Pastor Michael grew up in southern Indiana with a family that actively served in church. He knew about God and understood his need for a savior from a very young age. However, it wasn’t until the spring of his sophomore year of college when he recognized he didn’t know Jesus as Lord. Michael entrusted his heart to Jesus after meditating on Romans 6:23 during an Intervarsity retreat in northern Michigan. A few months later his fiancé Laura also placed her trust in Jesus; they married the following year in May 2001. Michael graduated in 2002 with a Computer Engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, beginning his career as an information security professional in northern Indiana.

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Over the next eleven years, the Holy Spirit worked on them as they grew in faith, understanding, service, and love for others through the local church. Believing God was leading them to cross-cultural ministry, they and their four children left the U.S. to live in East and North Africa from 2013 until the spring of 2020. Michael then returned to his prior vocation, but by late 2022 he sensed the Lord moving him back to full-time ministry, eventually calling him to New Hope Church.

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Michael and Laura now live in the Tawas Bay area with their two younger children while their two oldest children and their spouses live in Indiana. They love spending time outdoors, playing games, singing to music, engaging in passionate discussion, learning how to homestead, and helping others on their own journeys with Jesus.