Pastor Mike and Brenda VerWay

I apologize in advance for the length of this blog. I was recently inspired by a joking comment from a friend to do a series of blogs on people who have influenced my life. Since doing a blog on him was his idea, I thought it only appropriate to start with Pastor Mike. :) Pastor Mike and Brenda came into my life when I was in 8th grade. They came to fill the youth pastor position at my church. Little did I know the effect of their impact on my life that would become clear in the following years.

They were real. I saw them in many different circumstances and knew their faith to be real. I could listen and grow under Pastor Mike's teaching because of who they were in normal life. As I look back on who I was in high school, I recognize the infinite level of patience they had in dealing with me. They were there at camp the summer when I was having the worst attitude of my life and he was preparing to actually send me home from camp until the Lord got ahold of my life and I got saved. They came over to my house to personally tell me something that I would learn the next day at church about a situation that would devastate me. They stayed while I cried and I will never forget Pastor Mike's solo the next morning in church. He sang "Where is a Gideon...where is man" and I sat in my seat and cried. They were a source of stability for me and I knew I could go to them with anything.

Brenda will never know how much she changed me. She was a role model to me and someone who I desperately wanted to be close to. She listened to me when I needed to talk and wasn't afraid to challenge me or bust me when I needed it. We talked about dating as I was seeking to find my acceptance in a relationship and not in God. She gave me wise advice about dating and relationships that I carried with me through college and my time on Guam. She made a point to be a part of our lives - even when she had her hands full with being a wife and a mommy. We all loved her.

I had the distinct honor of having Pastor Mike perform my wedding ceremony. People told us afterwards that it was the funniest wedding they had been to in a long time. We made it through the typical wedding bloopers and he performed the ceremony with both dignity and hilarity. I'm not sure how that is possible, but the wedding video proves it to be true. I'm thankful that they could both be there for our special day. Michael, their son, was just thankful that I was getting married. He was little when I was in high school and I spent a lot of time with him at various youth activities. He wasn't very old when I was driving him to his house one day and he asked me if I was going to marry my boyfriend. I told him that I didn't know and he told me that if Matt didn't marry me, he would. It was so sweet. By the time of my wedding he was much older and thankful he didn't have to stick to that. :)

Basically, to wrap it all up even though I could go on and on, Pastor Mike and Brenda left imprints on my life and I will forever be grateful that they were willing to invest in my life.

Oh yes, I'm also thankful that they never called the police on me and my various friends who toilet papered their house many times. At least 2 of those times, we were seriously caught. Thankfully, most youth pastors understand that toiler papering is merely a teenage way of saying "We love you."