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Hey Villagers,
I'm teaching an online class at Pima and the first assignment for students is to write a brief life summary/spiritual journey essay to share with the class.
I shared mine with the class and thought you might like to read it also . . .
Jimmy
Hi Classmates!
Greetings to you! Our entire class has now posted greetings and introductions so I'd like to take a moment and share with you my story.
I am a late bloomer. I was born two minutes behind my twin sister. I finished high school the summer following my graduation. I started college at age twenty-nine. I started graduate school at age thirty-three. I married a terrific (seven years my younger) lady at age 36. I finished my master's degree at age thirty-seven. My wife and I began having children when I was thirty-nine. Today we have three beautiful children ages 2, 4, and 6 and I am forty-five young years old.
Like I said, I'm a late bloomer!
Spiritually, I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. I had some affection for God during my younger years but had not bowed the knee. In middle school, my family joined a Protestant church; we were really involved and committed. I loved it!
Then, after the pastor's moral failure, the church disbanded and our family never settled again into a church.
With this experience, I began to rebel against Christianity, religion, and anything God-related. Generally, I felt it was all a joke, irrelevant, and hypocritical. I carried that pain and hurt for years and in my mid-twenties, it was clear it was killing me. I had been medicating myself with impure relationships and various substances, trying to dull the pain of living with no meaning, no truth, and no sense of God's presence.
Finally, when I was twenty-five, I experienced a remarkable conversion - not to a religion, a tradition, or a denomination - but to Jesus. It was a life-transforming experience. At first, it was really weird. I felt like my old self had melted away and a new self was beginning to emerge. New desires, new longings, new sensitivities, new hope, new love, new faith.
With this new faith and new life, I felt God was calling me to serve him as a pastor/shepherd. So for several years I served and grew in a local church in Wisconsin. Then I went back to school for eight years at age twenty-nine.
Today, along with my family, I have been in Tucson since 2003. I served a church here for almost five years before landing at my present post as co-pastor of a local church called The Village. I am really excited about our community and see God doing quite remarkable things regularly.
Midway through my eight years of study, I had the privilege of studying for four months in Israel at the Jerusalem University College. While there, our class toured at length the various locations around Israel and we also spent time in Jordan. This, too, was a transforming season.
Through my various experiences of traveling, studying, and serving, I have gained a deep appreciation and love for people; I have learned to listen intently as people share their stories, their perspectives, their lives. I find that the most compelling people are those who hold beliefs, convictions and perspectives that are quite foreign to mine.
I am convinced that we all have much to learn from each other if we will take the risk to listen and explore the hearts, minds, and emotions of one another.
And that is why I enjoy this course so much!
Thank you all for sharing a bit of your story with me and your classmates. My life has been enriched by you and it is clear to me that your lives are being enriched by one another!
Keep up the good work!
Sincerely, Jimmy | 
