Today
Today I have fully dedicated my life to Jesus Christ and cannot express the importance of God in my life. This includes all aspects of "organized religion" including having Christian friends (and non-Christian friends), having a church home where I can worship weekly, seeking opportunities to serve, seeking opportunities to make more disciples of Christ, and being connected as many different ways as possible. Yep, I am a full fledged Jesus Freak. But, this certainly has not always been the case and was not a knee jerk reaction to having terminal cancer. I also never had "that moment" where I was saved at a specific time. I think I am a good example of a reluctant Christian who has kind of fought God all along the way, but I am so thankful He has patience for people like me.
My Childhood and Teenage Years
I don't recall going to church in California, or in my first year at San Angelo or Eola. I think we went somewhere for Christmas or Easter, but I don't have any memories.
When we settled in San Angelo for good, we became members of St. Lukes Methodist Church in San Angelo. My mom, and I think my sisters, were great about going. My dad, not so much. I stuck with my dad whenever possible. It's not that I did not believe in God, I just didn't want to go to church. It was boring and I would rather sleep, hunt, fish, or fix the toilet (which was and is a serious job in San Angelo). We went when we had to (special events, Christmas, Easter, etc.. or when my mom just absolutely made me). I did not participate in the youth events, although again I think my sisters did.
I did participant in the mandatory stuff, such as going through confirmation in the 8th grade. I also remember having to attend a sex education class that was pretty funny because it was about two years too late from a knowledge perspective, but I guess it was good I heard the official information. And the films were exciting.
I found it funny that my dad hated church and seldom went, unless Mom forced him to, which was often. He did, however, agree to work at the church. He spent a lot of time managing their finances and serving in a variety of different roles. I think in his mind, that was his contribution to God. I am not sure, but pretty certain giving money wasn't an issue either. Although he never spoke of the importance of tithing.
Other than that, I really didn't put any effort into my faith. I am not sure I ever read the Bible and certainly did not pray. I am very happy to say that our daughter Sarah has had an entirely different experience in her youth and I so glad for that.
Newlyweds
When Nancy first got married, we lived in Round Rock, worked a lot, knew nobody, and were beyond broke. We joke, but not joking, we could not afford to put hamburger in hamburger helper. I was paying for college and we were just barely surviving check to check. We decided to start looking for a church since that is what married people are suppose to do. We were married in June and started a search for a church home in the September-October time frame. We know now that is NOT the time to look for a church. It is the time that all churches launch building campaigns and seek financial commitments for the next year. I now know that this is a very important part of a Christian life from the scripture and for practical purposes of church operations. I did not know or realize this when I was in my early 20's.
Every church we attended had that special sermon talking about the budget, upcoming needs (new parking lot, new building, more of this and that). They were seeking a financial commitment from everyone, except visitors like us. However, Nancy and I walked away with the same impression - we can't afford to go to church. So our search for a church home ended due to looking during stewardship campaigns.
After a couple of years, we decided to try it again. This time we discovered a small church start up that was meeting in a school cafeteria. We really connected with the people there. I think it was because we finally found a church that had less money than we did. We attended this church for a little awhile and then were soon transferred to Dallas. While we attended this church, we were pretty quiet about our lives and never really took church home with us.
The Colony - Trinity Presbyterian Church
We moved to Dallas and took another break from regular church attendance. I did start attending a local lunch with several EDS colleagues called a "power lunch". In honesty, we went because the $5 plate of bbq was a pretty good deal and the bbq was pretty good. This lunch was sponsored by a very large church in Plano and featured Zig Ziglar as the weekly lunch speaker. I really enjoyed his weekly talk. This was probably where my Christian seeds that were planted in my youth started taking on water and growing a little.
Nancy started managing a Bealls department store in The Colony, and we eventually bought a house in The Colony. Seriously, Nancy bought it while I was out of town - but that is another story. We then started attending Trinity Presbyterian Church in the Colony. Nancy grew up in a Presbyterian church and her Scottish Presbyterian pasture married us in Brownwood, so I considered myself a Presbyterian. I seriously could not tell you the difference in any denomination back then. I thought they were all the same - believe in Jesus and God and that is it.
Our faith really started taking off at TPC. We became regular attendees and members. We developed some very close relationships and became actively involved in the church. One of the events we did was we split a concession stand at Ranger Games at the old Arlington Ballpark. It was good money. We kept a good portion of the proceeds and raised money for our mission trips. It was not easy. We had to be their early to set up, work the entire game, and stay late to clean up and close. It was also a very long drive to/from The Colony and Arlington. So yes, I sold beer for Christ while at baseball games.
Answered Prayer - Sarah Jane
What we seldom spoke of was our inability to conceive a child. We had gotten pregnant several times but always had a miscarriage. We even miscarried twins, which was emotionally devastating. We told everyone about the first pregnancy and the word traveled quickly, because we had been trying for so long. Then we discovered that news of a miscarriage does not travel very quickly. People constantly were asking about the baby to be, but was not there. We also discovered how cruel some people can be in not really know our story. Nancy especially hated going to work on Mothers Day. It was a cruel reminder that we did not have any kids. Then people would actually yell at her and call her selfish for not having kids. I still get mad thinking about that. It certainly taught me to never judge others, because you never know what they are going through.
We went through an exhaustive and expensive process with the top infertility doctor in Dallas. This cost us a lot of money since very little of it was covered by insurance. I would have to give Nancy pergonal shots every day a week out of the month. She would have to get a sonogram every morning. Then we went through invitrofertilization and several other procedures. This was not any fun, drained our bank account, and did not result in any successful pregnancy.
At this point, we were broke again and could not afford any more infertility doctors. So, we looked into adoption. This led us down a variety of decisions that had to be made with adoption - new born or older child? open or close? US or foreign? Perfect child or child with issues? Then we realized we also had to wait and save up a lot more money before we could even afford adoption.
Through TPC, we had done some work with the kids at The Presbyterian Childrens Home, where my elementary school buddy Scott Waller works at today. Nancy and I talked a lot about this and decided that we were wanting to talk to somebody about adopting an older child from PCH. One Sunday, we talked to our pastor Dave at TPC before service and we would like to talk to him after service about adoption at PCH. He said you guys don't need to do that, you need to pray. I explained we had been praying for ten years and had no luck. He really called me out and said that was a bunch of bull. That if we had really been praying, we would have said something to him and asked for prayers at Church. We were pretty private about our situation and had not asked anybody to pray about it. He was right.
That Sunday, he did something unusual. He kicked off the service with a special prayer request for Nancy and I. We were embarrassed, but appreciative. Then all types of people started praying for us. Then a few weeks later, yep a few weeks. Dave and I were coming back from working a Rangers game and got home really late, like around 2 or 3 in the morning. Nancy was up and sitting on the couch and said she was pregnant. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even remember how it could have happened (and wondered if the kid was going to look like the pool boy - but we didn't have a pool boy). We told Dave the next day on Sunday and he just jumped with joy. We said "but don't tell anybody because we had gotten pregnant before, but could not carry the baby to term, even after getting a heartbeat and seeing our child move around in a sonogram (another reason we are pro-life, but that is another topic).
He told us were were nuts. That we needed to tell everyone. We needed to keep asking for prayer, but now ask that the child makes it full term. So we did, and he did it again during service. We once again had even more people praying for us. Nancy went on to have a very rough pregnancy. Every test she took, she failed and required further testing. Then on January 19, 1995 we were blessed with the perfect baby named Sarah Jane Strasner. She is still a miracle child to us and we so thankful God blessed us with Sarah.
God had us in his grasp, and then we ran away.
New House, New Jobs, Where's the Church??
Right after the birth of Sarah, Nancy and I went through a few more big moments in our lives. We sold our house in the Colony (purchased for $65k and sold for $95k - good job Nancywa!). Built a new house in Frisco, Tx, which is just a few miles up the road. In 1998, Nancy and I both quit our jobs. She had been at Bealls for about 12-13 years and I had been at EDS about the same amount of time. She became a technical recruiter and I went to work for a silicon valley based software company. Our life was pretty good - new baby, new house, making a lot more money, and Nancy didn't have to work nights and weekends. I started traveling extensively all over the US, entertaining clients in NYC and San Francisco and everywhere in between. I also started playing hard with a group of guys I worked with. They were good guys who were also working hard, and we played hard to blow off the stress and pressure that came with work. We golfed a lot, hit the sports bars a lot, went to a lot of Mavericks games, Ranger games, and Stars games - whatever was in season.
We seem to be doing everything except going to church. TPC was just five miles down the road, but we started looking for a new church with no luck. So just when God had us, we let him go. It wasn't intentional, we just let the distractions of the world slowly drag us out of his grasp. I then met a guy named Robert Vaio who had a huge influence on my life. He brought God back into my life because God was such a critical part of Roberts life.
All In With God
Then randomly, out of the blue, I received a call from our local Presbytery. They said they were looking for a small group to become part of a new church development team and start a new Presbyterian church in Frisco. They had a pastor, Phillip Lotspeich, and few other couples already. So Nancy and I stepped right in with both feet and started meeting with this small group in an apartment. This was a tremendous amount of work, but we really got into it.
We went from 5-10 people meeting in an apartment (Phillip's) to finding a place to worship. We found a school cafeteria that would let us worship there on Sundays. We used our NCD funds to buy everything we needed for worship and stored it in a trailer. Every Sunday, we would get up early, set up the cafeteria, hold Sunday school, then worship, and then pack up and clean up.
Those first services it was just us, the same 5-10 people. We then started actively engaging with all our neighbors seeking more people who would come to our worship. I'll be honest, finding people to help with set up and clean up was a big motivation. There were several big and famous churches in our areas - Zig Ziggler was teaching Sunday school down the road, Charles Swindoll was preaching less than a mile a way. However, after two years of hard work, we finally chartered an official church with about 200 members. That work was hard but very rewarding. God was definitely a part of our lives. We met several people that are still a part of our lives. We named the church Faithbridge Presbyterian Church - I still like that name.
Houston and Clear Lake Presbyterian Church
In 2001, my buddy Robert Vaio talked me into going to work for him and picking up my family and moving to Houston. We packed up and moved to the Clear Lake area (or the Bay Area) of Houston. We didn't spend a lot of time looking for a new church and pretty much went straight to Clear Lake Presbyterian Church. After spending last two years in a new church and setting up in cafeterias, we were pretty happy to join a large church with a real sanctuary, and a large enough congregation we could just hide for a little while. The associate pastor, Craig Goodwin, met time with us and understood our desire to hide out. He did recommend we attend a Saturday Night Alive group led by Jimmy McGregor. This turned out to be a great move. This was a small group that met before worship and discussed the previous weeks sermon. We quickly became close friends with everyone in that group - Mike & Jenny, Doug & Denise, Larry & Lylus, Jimmy & Marilu, Tom & Paige, Mike & Susan, and others who came in. This group became so close that we met before worship, we worshiped together, and then went to dinner together. We also started riding bikes together (nice road bikes on very long trips - in fact, riding 200 miles a week wasn't unusual). We also fished, golfed, and just really enjoyed each other - and do today. This has really amazed me. It is really fascinating to me that people can spend so much time together, every week, for years, and yet never get tired of one another and our relationship just grew closer. That is what happens when God is the common denominator.
What is really funny about our first year at CLPC, is that we attended one worship service in the sanctuary and they discovered mold. We spent the next year setting up chairs in fellowship hall! It was great, seriously.
While at CLPC, Nancy became very active in active in attending the Thursday women's bible study, Sarah became very active in the youth group, Ross in his group, and I was active with men's group. Nancy and I also joined a small group that met every week. So we worshiped as a family, met as a couple, and everyone in the family had their own group to grow closer with God with. We learned that committing your life to Christ is so much more than attending church for an hour once a week, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
We also became involved, after taking a break, with church leadership and operations. I became an elder and was on session for three years, I was on the nominating committee for three years, and we all just continued to find ways to serve. It was hard work, like the new church development, but also very rewarding.
When we experienced great blessings, like the birth of Ross, we had a big group to celebrate that with. This same group adopted Ross like their own. Then when we had big crisis hit, we also had a large group to be there for us.
Today
We recently moved to Brownwood and Nancy & Ross attend their bible studies on Wednesday at the big local Baptist church. As a family, we have started worshiping on Sunday morning at First United Methodist Church. The Methodist church has traditional service and a big nice sanctuary, but we like the new contemporary service set up in their fellowship hall. We now know that physical church buildings are overrated. It also helps that the associate pastor that leads this new service, Scotty Crawford, is our neighbor and reminds me very much of Craig Goodwin. I need to connect those two.
So there it is, my faith journey in one post. I have so much more to say, but will save that for later and shorter posts.
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