I grew up out on Long Island in NY. When I was a child, I attended a Roman Catholic church, where I went to Sunday School (CCD classes), along with my younger sister, on our own. This was an evangelical Catholic church, where my Sunday School teacher was a born again believer. In the course of teaching the students in her class, she invited me, along with many others over time, to give our heart to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. I prayed the sinners prayer and gave my heart to Jesus Christ at the age of 7 years old, so I was saved at an early age. I continued attending various Roman Catholic churches as a child, where I made my First Holy Communion, and Confirmation. However, I never felt fulfilled while attending a Roman Catholic church. Unfortunately, there are also many things in my life that I am very ashamed about, including stopping attending church after graduating from High School, as I got busy with a job, and going to college at night. I let the things of this life take over and take precedence in my life. I am blessed that my eye condition, which is called Retinitis Pigmentosa with Maccular Degeneration, was diagnosed at an early age, when I was 13. The doctors told me that my eye condition was both "progressive and unpredictable", so I knew that at some point in my life I would go blind. Due to this medical diagnosis, my motto of my life was "to do as much as I can for as long as I can", which caused me to try and pack as many things as I could into my life before I lost my sight. I also used this knowledge to prepare for my eventual loss of sight, so I took college classes in both Electrical Engineering, while working as an electrical engineering technician in the defense industry, which I started working in at age 17, as well as taking college classes in Computer Science, as I knew that I would have to change careers once my vision deteriorated to a point that I could no longer function working in a visual profession. Just after I left that job, at age 24, in 1980, when I was declared legally blind, I then went to college full time, to complete my AAS degrees in Electrical Engineering Technology and Computer Science, at the SUNY at Farmingdale, NY. Between completing my two college degrees, the Lord richly blessed me again, as another example of the Sovereignty of God, as only through His divine providence could He have orchestrated me to meet my beautiful wife Trina, who is also a born again believer of Jesus Christ. My wife to be was put into my life, only working out through a large number of extraordinary circumstances, which were beyond the realm of humans. By the way, my wife is also blind. We were then married in August of 1981. As Psalms 127:3-5 states: " Lo, children [are] an heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward. As arrows [are] in the hand of a mighty man; so [are] children of the youth. Happy [is] the man that hath his quiver full of them:" so we were blessed with five wonderful children in seven years, three sons, and two daughters, who we endeavored to raise in a Christian home. My wife home schooled all of our children, and still does that to this day. Over the years I continued my college education, earning a BA degree in Computer Science from Rutgers, and later a MS degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. We were again blessed when my youngest daughter was born with a birth defect, in 1991, that caused her to have a critical breathing problem, which caused her to need several surgeries when she was a baby, the first at 10 days old, and others at 9 and 12 months old, as well as several others over the years since then. We were only able to get through these trials and tribulations by the grace of God. God used these tribulations to draw us back to him, and to get our attention, which He did, so we started going back to church, and have never stopped going since then. As my five children have grown up, they have presented their share of challenges to us, which we have worked hard at to resolve. We have struggled over the years with coming to terms with why our children have acted in a Prodigal way, but we have come to understand the meaning of what is stated in Romans 8:28, as follows: " And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose." God has taught my wife and I through all of our tribulations in our life that we cannot rely on anything or anyone in this earthly life, but that we must rely on Jesus Christ to be the center of our life, and then He will give us the strength to get through whatever adversity we encounter in our earthly lives this side of paradise. We thought that struggling with a disability would be enough tribulation in our lives, but then struggling with raising five children followed with more tribulation, including struggling with a daughter who almost died due to a birth defect, which brings to mind the Bible scripture from John 16:33: "In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." We have learned that if we keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus Christ, then we can overcome any tribulations that this fallen world throws at us.
I feel the Lord has called me to work with children's ministries, "to teach and reprove them" so they will "store up the treasures of God's word in their heart". I also want to evangelize people from other nations, who are living in the US while going to college, to share the gospel with them, so they will take the gospel message back with them to their countries of origin, and share it with others there. lastly, I feel that the Lord is calling me to use my love of motorcycles to share the gospel message with broken people through a motorcycle ministry.
Here are some further thoughts to share with you. Due to the disability of my wife and I, we have come to understand the meaning of the following scriptures: