What was new was the world I spent thirty years walking through.

In 1993 I joined the United States Army as a counterintelligence agent. Counterintelligence is the work of protecting national security by investigating and countering all aspects of espionage and terrorism directed against the United States — identifying threats from within and without, and working to neutralize them before they do harm. I spent twenty years in that role, then moved to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency as a supervisory cyber counterintelligence operations chief, and later became a Special Security Officer for the United States Air Force, where my responsibility was protecting the classified facilities for the long range bomber program.

In that career I worked in 47 states and lived, worked, or traveled through more than twenty countries — Korea, Belgium, Afghanistan, and across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. I deployed to Afghanistan twice. I spent five tours in Korea — ten years total — and four years in Belgium. I have sat in barracks rooms, foreign chapels, open fields, and my own living room with a VHS tape, trying to find church wherever I could, because for most of that career there was no WELS congregation within reach.

I went as often as I could, by whatever means were available. The faith held. But it would be tested in ways I had not anticipated.

People sometimes ask me why I would walk away from a career like that to pursue ministry. They ask it as if it’s a complicated question. It isn’t.

Jesus said go. Go and make disciples of all nations.

I have been to those nations. I have walked through countries where most people have never heard the name of Jesus — or where they have only heard it as something to be mocked or feared. I have seen what the world looks like without the Gospel. And I spent thirty years of my life focused on my career, my family, my finances, my earthly concerns — and if I am being honest, my ego. When all of that came crashing down in Afghanistan, what I emerged with was a clarity I had not expected: I cannot spend whatever time God gives me remaining on anything other than telling people about Jesus.

I had initially thought I would pursue the WELS Chaplaincy Certification, then perhaps the Staff Ministry track. That felt like a reasonable, manageable path for a man my age starting over.

God is patient. He is also persistent. Every hard thing I went through, I can see now how He was using each piece of it — molding me into someone He shaped to serve Him.

Where I Am Now

I am currently a pre-seminary certificate student at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, with the intention of continuing to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. I am not a young man doing this for the first time. I am a retired Army soldier, a retired government counterintelligence professional, a husband, and a father — starting the second half of my life’s work with a clarity about purpose that I did not have in the first half.

I also run a daily SMS devotional ministry called Morning Encouragement, which goes out each morning in both English and Korean to subscribers around the world. My wife is a Korean national, and cross-cultural ministry has become a natural part of how I serve. If you would like to subscribe, you can text 833-779-8793.

I am not here because I have everything figured out. I am here because I finally stopped arguing with God about where He was pointing me. And I am grateful — more grateful than I know how to say — that He was patient enough to keep pointing.

To God be the glory.

Questions or conversation: Morning Encouragement — 833-779-8793