Faith and Values
Faith shapes how I approach family, community, and public service. It reminds me that leadership begins with humility, compassion, and a willingness to listen. I am far from perfect, but I strive to live by the words of the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
My Faith and Values Guide Me
Faith has been an important part of my life for a very long time – at least since the age of nine.
As a child growing up on Air Force bases, I found inspiration in chapel services and the values they taught. At age nine, I began a faith journey that has continued throughout my life. I especially appreciated worship services at the Air Force base chapels, where the Air Force Hymn left a lasting impression on me. Its prayerful words—“Lord, guard and guide the men who fly … Be with them traversing the air, in dark’ning storm or sunshine fair”—captured both the courage and the trust that shaped those early experiences of faith.
As a Boy Scout, I worked with chaplains to earn the God and Country Award, an experience that deepened my understanding of service, character, and responsibility to others.
When a chaplain started a Lutheran congregation on our Air Force base in North Dakota, my brother and I were baptized in a setting that was simple but deeply memorable: from a fishbowl placed on a card-table altar in the basement of an Air Force credit union. Along with others in that young congregation, we were soon guided through confirmation before Chaplain Henschel was deployed to Vietnam. Those experiences were brief and improvised, but they became lasting markers in my faith journey.
My faith continued to grow through church involvement, youth ministry, and service. During college, I participated in traveling music groups that led youth and worship services, and I spent summers and winters serving at Metigoshe Ministries in North Dakota. Throughout the years, my wife, children, and I have been blessed by faith communities in we have lived; Grand Forks (ND), Prestwick (United Kingdom), Minneapolis (MN), and here in Hendricks (MN).
Faith shapes how I approach family, community, and public service. It reminds me that leadership begins with humility, compassion, and a willingness to listen. I am far from perfect, but I strive to live by the words of the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
As I considered running for the Minnesota House of Representatives, I was drawn to Isaiah 50:4:
"The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens—wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught."
As a husband, father, grandfather, retired educator, and community volunteer, I hope I have, and continue to, offer encouragement and hope to those around me – family, friends, students, and strangers. The more I learn, the more I realize how much there is still to learn. In this campaign, I will continue striving to be a good listener, to treat others with respect, and to serve with humility and gratitude.
