Nearly 30 years of speaking. Schools. Rallies. Conferences. Festivals. Thirty years is a long time for someone who never wanted to be in full time ministry. As a high school graduate, my career goal was to work for the Village of Little Chute, WI and drive the big dump trucks. But when I graduated high school I was told a position wouldn’t be available for another year.

I determined that while I waited for that job to open up, I would turn my efforts towards sharing the incredible love I had found in Jesus. So I enrolled in Bible school.

When I returned from Bible school the position still hadn’t opened up, so I volunteered to sell pizzas door to door to help fund Life Line, a 24-hour Christian suicide hotline. While going door to door I was able to lead four families to Christ. That was in 1982.

During this time I was also asked to fill in for my brother, Bill, as a speaker at a Lutheran conference in Stevens Point. A young freshman girl who heard me that day asked me to come and speak at her high school. It was really scary for a guy who had to go to Special Ed classes for a speech impediment in the first grade, and was told by a high school teacher to never go into public speaking.

I spoke in her public school and it was the beginning of a life-long love of speaking to students about the importance of seeing the value in every person, making the loving choice, and making a difference in their world.

So here I am nearly 30 years later… a full time speaker. To be honest, I still want to drive a dump truck, but I know my true calling was and is to speak. It’s a fire in my bones that can’t be put out.