pastor mark

Tonight in class we meet with pastor Mark , an associate pastor from the assembly of God church in Shrewsberry, PA. After opening up in prayer Tom introduced Mark and found out that Mark was Tom’s brother in law. The interview began with tom introducing us to Mark and he had us share a little about ourselves. Mark’s church borders on the PA, Maryland border and come to find out it was the same church that Mark had attended since his birth. This filled me with wonder of the goodness of God seeing how God held Mark around the same body his whole life. Mark did admit that when he was young he had sensitivity to the ministry, but not a calling. He went on to speak of his education at Penn state and how he had become an engineer. Mark continued to serve at that church until the Head pastor, who by the way is still there at age 79, urged him to come into full time ministry. He started out as a youth leader. Mark shared that the change came into his heart at a tent meeting in 1986. He said he had a full surrender of his heart to God. Mark said the next milestone in his life was meeting his wife. He meet her in the parking lot of a Chritian book store. Mark and his wife to be Joell were married three months later. Mark went on to say that, marriage is better when two whole people get married.  I think what he was saying is that they were mature Christians.  Mark soon found out that ministry is a 60-70 hour workweek. He went on to say that his joy is working with couples and face to face is best. As he talked, you could see the passion he had for people and this encouraged me even more towards ministry. The more I heard him speak the more I saw that he had been with Jesus and it was a joy for me to see Christ alive and active in people's lives.