experience.
authentic, genuine love for people they respond in
kind. It's been fascinating to see, when sometimes
you respond kindly to someone you don't know. You
take a gander at someone's name tag in a supermar-
ket or in a bank and refer to them by name, a simple
gesture, then every time you see them again they
give you a smile.
high school by holding a faculty position. But ever
since I was young myself, it's been a passion of
mine to work with youth. When I'm around them,
their natural curiosity and joy, it's easy to feed off
of it. Working with youth at church brings me the
greatest joy. Especially knowing that, hopefully,
my actions, my mentorship and my leadership will
have an impact on them.
gling, I realized it was more my ego that kept me in
the major than anything else. After realizing that I
would end up cramming the four year engineering
degree into five years at Penn State, I reevaluated
what God wanted me to do. He led me into second-
ary education. When I graduated, I didn't have any
interest in teaching. I wanted to tutor. The summer
after I changed majors, I was home, and a recruiter
for the U.S. Army called. He got me interested, and
I enlisted in the Army. Because of that U.S. Army
career, when the Federal Government asked for
assistance right after 9/11, I was willing and avail-
able, so I started doing U.S. Army Reserve support
and ended up getting hired full time. It was because
of my Reserve career that I got into what I do now.
teacher with the preteens. I would love the opportu-
nity to have an after school tutoring program.
am, with its particular focus on the Middle East,
there are events unfolding that make you wonder
how close we are. How do the current events now
relate to what I know from Bible prophecy about
is often on my mind.
tion is disappearing, not just in The Salvation Army
but in the church in general. We focus on the youth,
on senior citizens, but that middle-age group, where
have they gone? Are we really reaching them? How
many of our youth are getting a firm understanding
of their faith, of Christ?
personal beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewee