Raised in the foothills of the Adirondack mountains of Upstate New York, where an affection for the transcendent beauty of creation and the gift of unspoiled solitude first embraced me, stirring an awareness of God, and coaxing watercolor paintings, poems, and melodies from my young heart. Raised in a very conservative Christian home, I had my first real encounter with God at the age of 16; deeply moved at the consideration that God might really have a personal place for me in His economy, I soon went off to Bible College, where I studied psychology and Bible, played on the soccer team for two years, and met and eventually married my truly amazing sweetheart, Caryn Beth.
After giving attention to the starting of a family of our own, Caryn Beth and I, along with our own two beautiful young children, left the USA to work with children in Kenya, East Africa, in 1993. We spent the next 5 years there, perched on the rim of the Great Rift Valley, but left in the spring of ‘98 when I realized I was in desperate need of “more of God” than my conservative theological training and heritage had given me. I then spent two years working hard at a factory in Michigan while earnestly pursuing the truth about the person and work of the Holy Spirit and the core of what it really meant for me to “believe” in God.
In 2000, truly reborn and filled with the Wonderful Counselor, I “came up from the wilderness, leaning on my Beloved,” as it says in Solomon’s Song of Songs. In 2002 Caryn Beth and I went on to follow the leading of our Shepherd’s voice back into international ministry, moving to Mozambique to work with Iris Ministries. There we spent 6 years in church planting and leadership development, living primitively and working in the “bush” with children and young men in the shadow of the deadly AIDS crisis haunting sub-Saharan Africa. During this period, I was invited by Iris Ministries Director, Heidi Baker, to teach and write curriculum on Biblical Male Identity for Iris’ Bible School. It was in this role that my passion for studying God’s blueprint for male identity and wellness began to really take shape.
In 2008, God’s leading again directed Caryn Beth and me, this time calling us into the House of Prayer movement— the rebuilding of a night and day cycle and priority of incessant worship and prayer — and to a glimpse of His heart for the peoples of the Middle East. Since that time, Jerusalem—the city of the Great King— has been our intercessory base of operations, from which we have ministered internationally, teaching, imparting, strengthening, comforting and encouraging people in 16 countries. As a result of building our lives around the centrality of intimacy with God, we have received many prophetic assignments on personal, corporate and international levels, and traveled literally to the “four corners of the earth”, calling for alignment to the heart of God regarding Israel, the Islamic peoples, worship and intercession, the present maturity of apostolic faith in action, and preparation of the Bride of Christ for His soon return.
After giving attention to the starting of a family of our own, Caryn Beth and I, along with our own two beautiful young children, left the USA to work with children in Kenya, East Africa, in 1993. We spent the next 5 years there, perched on the rim of the Great Rift Valley, but left in the spring of ‘98 when I realized I was in desperate need of “more of God” than my conservative theological training and heritage had given me. I then spent two years working hard at a factory in Michigan while earnestly pursuing the truth about the person and work of the Holy Spirit and the core of what it really meant for me to “believe” in God.
In 2000, truly reborn and filled with the Wonderful Counselor, I “came up from the wilderness, leaning on my Beloved,” as it says in Solomon’s Song of Songs. In 2002 Caryn Beth and I went on to follow the leading of our Shepherd’s voice back into international ministry, moving to Mozambique to work with Iris Ministries. There we spent 6 years in church planting and leadership development, living primitively and working in the “bush” with children and young men in the shadow of the deadly AIDS crisis haunting sub-Saharan Africa. During this period, I was invited by Iris Ministries Director, Heidi Baker, to teach and write curriculum on Biblical Male Identity for Iris’ Bible School. It was in this role that my passion for studying God’s blueprint for male identity and wellness began to really take shape.
In 2008, God’s leading again directed Caryn Beth and me, this time calling us into the House of Prayer movement— the rebuilding of a night and day cycle and priority of incessant worship and prayer — and to a glimpse of His heart for the peoples of the Middle East. Since that time, Jerusalem—the city of the Great King— has been our intercessory base of operations, from which we have ministered internationally, teaching, imparting, strengthening, comforting and encouraging people in 16 countries. As a result of building our lives around the centrality of intimacy with God, we have received many prophetic assignments on personal, corporate and international levels, and traveled literally to the “four corners of the earth”, calling for alignment to the heart of God regarding Israel, the Islamic peoples, worship and intercession, the present maturity of apostolic faith in action, and preparation of the Bride of Christ for His soon return.
