God used that little girl to show me that His plan, not mine, is perfect.
- Hometown: Pella, Iowa
- Children: 4
- Fun Fact: I was left handed.
I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. I remember when I was five or six years old that I had some relatives who passed away. As I attended those funerals, I remember thinking a lot about death and as a young child I was scared to death of death. I remember asking my dad one night about all of this. My mom and dad took time to show me from the Scriptures my need of a Savior so that I could have eternal life. I remember my Dad sharing John 3:16 with me and putting my name in that verse. “For God so loved Joel that He gave His one and only Son that if Joel believes in Him, Joel would not die but have everlasting life.” After they shared Jesus with me from the Scriptures I then prayed and asked God to forgive me from my sins and declared that I believed that Jesus’s death on the cross saved me from the punishment of death that I deserved.
As I grew up I was very arrogant and felt like I had my life all planned out and knew what I was going to do. It was set in stone in my mind. As I strived for these things, God allowed many hardships to come that broke me. It all came to a head when we were expecting our first child and at the first ultrasound we found out that our baby would not live outside the womb. As we walked through that devastating experience, God used that little girl to show me that His plan, not mine, is perfect and that I need to make plans, but hold on to them with a loose grip trusting God for His perfect plan. God showed me that He is completely sovereign and completely good in all that He does. He also gave me a deeper longing for Christ’s return through that experience.
God led my wife Stephanie and I to start attending Lakeside Fellowship in December of 2017. We became members and started serving in early 2018. I am excited to be a part of what God is doing in the North Polk Community and am excited to connect people to Christ and to His church.