Happy Birthday, Mike and Joanna!

We celebrated Mike and Joanna's birthdays tonight...it's hard to believe that he will be turning 40 next Friday! I met Mike when we were in the fourth grade so I guess that means we've known each other for 30 wonderful years. We were best friends throughout high school and married after our first year of college. Although he graduated with an accounting/business degree, he always shares that God saved him from a boring life of numbers and called him into ministry. After college, he was a youth pastor for 8 years before going to seminary for his master's in Biblical studies. He then felt God leading him into singles' ministry at First Friends. While on the pastoral staff there, he finished a master's degree in pastoral counseling and again felt the Lord's leading into full-time missions here at CLM. Mike loves to bring the Scripture alive through dramas and activities that get the kids involved. He also loves to work with the boys, teaching them what it means to be a Godly man. He recently has started working as our staff coordinator. Please pray for God's continued blessing and direction in his life as he ministers to our children and for his health...he survived swine flu but is now battling a bad ear infection.