Note: This file contains a number of Biographies (a.k.a. Personal Background Information - PBI), from members of Christia. To reiterate the components in hope that others will also participate:

Name

Address (E-mail, and/or Postal)

Age (Date of Birth - due to lag in reading of these biographies)

Job

Education

Family (Married, Kids, Single??)

Denominational Affiliation ...(or, NOT)

Personal Aspirations

Prayer Requests

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA

-PBI- Name: Ian Lyn Williams

Address: iwilliam@au.oracle.com (email)

Country: South Australia, Australia

Date of Birth: 03-DEC-67

Job: Systems Support Consultant Oracle Systems, Australia

Denomination: None, member of non denom church with ties to Assemblies of God church in Australia

Aspirations: To have God say "Well done, my good and faithfull servant" When I get to heaven..

Family: Chellon (my wife)

Testimony: I was saved at 21 after a culmination of events which included socialising with my then fiances christian friends, being prayed for, and having God on my case... I gave my life and was born again after watching an easter movie where I realised that Christ was indeed the Son of God and I gave up fighting.. I was saved into an Uniting Church which I stayed with for a few months, and then left with my then wife to join the pentamatic (pentacostal/charismatic) church I now attend. Since joining the church I have been baptised in the Spirit and have come to know the authority of the believer in dealing with warfare etc.. My amnbition as a christian is to be like Christ for people aroound me..

Scripture: Psalm 91

 

-PBI-


|ACADIA UNIVERSITY Address: ASU BOX 6077|
|Wolfville, Nova Scotia Wolfville, NS|
|Canada BOP 1Z1 Canada|
|Stephen S.S. Lee Phone: (902) 542-9831|
|Church: Wolfville United Baptist Church Nationality: Singaporean|
|E-Mail Address: 910792L@ACE.ACADIAU.CA DOB: 22/11/67|

-PBI-

 

Name: Steven Richard Klepzig

 

Address: sklepzi@ssb1.saff.utah.edu (email), 72570,2636 (compuserve) 9936 South Electra Lane (home) Sandy, Utah 94094 (801)571-1132 135 Student Services Building (work) Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 (801)581-3437

 

DOB: August 22, 1959

 

Job: Manager of Computer Operations University of Utah Student Affairs & Services

 

Education: B.S. in Computer Science, minor in Mathematics

 

Denominational Affiliation: None, currently attending a conservative charistmatic church

 

Aspiritations: To be pleasing to God; to be the head of my household as God intends; to be able to lay down my life as an example to others, first my family then the rest of the world

 

Prayer Requests: There are many aspects of my carnal nature that still have a certain amount of control in my life, I wish to die to them and let Christ have complete control. That God will take care of my family while I'm away from them and that God will take care of all of us when we're together.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That God be first and foremost in every single post and disussion topic. That the lost may be reached and the Gospel preached and the light and life of Jesus Christ be proclaimed from every avenue.

 

Family: Paula (my wife), Erin (my daughter), ???? (my preborn child)

 

Testimony: I was saved when I was 16, during a revival service at an AG church. A couple of years later the church split, leaving many, including me, dangling and wondering what happened. God stayed with me and protected me during 8 years of wandering in the wilderness of my own excess and confusion, to finally lead me back to Him several years ago. I praise God for that, for without God's divine protection and intervention in my life I would be dead today, instead of here attempting to further His kingdom. Praise the Lord!

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Lora Mae Payzant Harris

 

Address: LHARRIS@UPEI.CA(E-Mail) 58 Hunt Avenue, Apt #3 (home) Charlottetown, P.E.I. Canada C1A 2Z5 1-902-628-1439 University of P.E.I (work) Atlantic Veterinary College Dept. of Pathology and Microbiology Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island C1A 4P3 1-902-566-0845

 

Age: Do you really want to know? :^) 25

 

Job: Virology Technician, UPEI. (Research into PCR diagnosis of RNA viruses)

 

Education: B.Sc.(Hon.) in Biochemistry, minor in Philosophy

 

Denominational -brought up by agnostics, with Baptist grandparents -baptized in the United Baptist Church -confirmed in the Episcopal Church of Scotland (Scottish Anglican)

 

Affiliation: -present member of the Anglican Church of Canada

 

Aspiritations: What they _should_ be or what they are? :^) What they should be and sometimes are - to grow in the knowledge and love of God through Jesus Christ, to truly follow Him, and to spread the good news to others as I am led. ( My work brings me into contact with many people from other countries who do not know Him).

 

What they are in everyday life - to do my work competently and faithfully, to eventually leave work to become a mother, to bring up children to know and love God, to be a good wife and witness to my husband.

 

Prayer Requests: Family! My husband and brother parents in particular, all of whom are unbelievers. - that my pride may be cruxified, so that I am no longer tempted by it.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: "That God be first and foremost in every single post and disussion topic. That the lost may be reached and the Gospel preached and the light and life of Jesus Christ be proclaimed from every avenue." ( Steven already said it, why change a good sentence!)

 

Family: Kevin (my husband). My parents are Marg and AL Payzant. I have one brother, Andrew, who is married ( to Linda). Kevin's parents are Father Richard and Maggie Harris (I'm always tempted to say Mother Harris :^) ). No chidren yet.

 

Testimony: God has always been with me, and I always knew of Him, even though my parents said otherwise. The very rarity of times that I was taken to church by grandparents only helped to show me the special holiness of God. As I grew, I learned more of Him, and His Son. I've been 'born again' lots of times - I kept thinking the last time wasn't good enough, as those who taught me about it left me with the impression that I'd never sin again. :^) I started going to church in the nearest Baptist church at a young age, and I was baptised there. I was still unsatis- fied with the whole problem of sin. I decided that with so much of my time and life devoted to studying, I should study Christ- ianity better also. One result of this study was that I joined the Anglican church. Part of what was so attractive to me was the recognition in every service that I had indeed sinned that week! ( day, hour, minute... ) To publicly recognize that fact, and be reminded of the forgiveness that there is for us in Christ, helped me to confront my sin, and truly repent and turn from it as often as I fall.

 

God has worked within me in my life. Any goodness you find in me is 'borrowed' from God. I have gone very far astray at times in my life, and when I am away from my God I am not someone you would want to know. And HE died for me when I was like that! It is true where it is written that HE did not die for us because we loved Him, but we love Him because He first loved us.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Federico Guillermo Rodriguez Hernandez

 

Address: A16905@ITESO (Bitnet) A16905@ITESOCCI.GDL.ITESO.MX (Internet) Ricardo Guiraldes # 5140 Jardines Universidad Zapopan, Jalisco Mexico 45110 (36)41-00-96 (Home)

 

Age: November 3, 1971

 

Job: Student

 

Education: Computer Systems Engineering undergraduate.

 

Denominational Affiliation: Roman Catholic.

 

Aspiritations: Make my life a perfect praise to God, this is realizeing the plan that he has for me.

 

Prayer Requests: I often have trouble with my sexuality (i'm still virgin but it is sometimes very hard to control myself). I pray Jesus that He takes total control over me.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: CHRISTIA should be a very open forum, so we can share our beliefs, feelings, prayer requests, etc. I don't like extended flames when they are not necesary, we should acept each other just as Jesus has acepted all of us.

 

Family: Federico (Dad), Edelmira (Mom), Carlos (Brother), Liliana (Girlfriend, i love her just as part of myself, thats why i include her here) and my prayer group (we are all sons of the same Father ! We pray OUR FATHER....).

 

Testimony: I never left my church, but when i was 12 i started to fall in a total darkness, i suffered compulsive masturbation, it took me far away from my lord, when i was 16 i started to worship idols and things like that, i was very lost. But i met my prayer group, they were the instrument of God to reach me, i started the way back to my Father's house in lent of 1987 and i arrived at easter of 1988 more than a year after i decided to return to Jesus, i founded Him deeply in my heart, He delivered from all my sin and sickness once and forever, i live in a very calid realtionship with Him since then, i am part of the charismatic movement in my church, i am not leaving again, Praise God ! I am very heterodox in my beliefs and i think that all denominations and all religions are valid for the people that find God that way, God is so wonderful and powerful that He can manifest Himself in many ways; diferent to each person. Blessed be the Lord and Shalom to all of you !

 

-PBI-

 

Name : Rose O.S.E. Mantiri

 

Address: Department of Biology # Box 6437 Acadia University # Acadia Univ. Wolfville, N.S # Wolfville, N.S B0P 1X0 # B0P 1Z1 # Phone (902) 542-1630 Age : September 12, 1964

 

Job : Assistant in Fisheries Faculty University of Sam Ratulangi Manado - INDONESIA

 

Education: Honor B.Sc. in Fisheries and now doing my second degree in Marine Biology

 

Family : Parents, grandma, 4 brothers & family, 1 sister & family. They are all in Indonesia

 

Testimony : WHY I LOVE JESUS

 

It's only by the grace of the LORD JESUS CHRIST that I can give this testimony. My name is Rose Mantiri. I come from Indonesia, the largest Moslem country in the world with approximately 150 Million moslem people or about 85 % of the total population in Indonesia. Fortunately, I live in a province where Christian is a majority.

 

I was born in a Christian family. Like other Christian, my family celebrated Christmas, Easter, and went to church every Christmas and sometimes on Sundays. However, we did all these things as a ceremonial matter, without any righteousness. During my childhood, I didn't know who JESUS is. Although I knew HIS name, I didn't understand what JESUS really meant in my life.

 

I believe that this situation originated in my parent's involvement in occultism. They believed that the evil power was able to satisfy their needs. (I don't blame my parents, red). As their children, my brothers and sister and I, was very much depend on the evil power too. However, as I mentioned earlier, we were still a "Christian family" in terms of rituality.

 

My deep involvement with the occultism began at the age of two. At this time, I was deadly sick and doctors diagnozed that it was an incurrable desease. In the midst of suffering and uncertainty, my parent brought me to a wicked doctor who could act as a mediator to communicate with the evil power, usually with the famous people that have already died. After several visiting to the wicked doctor, surprisingly I was cured. This caused a deeper involvement in the occultism from my family. Since the day I was cured, I was appointed as a candidate to be a princess of evil to enlarge satan's work in this world.

 

My childhood was gloomy and wicked. Unlike other kids, I'd never remembered my childhood.I knew what happened, or what I did during that time merely from my parent's story. They told me that when I was a kid, I was able to give correct lottery numbers and also to tell people what had happened and what was going to happen in their life.

 

When I was a teenager, I felt that something was wrong in my life, but, as usual, many people still came to me for praying, asking their future, or overcoming their problem especially to cure deseases. At this time I was no longer giving lottery numbers. Later on, I thought that it was a strange situation. I was under the evil power, but I always pray before giving advice to the people. To whom did I pray? I didn't know. Yes I mentioned God, but which God? After God's name I call my ancient's names. (In Manado, we call dotu-dotu's name such as Wuri Muda, Dotu Lolong Lasut, etc). Satan's was really intelligent in camuflating people through praying in order to forfeit them that the advice came from GOD, because satan knew that majority of people living in my hometown is christian.

 

I was not sure whether it was a result of my understanding of the negative impact of the occultism, or it was the HOLY SPIRIT (I'm sure it was) working in my heart, in about grade 9, (almost 15 years old) I was not enthusiastically praying for those who came to me. However, I still did not know what's the purpose of my life, because no one had ever told me what should I'd done to please GOD.

 

At about age of 15, as planed and promised by satan, I was baptized using water with flowers in it and with young coconut water as an official sign that I was crowned as a satan's daughter with a special task to cure desease using the evil power.

 

However, LORD JESUS has a totally different plan in my life. HE doesn't let satan ruin my entire life. In fact, HE saved me. Praise the LORD!!! HE really loves me. I don't know how to express my great joy and thanksgiving to the living GOD.

 

GOD gave me victory over all my unclean sins. It is obvious that GOD's power is greater than anything, and JESUS is the LORD and the SAVIOR of the world.

 

Prayer request:

 

I ask those of you who know the LORD JESUS CHRIST to pray for me that I would be faithful and serve HIM to the end of my life.

 

Also pray for my family, my country that now is on the top of news regarding to East Timor, my Indonesian Christian-Net, and Indonesian fellows in 'warung' who are in problem about Islam & Christian.

 

"May the name of our LORD, JESUS CHRIST, be always praised!"

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Cristine Alise Pierce (maiden name Collins, soon to be Webb)

 

Address: CPIERCE@UAFSYSB BITNet cpierce@uafhp.uark.edu Internet PO Box 2220 home Fayetteville Arkansas 72701 Computing Services work University of Arkansas User Services Staff Support 155 Razorback Rd ADSB 220 Fayetteville Arkansas 72701 501-575-2905 (work)

 

Birth date: August 1, 1967

 

Job: I have several tasks; I'm a lab operator, a librarian, and a front person for user questions. Most of these all incorporate problem-solving and public relations.

 

Education: High school- Lincoln Northeast High School Lincoln Nebraska Graduated May 1985 College- University of Arkansas-Fayetteville Fayetteville Arkansas BS Computer Science Graduating May 1992

 

Denomination: Raised in several, am currently attending a small Southern Baptist church my fiance's family attends. Mostly raised in Disciples of Christ, but attended an evangelical Episcopalian, a Pentacostal Holiness, a Jewish synagogue, and a non- denominational.

 

Aspirations: Learn to accept what God has planned for me, learn to trust Him more, to become a better wife than I was to my first husband, to give my son a better life than he's had for the past four and a half years, I guess mainly to allow Jesus to have complete control of my will.

 

Prayer Reqs: All of the above plus a few. 1-my patience while my father turns his back on God. I can't bring him back on my own, and need God's help in dealing with this. 2-my soon-to-be blended family and our relationship with my ex-husband. 3-my rebellious heart and "I know better" attitude toward authority. 4-for me to give God all the glory I can give him with a truly thankful and penitent heart. And so much more...

 

Greatest Concern for Christia: I'm truly astouded by the love shared on this list. Oh Lord I pray it will always be this way and endure time until all of the lost are saved. If even one soul is saved through this list, it has served its purpose. Plus all of you have given me uplifting spiritual tokens to carry with me and I hope I can do the same.

 

Family: my fiance-Lonnie, my son-Steven, Lonnie's family, my parents- we all live here in the area.

 

Testimony: This is a long one-I'll try to make it brief.

 

I was saved in DC church in Garland TX at the age of 8. I knew not of what I was doing and had no understanding that Christ was with you outside of the church too. My father was unable to find a church he felt good in. So he drug us along with him in his search.

 

When jr high and high school came along, I didn't fit in, so I became deeply involved in musical theater. Singing was always my first love and with theater, I could become whomever I'd always wanted to be. This fantasizing led to deeper involvements with D&D, metal music, sci-fi/fantasy books, martial arts, and the like.

 

I met my first husband in 10th grade while he was a senior. He led me into the martial arts realm, the deepest and most regretful of my dabblings. We became involved in pre-marital sex and my insecurities began to drive me down even further. After we were married, I became overbearing which drove him further from me and God as well as depressing me. We had Steven when I was 19 (we were married when I was 18) and I believe my first big shock from God occurred then.

 

No one I knew dreamed I could be so paranoid and hold such deep hatred of myself. But it was there and I fed on it constantly. It is still the biggest problem I have yet to overcome with the Lord's help. I would fantasize of what emotional horror I could put my ex through if I committed suicide. The only thing that kept me from doing it was I've always believed I would go to hell if I did. God's hand was there but I wasn't ready to take it yet and pushed Him away once He brought me to more stable ground.

 

College became an escape for me. I couldn't deal with my ex or my son. Lonnie, my fiance, and I met in my freshman year and have been good friends since. When I decided to file for divorce last year, Lonnie was instrumental in helping me to keep my sanity. God spoke through him on more than one occassion. One verse that would describe the main reason I filed is I Timothy 5:8. There was also a smattering of physical abuse and 8 years of emotional abuse committed by and received by me. I didn't think God would allow me to start over.

 

I was attending church fairly regularly during the last few years of my marriage and felt I was in the right place. But when I told my fellow brothers and sisters of my impending decision, only a few were able to support me without passing judgement. I wasn't looking for them to tell me I was right, just for them to be there. So I was yet again dogged by self-hatred and paranoia.

 

I now believe I have truly been born again. Lonnie and I went forward and asked to be baptized together about a month ago. On November 3, 1991 I was baptized with the full knowledge that I was accepting Jesus as my Master and Saviour. I know I was saved when I was 8, but am just now REALLY beginning my walk with God. Thank the Lord that I will have a Christian for a husband.

 

By no means will my path be easy. I believe I sinned when I divorced my ex-husband. I am forgiven but must work through the consequences. And there are a lot of them. But Christ conquers all. And if I can somehow give my life to Him in the remaining days I have here, I will be happy.

 

-PBI-

 

Name Lon Mendelsohn Address: 1226 E. Forest Ypsilanti, Michigan 48198 Phone: (313) 482-5347 (home) (313) 577-6317 (work) Email: LMENDELS@WAYNEST1 (Bitnet) LMENDELS@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU (Internet)

 

I'm married (11 years) with two children: Marya, almost 8, and Sam, 4 1/2. I work for Wayne State University in Detroit as one of the science librarians. I'm Jewish, mildly charismatic, and I attend an independant charismatic church.

 

My testimony is as follows:

 

I grew up in a non-religious Jewish family. We had a very strong identity as Jews, but really no religious grounding. My parents never went to synagogue, for example, nor did they send us kids. The only "religious" thing we did was to celebrate the Passover seder meal on the first night.

 

As I was growing up, I developed a great love for mythology and fantasy/science fiction literature, a love which I believe had a significant impact on my ability to understand and accept the message of the New Testament when I final- ly read it.

 

In any case, during my senior year of high school (1971-72), some friends of mine became what we called Jesus Freaks back in those days. Basically, they gave their lives to the Lord and started spending a lot of their time in wit- nessing and related activities. I particularly remember feeling extremely un- comfortable at the awards banquet at the end of that year, as I was sitting at a table with these folks and they took it as an opportunity to really work on me. I will also freely admit that one of the reasons why I hung around with these folks was that one of their number was an extremely attractive young woman, who served as a sort of "carrot for the Lord." After graduation, I occasionally stopped by this person's house to visit and also to make use of the swimming pool that she had in her back yard. This served to increase my exposure to the gospel. Eventually, one of my friends gave me a New Testament and invited me to some prayer meetings that they were having at their house. I started reading the NT primarily so that I could argue with them more effec- tively and show them the error of their ways, but the more I read, the less I had to argue with. Basically, the Gospels just *made sense* to me. The words of Jesus appealed to me logically. I realized that if I were to believe in God (I was an agnostic at the time), then Christianity was the way that I would go. Also, as I mentioned previously, I had (and still do have) a great love for myth, sci-fi, and fantasy. When I read these things, I often subconsciously thought to myself, "I wish that this was true or real!" I found myself doing the same thing as I read the Gospels.

 

By the end of that summer, God had backed me into an intellectual corner where I *had* to believe in order to maintain my intellectual integrity. The actual act of giving my life to the Lord was made easier by the fact that God had awakened in me a desire to believe in connection with the my approach to read- ing imaginative literature. Thus, my coming to the Lord was not a result of my becoming aware of a need that I had or becoming aware of the fact that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah; it happened because I believed the Gospels to be *true*, as a result of which I believed in Jesus, his claims as Messiah, and his evalua- tion of the human race's need for salvation, and his taking care of that need through his death and resurrection.

 

One on of the interesting things that I came across several years after I had given my life to the Lord was Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories." In this essay, Tolkien makes a few very interesting comments about fairy stories (or fantasy literature). One comment is that when human beings create fantasy worlds, they are showing that they are made in the Image of God, who created the real world. The other is that every well-written fairy story will include what he calls a eucatastrophe, a sudden, joyous turn or "happy ending." In the epilogue to the essay, Tolkien makes some comments about how these things might apply to the gospel, which I will quote:

 

"The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which em- braces all the essence of fairy-stories. . . But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and the aspiration of sub-crea- tion has been raised to the fulfilment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucata- strophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the "inner consistency of reality." There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath.

 

"It is not difficult to imagine the peculiar excitement and joy that one would feel, if any specially beautiful fairy story were found to be "primarily" true, its narrative to be history. . . The Christian joy, the _Gloria_, is of the same kind; but it is pre-eminently ... high and joyous. But this story is supreme, and it is true. Art has been verified. God is God is the Lord, of angels, and of men -- and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.

 

Giving my life to the Lord Jesus was the eucatastrophe of my life, and I look forward with eager longing to the eucatastrophe of all creation when Jesus returns in glory and "creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Rom. 8:21).

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Peter Duncan Weir

 

Address: 909 S. Terrace (College) 927 N. Weber (Permanent) Tempe AZ 85281-3843 Colorado Springs CO 80903

 

Birthdate: July 30, 1971 (presently 20 years old)

 

Occupation: Full-time student. Resident Assistant, Dept of Res. Life, Arizona State University (lives with residents, responsible for counseling, mediation, discipline, programming, anything else they can think of)

 

Education: Senior in Aviation Management Technology at Arizona State. (I am studying to become a professional pilot) Completed high school education in England with 10 'O'-levels and 4 'A'-levels.

 

Denominational Affiliation:Currently attending a Southern Baptist church. I grew up in a Presbyterian, Congregational & Methodist church, and attended weekly Anglican Eucharist at high school (the school chaplain was an ordained Anglican). Since coming to college, I have become a student leader in the Conservative Baptist affiliated organization (Campus Ambassadors Christian Fellowship) and a member of a local Southern Baptist church. I prefer to call myself Christian, although I can also be termed Protestant, without rigid denominational ties.

 

Aspirations:To serve God through my life in each of its stages, and to follow God's will. God has given me many gifts that I wish to use to praise Him and expand His Kingdom here on earth. This desire is not just for a career, but at each stage of my life, including my present college experience.

 

Prayer Request: I pray for God to keep me disciplined in my daily relationship with Him, for me to control my own sexuality and my close relationships with women. I also pray that God's plan for my life will be fully revealed as I make each career decision, so that I never leave His path.

 

Concern for Christia: My only concern for Christia is that it is used to edify the saints in a loving manner. Flaming neither uplifts the receiver or any onlookers. Instead, Christia should be an accepting community of believers, which is able to help in the maturing of its members, and reach out to those struggling with a relationship to the God of the Universe.

 

Family: I am unmarried, and an only child. Parents: Bob Weir lives in Taipei, Taiwan and Catherine Weir lives in Colorado Springs, CO. My parents are divorced.

 

Testimony: I was fortunate to grow up in a Christian family, where I always went to church, and I became involved in various church activities. While I was growing up, I learned many of the stories about Jesus and about his ability to save us. I accepted that salvation as a teenager, and was baptized by sprinkling at age 14. However, when I came to the U.S., I became involved in some Christian communities that changed my faith tremendously. The love and active faith that I saw became appealing, and God slowly changed me so that Jesus became my LORD as well as Savior. After that decision, I was baptized by immersion and accepted as a member of the church I have since been attending. Since I have been in the U.S., my faith has manifested itself in so many new (real) ways. These include my relationships (at work, school, as well as Christian relationships) reading of my Bible, commitment to church activities, serving others, ... . Thankfully the list goes on! Praise God for His grace and ability to change our lives back to the way they were intended!!

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Jonathan Frank Wheeler

 

Address: a) E-mail JFW1@IB.RL.AC.UK or JFW1@UKACRL.BITNET (same machine)

 

b) Letter post (home) 52 Kysbie Close Abingdon OXON, OX14 1XY Great Britain

 

Tel: + 44 235 524320

 

c) Letter post (work) Atlas Computing Centre, Building R27 Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Chilton Didcot OXON, OX11 0QX Great Britain

 

Tel: + 44 235 445189

 

Date of birth: 5th February 1950

 

Job: Advising users of mainframe services

 

Scientific Support Section Applications and User Support Group

 

Education: BSc in Chemistry MSc in Computer Science with Applications

 

Denominational Affiliation: Baptist

 

Aspiritations: To grow in my faith and relationship with God; as the outworking of this faith to serve Him in my family, in the Church, in my job, and in the world.

 

Prayer Requests: That God may continue to change me into the person he wants, particularly in the area of taking responsibility.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That the list continue to be useful, as a means of encouragement and growth for Christians, and as a witness to interested non-believers who join us.

 

Family: Valerie (my wife), Glenn (our adopted son)

 

Testimony: I was brought up in a Christian family and was converted at the age of 14 during a Boys' Brigade camp (Boys' Brigade is a Christian youth movement based in the UK, but active in many other parts of the world). Looking back, I realise that God had been working in my life before I was converted. Since my conversion, my Christian growth has proceeded in fits and starts, often during a period of change or intense pressure. For example, my years at University, a period of serious illness and its aftermath, my marriage to Valerie, the move to a new home and job, the death of my mother have all proved to be times of growth in my Christian faith and experience.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Brenda Curry-White

 

Address: bscurr01@ulkyvm.bitnet 111 Charter Oaks Drive (home) Louisville, KY 40241 (502)339-0470 Urban Research Institute (work) University of Louisville Louisville, KY 40292 (502)588-6626

 

Age: 25

 

Job: Sr. Research Analyst University of Louisville Urban Research Institute

 

Education: M.A. in Applied Social Research, B.A. Sociology

 

Denominational Affiliation: So. Baptist

 

Aspirations: Would like to attend law school, write a book, and have a family (in other words, I aspire to have it all :-).

 

Family: David (my husband)

 

Testimony: I grew up in church. My mother not only made me go but went with me. I knew from a very young age what Christ had done for me. I accepted his gift of salvation at age 9. During my teenage years, I began to doubt and rebel as many teenagers do, and I thought I didn't need Christ anymore. When I went to college, I realized I was wrong. I joined a campus Christian group and spent two summers as a summer missionary. During the second summer I met my husband. God is good.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Wolfgang Hutter

 

Address: hutter@rzmain.rz.uni-ulm.de (internet) hutter@dulruu51 (bitnet) Karlsplatz 2 W-7900 Ulm/Do. Tel.: (49)731-6021468 (home) Uni Ulm (Abt. Chem. Physik), Albert-Einstein-Allee 11 W-7900 Ulm/Do. Tel.: (49)731-502-2829 (work)

 

Age: 28 (30.10.1963)

 

Job: Teaching Assistant while working on Ph.D. Thesis at Universitaet Ulm

 

Education: Master's Degree ?? in Chemistry (German: Dipl.Chem.)

 

Denominational Affiliation: None, currently attending a conservative charistmatic church

 

Aspiritations: To know, love and serve God with all my being; to love my wife as Jesus loves His church; to serve the body of Christ with diligence according to my ability; to be a letter of Christ to be read by everyone

 

Prayer Requests: That my relationship with the Lord is more than words, more than three meetings a week and that my life can be characterized by 'full of grace and power and the Holy Spirit'; and that God can guide me to lead others where He has put me in authority.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That our posts will help us in our 'Practical Christian Lives', that they may be characterized by His love and that we start realizing what really counts and what is just talk that doesn't really help...

 

Family: My wife Ute (since 19.10.1991)

 

Testimony: My father is a RCC, my mother a Protestant, both of them not very much interested in God. Following a hint from my elder brother I started reading the Bible. As I always was religious this added to my list of good deeds. Quite a few years later I realized that you have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. So I decided to take the step and follow Him totally. After a few years in the protestant church in which I tried to spread the Gospel among the mostly indifferent young 'church members' I longed for real fellowship and spiritual food. So I joined the church that I'm now with (no membership). No spectacular conversion, no special revelations, no crisis that could have cost my life - the Lord decided to lead me this way: I praise Him for that!

 

-PBI-

 

Name : Stephen Kingston Address : Manod, Caradoc Road, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, WALES. SY23 1ES. U.K. Email : spk@uk.ac.aber (internet) Birth : 23.3.67 (That's 23rd March for those in the U.S.) Occupation : Computer Technical Support, Dept. of Computer Science, University College of Wales. Education : B.Sc. (Hons) Wales - Computer Science. (I'm about to enrol for a PhD) Denominational Affiliation : Broadly Pentecostal by theology but I attend St Michael's and All Angels Church in Wales Church (Anglican). (See Below). Aspirations : To be able to say "be a follower of me, as I am of Christ" without any deceit, pride or falsity. To see Holy Spirit born revival in Wales and elsewhere. (Not so importantly) to surf my board as well as I surf my kayak! and to own a wetsuit that doesn't let in cold water at the neck!! Prayer Points : That I might see the fruition of my aspirations (well the first two anyway). That God will guide me into all truth, convict me of my pride and selfishness whenever I allow them into my life, and keep me and my family in life eternal to the glory of God. Family : Gill (my wife). Testimony ========= I was brought up in a Christian home, and from an early age took some interest in the things of God. When I was twelve I made a commitment for Christ in a summer camp. However, that commitment served almost as a false start. It is a reference point to which I can look back, but it did not mark out a dramatic turnaround in my life. That did not happen until things seemed to fall into place (through the work of the Holy Spirit) when I was at sixth form (Ages 16-18 in the UK school system).

 

I was then baptized and also received the baptism of the Spirit (after a good deal of soul searching and real prayer of the wrestling variety).

 

I came to University thinking I had made it! Fortunately God was in control of my life and quickly disillusioned me. Since that time I have learned a tremendous amount, and especially I have learned that I still have a *very* long way to go.

 

There have been hard times and times when I have felt very let down by people, but I have learned in those situations that ultimately if my trust is in the Lord, then I need not be afraid that people will let me down.

 

I am beginning to learn the truth of Paul's words: "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything - by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, ket your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus."

 

We have joined the Anglican, which is evangelical and charismatic in outlook. Despite our very different theology we have found a place within the fellowship. The rector is a humble man who has courage enough to admit he hasn't made it yet. He wants to stir up his congregation, and is anxious that they do not sit back and rest in the Lord when there is work to do. I am pentecostal by background but am unable to worship in a pentecostal church here, but have found in st Mike's, a church which to me is home. I am in charge of the youth work for 11-14 year olds

 

Just a quick note on where we live:

 

Aberystwyth is situated on the west coast of mid Wales in the middle of the Cardigan bay. The town is historically very important, being the starting point of various uprisings by the Welsh against the English.

 

Nearby Machynlleth has the parliament buildings of Owain Glyndwr, and Aberystwyth castle was won by Glyndwr in his rebellion against English rule. The castle is now a ruin which makes it an ideal place for hiding games, especially at night!

 

The town has not grown in the last 100 years, as the gold, silver, nickel and lead mines have all closed. The harbour is unsuitable for modern ships (far too shallow) and is used only for pleasure craft. We are still a major tourist town though, and it is very beautiful here!

 

The mountains of Snowdonia are eight miles north of us, and the foothills of pum-limon begin just outside of the town.

 

We get some good surf on south-westerley swells which break on a reef formed by a glacial morraine. There is also plenty of beach break a mile or two to the north.

 

Aberystwyth was also the hub of the 1859 Welsh revival and the location of the 1805 Welsh revival.

 

-PBI-

 

NAME: Elizabeth (Liz) Moreau

 

ADDRESS: emoreau@umassd.edu

 

DOB: 10/13/55

 

JOB: Secretary University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

 

CAREER: Wife, Mother, Servant of the Lord

 

EDUCATION: A.S. Bristol Community College

 

DENOMINATION AFFILIATION: Christian - RCC (for the present time)

 

ASPIRATIONS: Be a witness to those around me. Pray people into the fold. Keep on learning all I can. Have my children turn out to be good, strong Christians.

 

PRAYER REQUESTS: To let go of worries, fears, and anxieties. To be able to place my burdens with the Lord and leave them there. To strengthen and deepen my family's spiritual walk. To find a churh/new denom where the whole family can worship and be happy.

 

FAMILY Ron (husband), Mark (son/9yr), Alex (son/4yr)

 

TESTIMONY Raised a RCC but left the church in my teenage years. After many trials, the Lord finally had my attention. For a good 10 years I was angry at God. If he loved me then why were all these terrible things happening to me (cancer, miscarriage, marriage problems). When I hit rock bottom, I had no place to go but say thru gritted teeth, Lord I'm yours ... my life can't get much worse so do with me what you will. I didn't expect anything to happen and actually I can't point to anything particular that did, but I now have some- one to lean on and comfort me through difficulties and I can't say I'm sorry I gave up my free will.

 

-PBI- ______________________________________________________________________________ ! Name: ! Sean P. Tompkins ! ! Birthdate ! November 19, 1973 ! ! Addresses ! 825 Dominik, College Station TX 77840 (college) ! ! ! 1207 N. Azalea, Tyler TX 75701 (home) ! ! ! spt2814@tamsigma.bitnet OR spt2814@sigma.tamu.edu ! ! Occupation ! Undergraduate (Junior) EE major at Texas A&M U. ! ! Amibitions ! I hope to one day be an astronaut, and to positively ! ! ! affect the scientific field for God. ! ! Description ! 5'7" brown hair, shoulder length, blue/grey eyes ! ! Denomination ! inter-denominational ! ! Testimony ! I accepted Jesus as my saviour when I was 4, but at ! ! ! the age of 12 fully committed my life to serving God. ! ! ! I grew up in a Chritian home. My parents are foster ! ! ! parents, so I was not naive to the pain of the world. ! ! ! I was taught at home for 4 years, and graduated high ! ! ! school at the age of 16. Even though I was younger ! ! ! than most of my college friends, God used me to touch ! ! ! many hurting peoples' hearts. ! ! Family ! Father: Phil Tompkins Mother: Nancy Tompkins ! ! ! Sister: Amy Tompkins (3 years younger than me) ! ______________________________________________________________________________

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Christine Elisabeth Schlusche

 

Address: A4421GAT@AWIUNI11.BITNET Schopenhauerstrasse 28/14 (home) A-1180 Vienna Austria (0222) 403 64 69

 

Age: 23

 

Job: I applied for a job as a statistician at the Austrian National Bank

 

Education: Master's Degree in Statistics

 

Denominational Affiliation: Kephas-Gemeinde (full gospel church)

 

Aspiritations: To be pleasing to God; to reach this country (Austria) which is still in darkness; and also to lay down my life as an example for others, mostly for my family

 

Prayer Requests: At the moment mostly for the job I applied for and for this country that a huge revival can start here.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That God be first and foremost in every single post and disussion topic. And to understand an get to know more Christians in this world and share with them all the signs and wonders that are happening every day.

 

Family: none (yet)

 

Testimony: I was 15 when on my way home from school somebody gave me a small booklet with verses from the bible about Jesus. I wasn't very interested, but the very next day the head of my school - a nun, I was in a catholic private school - told us to throw away these booklets since they were - as she said - of a sect. In this moment I really got angry although I didn't even read the booklet, but as soon as I got home I did and wrote to the man who published it. He wrote back and told me how he got saved and healed from an incurable disease and that he now just wants to tell people about Jesus' love. I was touched then but I didn't get saved, but 4 years later he wrote to me again and told me about Jesus again and then I accepted Jesus as my savior. Two years later he (the one who told me about Jesus) started a church here in Vienna where I am up to now and will be until Jesus comes again|

 

-PBI-

 

Roy M. Jacobsen NU021927@NDSUVM1.BITNET 1043 10 Street North Fargo, ND 58102 USA 10/02/60 DOB Technical Writer/Editor/Research Assistant BA Speech, (minor: Communications) Conservative Baptist Aspirations: To grow spiritually, to use my God-given abilities to glorify God by communicating the Gospel and calling people to glorify God in their lives, and to submit to the Lord in my position as father and husband, helping my wife and children become spiritually strong, mature, and steadfast followers of Christ.

 

-PBI- Carol Slingo

 

slingo@casbah.acns.nwu.edu

 

801 Glenwood Lane, Glenview, IL 60025 USA

 

born July 3, 1937

 

Job: secretary

 

(Unpaid: on staff of "Asian Cinema")

 

Education B.A., University of Minnesota 1959

 

Family: widow, 2 children

 

Affiliation: Episcopalian

 

-PBI-

 

History of Michael Alan Kline, Sr. Written November 1989. Updated April 1990.

 

 

I was raised Evangelical United Brethren, fundamental, perhaps a bit towards the fire and brimstone from time to time. We then merged into United Methodist. Around this time we got Lloyd Sturtz as our preacher. He started bringing in a lot of various preachers. During the whole time, the various speakers had to come for a free will offering. This meant we had to turn down either Jimmy Swaggert or Ken Copeland. One of them had called, but wanted a minimal offering which we would have had to guarantee.

 

Funny the things we remember. Anyhow we've had Doug Oldham, Len Mink, Ford Philpot, Dan Betzer, Jim Spillman, Willie Murphy, and a ton of others. The trend was, Men are head of the church and of the family, but it never got as strong as the old "Shepherd" doctrine where you had to ask the "elders" who to marry, what kind of car to buy and the like. Jim Spillman was a teacher of the Gifts of the Spirit in the Baptist denomination, and brought teaching in the Gifts of the Spirit and being "Slain in the Spirit". I can remember one time that he was teaching on it and told everyone he was going to pass his hand over the crowd and ask the Spirit to fill them. When he did this, about 40-60 of them hit the floor like a rock, about 75% of the people there. He prayed over our pastor, and he was slain. I can remember the congregation saying he looked liked a beached whale.

 

With CARIS, Bill Cetnar and the like, we learned about witnessing to Jehovah Witnesses and the like. It's hard to bring it out in CHRISTIA, but they did teach us about loving the sinner, but just as much, the fact they were lost, perhaps the main reason it is imperative we witness to them.

 

Now on myself. If you remember my past postings, my first wife used to believe that she would take any man to bed if she thought she could lead him to the Lord. I think this strongly influenced me being so much against errors in doctrine. I think she honestly thought she was doing the "Christian" thing. Good Grief!

 

I was about 15. I broke into a bunch of cabins and the like, with a friend, and we did the normal destruction things, scatter clothing, break windows, etc. I was one of those persons that would do anything to keep a friend. Well, we got caught, and they "were going to make an example of us." This scared me a bunch, and I figured it was all over for me. While passing time until the trial, I went to a youth retreat, and the preacher was talking about having your back to the wall and the only way out would be Jesus. Well, this was me. I accepted the Lord, and the change was noticed by one and all. This was in January of 1967. By the time the trial rolled around, the officers spoke up for my friend an myself and we got of on probation and group therapy. Within a year or less, I was teaching Youth Fellowship, Youth Church, and several other things, a changed man.

 

Then I met Connie, my first wife. I knew her for some time, and she was in trouble. I gave her some assistance, and she repaid me by worshiping the ground I walked on. I had only dated about 2 girls prior to this, so I ate this up, and I guess you could say she ate me up. We "messed around" for almost 2 years before I finally got her pregnant. We did the "honorable" thing and got married. We had Michael, Jr. I found out, after about 2 years, that she had been fooling around since day 1. She finally left me with my son, and I divorced her. After she was gone, then the stories began to come in that she didn't feed my son either. One in particular was that she would go to the church in the morning with Michael Jr., clean the church all day, and go home around 3-5:00pm. She wouldn't bring diapers for Michael or food. He ate like a horse at supper, and I never knew why. Finding this out didn't make me feel like much of a father. The period between Connie and Linda was a rough and lonely time, with a lot of self judgement and a period of "coming to terms" with myself. About a year later the Lord gave me Linda.

 

Linda and I moved to Falls Creek PA, and started attending an independent church there. Though I didn't teach there, we had a lot of friends, and the pastor got to know me as he was teaching one night about "I would never marry someone who was divorced before", and I gave my personal testimony. The pastor conceded that there were circumstances that perhaps he would married divorced people. From there, we moved to Richmond VA. I've attended Christ Community Church who has since become Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

 

I run the sound, Linda does nursery and/or teaches Sunday School on a substitute basis. While we were here, we took in the Guitar player for about a year, and then we took on a mother with 2 children and 1 on the way. They had asked for help in the church, and when there wasn't a soul in the entire church that would volunteer, Linda and I took her in. I was her labor coach when she delivered. I go nuts over babies, and would be willing to coach almost anyone, it is a very moving experience.

 

During this time, with 9-10 people in the house, and up to 9-10 children when they were not in school, my 14 year old "Michael, Jr." decided to "misbehave" and this got him taken by the "system" and removed from our house. We were immediately under attack. It was our faults as parents and we went through a long period of attack. We had to take countless psychiatric exams, the works. (We were finally cleared, totally, but you can imagine what we went through.)

 

This also caused the mother to leave in about 3-4 weeks owing us over $300 in rent, to accuse me of being romantically interested in her, and caused the parents of those we baby sat to no longer associate with us. The guitar player left shortly before all this broke loose.

 

When the mother accused me of being romantically interested, we got called for a "review" before the church board, behind the pastor's back. Linda and I had to face about 7 members of the church board and listen to Natilie call me and Linda just about every name in the book. Linda wanted to gouge her eyes out which wasn't very Christian. This was the meeting when almost all of the church board were convinced that the best thing Linda and I could do would be to leave the church(What did I say about Christians being the only species to bury their wounded?) After about 1-2 hours of this, Natilie admitted I had NEVER touched her in a romantic way and the meeting terminated.

 

You can imagine the turmoil my family went through.

 

Anyhow, all but 1 member of that meeting is now gone from the church. The church goes on. In fact as a second note, two of the board members want to meet with Linda and I tonight.("tonight" was in about November of 1989, but I decided to leave this in current tense) We think it is about budget for next year, but we were thinking about past times. After a bit of discussion, Linda said, "Well, what if they did ask us to leave, we would simply find another church!". In a way, I think this is a good way to be. We would prefer to stay, at this time, at Christ EPC, but our faith is not based on that church, but on Christ, and we could just as easily go somewhere else.

 

Some other things on being asked to leave. We had 2-3 pastors from other churches invite us to come to their church when all this blew off. With running sound, I was highly visible, and lots of people knew us. These other pastors could not believe this took place in a church. I think all of them said, "You come to my church and I'll see that no one talks about you or says anything against you". This thing was only with Natilie, 1 person. Doesn't the Bible call for 2-3 witnesses?

 

Anyhow, as if that was not bad enough, Michael was prosecuted for his "crime". Not to excuse him, and he was guilty, I found out Connie abused him as a child with neglect, and I think this had a lot to do with his problems. Anyhow, it started with a childish prank by Michael. He's with Connie my first wife in Arizona now.

 

What does this all tell me/us? That through it all God provides, God Cares, God Loves me/us. I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me. In this course of time, I went from $30,000 a year to $48,000 a year. Like I said, God provides. This year they paid me for overtime. I'll make somewhere around $68,000, I think.

 

On the personal side. I'm 38, Linda is 41. I'm a Senior Systems Engineer at the Virginia Department of Health. I am in charge of the computer room, and all that goes on within it, including data entry. I set the security policies, the works. We run about 200 users on line with a total of around 600-700. The last big proposal I did was an upgrade from a 4361 to a 4381 R14. This was approximately $750,000. We have VM/SP 5, looking to HPO, VTAM, RSCS, ORACLE, and the Systems Center products, VM CENTER II. This includes VM Account, VM Archive, VM Backup, VM Batch, VM Monitor, VM Schedule, VM Secure with all rules installed, VM Tape, and VM Operator, the works.

 

I am "gifted" by God when it comes to this field. More than once, I've seen where there will be a "team" of anywhere from 2-5 people who will work on a problem for 1-4 days, ask for my assistance, and God will give me the answer in an hour or two, and I have seen when God will give me the answer in 5-10 minutes! I have an agency wide reputation of "When all else fails, call Mike." To God be the Glory.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Doug Gould

 

Address (E-mail, and/or Postal): See signoff below

 

Age (Date of Birth - due to lag in reading of these biographies): 12 Dec 1942 Job: Systems Librarian

 

Education: Masters in Library Science

 

Family (Married, Kids, Single??): Married, four children--ranging in ages from 24 to 16 (two married). One granddaughter. Denominational Affiliation ...(or, NOT): Mormon (LDS) - member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Personal Aspirations: to write a Christian Fantasy novel; to return to Heavenly Father's presence Prayer Requests: None

 

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA: that all will become more fully aware of the true Christ, and His Divine Nature, His Atonement

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Doug Gould * All that is gold does not glitter, * * P. O. Box 1592 * Not all those who wander are lost; * * Carmel-by-the-Sea * The old that is strong * * California 93921-1592 * does not wither, * * * Deep roots are not reached * * Bitnet: <5315P@NAVPGS * by the frost. * * Internet: * --Gandalf to Frodo * * <5315P@CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL * J. R. R. Tolkien * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

-PBI-

 

Name : Joseph Pietro Riolo

 

Address - work: riolo@pica.army.mil (Internet) Picatinny Arsenal, NJ

 

Address - home: R.D. #3, Box 3198 Cranberry Road East Stroudsburg, PA

 

Age : 7/1/63

 

Job : Computer Scientist

 

Education : BS in Computer Science

 

Family : Connie (wife - 1962), Nathan (son - 1989), a 8-months old baby in Connie's womb (as of 12/91).

 

Denominational Affiliation: None but had some contacts with different denominations, directly and indirectly.

 

Personal Aspirations: To live righteously in all aspects of life.

 

Prayer Requests: Another than well-being (general state of shalom), don't have specific request right now.

 

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA: That it will be always a good place for subscribers to grow in a healthy way.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Steve March

 

Address (E-mail, and/or Postal): IN%"S_MARCH@CC.BRYNMAWR.EDU"

 

Bryn Mawr College Guild Hall - Computer Center Bryn Mawr PA, 19010

 

Age (Date of Birth - due to lag in reading of these biographies): 08/14/66

 

Job: Systems Analyst/Programmer

 

Education: B.S. in Computer Science

 

Family (Married, Kids, Single??): Married, no children

 

Denominational Affiliation ...(or, NOT): None

 

Personal Aspirations:To always improve myself and to always seek the truth.

 

Prayer Requests: Just to have people's blessings

 

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA: None

 

-PBI- Name Richard E. Cromwell Address (E-mail, and/or Postal) E-mail: cromwell@ocpt.ccur.com (Internet) masscomp!hamlet!richc (UUCP)

 

Work : Concurrent Computer Corp. 2 Crescent Place M/S 147 Oceanport, New Jersey 07757-1221

 

Home : 58 Brookwood Parkway Jackson, New Jersey 08527-2140

 

Age (Date of Birth - due to lag in reading of these biographies) August 6, 1957

 

Job Engineering Aide in Test Engineering Department. I generate programs for Automatic Test Equipment for computer circuit boards. My company manufactures minicomputers. I have been here since May, 1980.

 

Education B.A. in History and a minor in English from Bob Jones Univ. in Greenville, S.C. I took courses at Towson State Univ. in Towson, Md., and Johns Hopkins Univ. in Baltimore, Md. towards my B.A. degree, which I received in 1979.

 

Tech School Diploma in Data Processing Equipment Repair from Brick Computer Science Institute in Brick, N.J. in May, 1980.

 

Presently have completed 27 credits in a bridge program for candidates with B.A. degrees to the M.S. degree in Computer Science at Monmouth College in West Long Branch, New Jersey.

 

Family (Married, Kids, Single??) Married March 19, 1983 to Cindy. Emily born November 14, 1986, Olivia born August 4, 1988, and Amanda born December 20, 1991.

 

Denominational Affiliation ...(or, NOT) Presbyterian (Presbyterian Church in America P.C.A.), the second largest Presbyterian denomination behind the P.C.U.S.A.

 

Personal Aspirations To complete my M.S. degree in Computer Science. To read lots and lots of books on Theology. To collect a lot of good Jazz albums. To live less and less in love with this world and its possessions, and more and more in love with the real things in life, God's love and the personification of it in Jesus Christ.

 

Prayer Requests That my children might truly come to know the Lord.

 

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA Let's keep it going! It is a great source of inspiration and encouragement, despite the differences in doctrine and opinions. What a vehicle for God's grace that this is, and will continue to be.

 

-PBI-

 

Name John Thayer Jensen Address: (E-mail, and/or Postal) E-mail: jt.jensen@aukuni.ac.nz (Internet)

 

Work: Commerce Computing Service University of Auckland Private Bag AUCKLAND (New Zealand)

 

Home: 106 Victoria Street PUKEKOHE (NZ)

 

Age (Date of Birth - due to lag in reading of these biographies) 22 September 1942

 

Job Programmer/Analyst. In fact, gopher. Programming in C, MASM, SAS, Prolog, LISP, yack, yack, yack. Design systems. Set up machines. Set up new applications. Figure out what bit in the machine needs fixing. Fix it. Make cables. Pull cables out. Carry boxes of paper around. Unjam the printer. Jam the printer. Make the gents' toilet stop running. Etc.

 

Education 1960. Oroville Union High School, Oroville, California.

 

1966. BA Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley. (First two years majored in astronomy, and first year went to UCLA).

 

1968. MA Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu. (Went on for four more years in a linguistics PhD programme, got ABD but never finished).

 

1992. DipCompSci, University of Auckland.

 

Family (Married, Kids, Single??) Married September, 1962 (BC) to Edna. One child, Kathy, born August, 1963. Separated 1968, divorce final 1970.

 

Married 20 May, 1972 (AD) to Susan (born 26 September, 1946. Reared Oregon and Washington, met me in Honolulu, 1969, been going from bad to worse ever since!). Johnny (12 July 1975), Helen (1 June 1977), Eddie (14 March 1980), Adele (14 September 1982).

 

Denominational Affiliation ...(or, NOT) Member, Reformed Church of Pukekohe, Auckland Presbytery, Synod of Reformed Churches of New Zealand, sister denomination of Christian Reformed Churches of America, Canada, Australia, some others in Holland, Britain, South Africa.

 

Personal Aspirations Too many! To remain faithful to the end. To win my parents and my wife's parents and my brother and sister to the Lord. To win ... but when you start on that, where do you stop?

 

To see my children married in the faith, faithful to a faithful church, and (subject to the above!), achieving some of their worldly goals, like getting through University successfully (or, in Helen's case, becoming principal flautist in the NZSO!).

 

To see Susan able to get past the self-chosen slavery of family raising and home schooling and be able to achieve some of her own worldly goals, such as starting and running a successful personal service or crafts business.

 

More personally, to publish some of my neural networks and natural language research. To publish some of my Yapese language research. To play the horn well enough to teach it.

 

If it's God's will, to return to America some day. We are broke now. We don't know if this really is God's will. But Americans we are and our children feel much the same. What I don't want is to have my children grow up and use their US passports to disappear. I also feel the rootlessness of being neither Kiwis nor Yanks is unhealthy for us.

 

Prayer Requests That the church I am a member of will come to be more and more confirmed to Christ's will. In particular, that we would begin to celebrate the Lord's Supper more as we ought (weekly, with all of God's people, including our covenant children, and non-Reformed Christians who visit us). That we would become less rationalistic in worship. That there would be more congregational participation in worship (instead of, e.g., everyone sitting silently whilst the minister prays). That we would cease to be a middle-class ghetto and learn to minister to the whole man, so that Polynesians, Maoris, uneducated pakehas, intellectuals, may all be brought into captivity to Christ.

 

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA That it can remain open enough that people will feel free to bring their concerns to it; clear enough that Christ is always glorified and that the Gospel is not confused with other gospels; and strong enough to enclose all persons of good will with loving arms, and to warn all enemies of Christ that here there is no entry for any who will not lay down his pride and bow at the feet of the Cross.

 

Special jj loves more or less at random C.S. Lewis. Baroque music, 'specially Venetian late Seventeenth to mid-Eighteenth Centuries. Languages. Yapese (look it up! I spent twenty years working on it, wrote two books on it, and my children were born in Yap). The tropics.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Carol Nemec Address: Work: Home: YA67@FERRIS 18705 220th Ave. Ferris State University Big Rapids, MI 49307 Big Rapids, MI 49307 616-796-1298 616-592-2132

 

DOB: 12/13/47

 

Job: Programmer/analyst at Ferris

 

Education: BS in computer information services, Ferris, 1982 Presently working on a masters in political science at Central Michigan University

 

Denominational Affiliation: Lutheran

 

Aspirations: Become closer in my walk with the Lord, grow in my knowledge of the Bible, grow old(er?) with my husband I don't know what I'm gonna do with a political science degree

 

Prayer request: That I reach my aspirations! That my children let Jesus be Lord of their life

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That we don't get wrapped up in dnominational and personnal differences and lose track of the saving grace of Jesus

 

Family: Husband: Don, a social worker, a terific person, wonderful father and precious to me Children: Michael, will graduate from college in May, '92 Steven, in the Navy Sarah, will graduate from high school in May, '92 and go on to college Aaron, will confirm his faith in May ,'92, then on to high school

 

TESTIMONY: I was adopted as infant by Christian parents and raised in an Evangelical United Breteran church in small town Ohio. I attended church all my childhood and even went forward at an alter call during high school. I strayed during college, but I feel the Lord was always with me because my life was guided in the right direction and someone protected me during this time. After marriage I joined my husband's denomination, the Lutheran church. I had a hard time with it at first. The worship was not real uplifting. The problem, of course, was with the church, not me. Services were very repetitive. But I endured, eventually attended Bible classes. We moved to Big Rapids in 1978. There was a parochial school for our children and Don and I were both involved, Don became an elder of the church and I taught Sunday school. Perfect middle class Christian family. 10 years ago I joined the evangelism callers. We met once a week, called on visitors or other names given to us, no cold calls, and then we prayed, for long periods of time. I did not know there were people like this in my church. Because of their love and concern --God through them-- and their prayers, my focus changed. The Lord was woking on me. The worship service became uplifting Jesus wanted to be more than my savior. . Today he is also my Lord. Through this change, I feel I have been able to give my children more of Jesus, I have grown and my faith has been strengthened. But I still have far to go. We all need to take the time to listen to the Lord. I only wish I had paid attention earlier!

 

-PBI-

 

Name Tom Ford

 

Address (E-mail, and/or Postal)

 

Internet: tford@convex.com Genie: T.FORD6

 

Age (Date of Birth - due to lag in reading of these biographies)

 

1960

 

Job Hardware Diagnostic Software

 

Education BSEE, Miss. State. Univ. 1982

 

Family (Married, Kids, Single??) Married, 2 children

 

Denominational Affiliation ...(or, NOT) I attend a non-denominational charismatic church.

 

Personal Aspirations I'm currently helping as one of the worship leaders, and eventually want to be involved in international missions work.

 

Prayer Requests

 

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA

 

=============== This is an interesting group. I also receive soc.religion.christian but dont read it much. It is a moderated group, but it seems to be much more hostile than this one.

 

I'm receiving bit.listserv.christia as a news group. I have a friend at Texas Instruments that does not have access that would probably be interested. Do some people receive this group as a mail-list? If so, how does one get on that? Do you know how the bit.listserv.* groups work?

 

Thanks, Tom Ford tford@convex.com Convex Computer Corp. Richardson, TX

 

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Darryl K. Johnson

 

Address: 2501 Rogers Avenue, Apt. 9 Fort Worth, TX 76109

 

Permanent Address: 409 Maple Street Kingsford, MI 49801

 

DOB: September 11, 1967

 

Job: Graduate student in Experimental Psychology

 

Education: B.S. in Psychology, Northern Michigan U., 1989 Currently completing thesis for M.S. degree in Psychology at Texas Christian University.

 

Denominational Affiliation: Member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Iron Mountain, Michigan. ELCA synod I wear a silver necklace that bears the Lutheran symbol and the inscription: "I am a Lutheran". I wear it 24 hours a day, as a reminder.

 

Aspirations: Happiness, marital contentment, financial security, intellectual integrity, spiritual fulfillment, well-raised children, wondeful memories, and a dignified death.

 

Prayer Requests: May the Church of Jesus Christ never forget that we are here to serve God, to ask His will, and to carry it out as best we can, and not to tell Him our will, and to rationalize it as best we can. May we never give God cause to regret His creation again.

 

Greatest Concern for Christia: I hope that CHRISTIA never excludes non-Christians in order to avoid honest criticism. I hope that the great diversity that can be found among Christians regarding the will of God and how it should be applied to our everyday lives continues to be accepted and encouraged by the members of CHRISTIA. Finally, I hope that the members of CHRISTIA continue to remember a great truth: To correct a man's error does not take away anything from him; It is a gift, for it gives back to him something he values, but may not realize he has lost: the truth.

 

Family: Kariina, the future Mrs. Johnson. After 6 years, may this year be the year I get married. We are all angels with one wing, and can only fly when we embrace another. I thank the Lord for my other half.

 

Testimony: I was baptized as an infant, and I Confirmed my baptism before the whole of the Church and before God when I was about 16. I have often doubted the actions of the Church. I have rarely doubted the actions of God. I have never doubted the presence of God. Lord, save your people from the destruction that we find so easily. May we someday learn as a species to create as efficiently and as joyfully as we destroy.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Kenneth Roy Diefenbach Address: k.diefenbach@ucq.edu.au (email) Annie Drive (home) Cawarral 4072 Australia (079) 344 330

 

User Services University of Central Queensland Rockhampton MC 4702 Australia (079) 309 747 DOB: October 25, 1957 Job: Associate Director (User Services) University Computing Services University of Central Queensland Education: B.App.Sci.(Computing) Denominational Affiliation: Salvation Army Aspirations: To be the husband and father God wants me to be, to be a witness that Christianity is not an Encyclopedia of rules all beginning "Thou shalt NOT" but a fulfilling and dynamic life, to develop patience and tolerance, and NOT to ever judge people on first appearance again...

 

Prayer Requests: My youngest child has developmental delays which affect his speech, co-ordination and (occasionally) his toilet training. I have always been too quick to classify people IM(not so)HO who were not as smart as me as dumb... God is dealing with me on that score through my younger son and it hurts. My other son is so much like me it's hard not to overreact to the shortcomings I perceive in myself when he displays them.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That we talk to each other in the love that God has shared with us at such great expense to Himself and His Son. That it becomes an "extended family" for those who need support and answers, particularly in the turbulent life that tertiary education can bring on with exam and assignment pressures.

 

Family: Lyn (my wife), Adam & Kyle (sons) Testimony: I had my first full encounter with God and His glory and power at 16, during a Salvation Army Music Camp. Since then, He has never let me down - although I can't say the same for my half of the bargain. He knows I'm still learning. Sometimes I forget that! In troubled times my faith though weakened has kept me in touch with the source of infinite hope power and more importantly (to me) love.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Andrew Panagos

 

Address: sggp999@uk.ac.lon.sghms.sun1

 

19 Rochdale Way (Home) Deptford, London, SE8 4LY U.K. Department of Cardiological Sciences (Work) St George,s Hospital Medical School Cranmer Terrace London, SW17 0RE

 

Age: 27 04/09/65 (English date day/month/year) (Boy I'm getting old)

 

Country: Born Geelong, Victoria, Australia Lived, Almost everywhere in Australia Currently live in England

 

Job: Currently working as a Biomedical engineer (What's That ?) carrying out medical research. Leaving real soon.

 

Education: (Boy I'm real Confused) BSc majors in Biochemistry, Electronics and Scientific instrumentation BSc(Hons) Microelectronics, Biomedical electronics Currently struggling at : BA Min (Bible school) PhD . Have to choose real soon between 2 offers to do my PhD in Neural Networks in Medicine.

 

Family: (You thought my education was confusing wait till ya hear this) Mum: Maureen Born: Christchurch, New Zealand Dad: Elias Born: Chios, Greece 3 sisters, 3 brothers born in various parts of the world Me: Andrew Born: Geelong, Australia Wife: Sarah Born: Houston, Texas, USA Married: 28 September 1991 No kids yet !! (I don't know how long we can keep it up ?)

 

Denominational Affiliation: (Still more confusion) Attended AOG in Brisbane Australia since saved 1982 Moved to England 1990 and became involved in the start of a new church here in London. It is an independant Pentecotal church called Christ Faith Tabernacle.

 

Personal Aspirations: The cry of my heart is to be like Jesus in every way, for my life to bring glory to God. A walking sacrifice.

 

Prayer Requests: If ya have any I would should be glad and honoured to pray for you.

 

Testimony: I can see God has blessed many of you and has done a mighty work in all your lives. Mine would be another testimony of God's great love and mercy as He has shown to many. It's a long one and I'm full of them. God is always doing new things revealing new truths ( well at least they're new to me). Believe me I could talk for ages of the wonders of our God, but please don't get me started. The best testimony I have is that of my wife and how God brought us together ( other than my salvation, which goes without saying). God brought us together from accross oppisites sides of the world showed us His love and His plan and we just flowed in that. It's a long story, suffice to say that in the 2 years we knew each other and were engaged we were only together for 5 weeks before we got married. God is Good, All the Time.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: zane of dhahran

 

Address: King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, #477 DHAHRAN 31261 Saudi Arabia

 

DOB: 5/31/'55; 7/'78

 

Job: ESL/EFL instructor, writer/poet/artist/songwriter, sometime translator.

 

Education: B.A. Japanese Lang. & Lit., M.A. TESOL/Applied Linguistics.

 

Church: Same as yours, there's only One Church!!!

 

Family: 1 beautiful wife, 3 beautiful kids, two ugly cats, one sleepy turtle.

 

Testimony: God is merciful and patient. Came from a pentecostal mother and a cowboy father from Texas. Raised in Ecotopia. At about 15 converted to martial arts, went into Native American traditional religion and Eastern Thought. Spent 3 years in Japan as a flaming pagan sinning like crazy. Born from above after a drug induced vision in Alaska. Baptized and discipled by the brothers and sisters in Enumclaw, WA. In fellowship with the saints in Dhahran at the present time.

 

-PBI-

 

Name: Carol Ann LONG

 

Address: (work) Information Technology Service, Southampton Institute of Higher Education East Park Terrace, Southampton SO9 4WW, England UK Fax No : (0703) 222259

 

Z_STAFF_CL@UK.AC.SOUTHAMPTON-INSTITUTE

 

DOB: January 23, 1966 (date of birth) Job: Applications Programmer/Systems Advisor, Academic Team Providing support for the systems that aid others to teach

 

Education: Professional qualifications

 

Denominational Affiliation: Church of England - various flavours

 

Aspiritations: To be the minister I believe I am called to be.

 

Prayer Requests: That I may be shown the method of fulfilling that ministry.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That in communication, we find christian fellowship and develop our faith in truth and love.

 

Family: various and scattered

 

Testimony: Thank God for Church Schools. They provided a reasonable education, taught me to think and got me to leave the church. That is no bad thing in my case because it brought me to now. I spent my early teenage years "seeing life" and had some experience that I value because it was part of life I should not in the normal way have seen and because they are of value to my ministry. God brought me via a long wandering route back to my local church and got me to listen again to the call

 

to ministry I was given as a child. Four congregations on, I am still working out what that is. Having seen some of The World, I look forward to Heaven and claiming Jesus' promise for me there.

 

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Carol A Long, DISCLAIMER - unless otherwise

 

IT Service, stated this message contains

 

Southampton Institute of Higher Education my opinion...probably only mine East Park Terrace, Southampton SO9 4WW, England RELEASE - Repost at will, with UK Fax No : (0703) 222259 acknowlegements to author.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -PBI-

 

Name: Wolfgang Hutter

 

Address: wolfgang.hutter@chemie.uni-ulm.de (internet) hutter@dulruu51 (bitnet) Karlsplatz 2 D-89073 Ulm/Do. Tel.: (49)731-6021468 (home) Uni Ulm (Abt. Chem. Physik), Albert-Einstein-Allee 11 D-89069 Ulm/Do. Tel.: (49)731-502-2829 (work)

 

Date of birth: 30.10.1963

 

Job: Teaching Assistant while working on Ph.D. Thesis at Universitaet Ulm

 

Education: Master's Degree ?? in Chemistry (German: Dipl.Chem.)

 

Denominational Affiliation: None, currently attending a conservative charismatic church

 

Aspiritations: To know, love and serve God with all my being; to love my wife as Jesus loves His church; to serve the body of Christ with diligence according to my ability; to be a letter of Christ to be read by everyone

 

Prayer Requests: That my relationship with the Lord is more than words, more than three meetings a week and that my life can be characterized by 'full of grace and power and the Holy Spirit'; and that God can guide me to lead others where He has put me in authority.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That our posts will help us in our 'Practical Christian Lives', that they may be characterized by His love and that we start realizing what really counts and what is just talk that doesn't really help...

 

Family: My wife Ute (since 19.10.1991) and my daughter Jana (since 13.03.1993)

 

Testimony: My father is a RCC, my mother a Protestant, both of them not very much interested in God. Following a hint from my elder brother I started reading the Bible. As I always was religious this added to my list of good deeds. Quite a few years later I realized that you have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. So I decided to take the step and follow Him totally. After a few years in the protestant church in which I tried to spread the Gospel among the mostly indifferent young 'church members' I longed for real fellowship and spiritual food. So I joined the church that I'm now with (no membership). No spectacular conversion, no special revelations, no crisis that could have cost my life - the Lord decided to lead me this way: I praise Him for that!

 

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Name: Glenn Radinsky

 

Address: Internet: S05152@doc.flc.colorado.edu

 

U.S. Post Service: 1992 S. Magnolia St. Denver, CO 80224

 

DOB: October 8, 1967

 

Job: Presently unemployed and looking for some- thing (I have just graduated from college)

 

Education: Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration w/ emphasis on operations/production/quality man- agement and related applications. Also about 2 years of computer science curriculum.

 

Denominational Affiliation: Presently attending services at the Arvada Church of the Nazarine.

 

Aspirations: To glorify God and to help others do the same.

 

Prayer Requests: That I am able to consistently fight the good fight through overcoming lack of faith and lust.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That there are sometimes flame wars that get out of control and that we sometimes spend more time working against each other than working with each other or glorifying the Lord. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -PBI-

 

Name: Michael Bristol Merginio

 

Address: merginim@andrews.edu or merginio@redwood.cc.andrews.edu or michae1644@aol.com 9926-29 Rose Hill Road (home) Berrien Springs, MI 49103 (616)471-4510 Periodicals Department (work) James White Library Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI 49104-1300 (616)471-6344

 

DOB: February 27, 1970

 

Job: Full-time Periodicals Librarian (also most-time computer techie) Andrews University James White Library

 

Education: Concentration in Health Psychology B.S. in progress

 

Denominational Affiliation: Proud to be a Seventh-day Adventist

 

Aspiritations: To be pleasing to God and to love everyone in the entire world. Also, wants everyone to know the truth. It may not be the same truth that I see, as everyone sees things differently, but that they know the truth, and believe it.

 

Prayer Requests: That God be able to take care of my needs as well as the needs of others, but fullfill the needs of everyone else first. My needs are secondary to that of my brother.

 

Greatest concern for Christia: That God be first and foremost in the hearts & minds of all its members, as well as being a means of discovering what practical Christian Living is all about. Also, that no flames be intentionally stirred up, but that Christians of all denominations be able to live together in Brotherly love and harmony.

 

Family: Single, currently wife-hunting (come-on now, we all know that this is the correct term for this activity, you may say "dating", but we all know that we are "hunting" for that perfect person to fill our lives. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -PBI-

 

Name: Daniel A. Harling

 

Address: harling@pictel.com

 

Date of Birth: 4 AUG 67

 

Job: Software Engineer II, PictureTel Corp.

 

Education: BS in CS, BS in MA from Gordon College (Wenham, MA)

 

Family: Single--but I'm open to suggestions ;-)

 

Denominational Affiliation: Congregational (CCCC)

 

Greatest Concerns for CHRISTIA: That we on this list may live as one in Christ, holding one another accountable to God in love, agreeing to disagree when necessary, and respecting one another as fellow Christians at all times. ____________________________________________________________________________ Daniel A. Harling (harling@pictel.com) PictureTel Corp. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Peabody, MA 01960 PictureTel Corp. (so there!) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -PBI-

 

Name Gareth John McCaughan ----

 

Address (e-mail) gjm11@cus.cam.ac.uk ------- (postal) Trinity College, Cambridge, ENGLAND

 

Date of Birth 24th August, 1970 -------------

 

Job Research student in pure mathematics ---

 

Education BA in mathematics; working for a PhD in pure mathematics ---------

 

Family Parents, two. Brothers and sisters, none. Fiancee, one. ------ (as of 14th August 1993: fiancees, none; wives, one.) My father is a born-again atheist, and my mother an agnostic who says she doesn't think much of God if he does exist. :-(

 

Denomination I attend an Anglican church, but wouldn't describe myself ------------ as particularly Anglican.

 

Personal aspirations On the Christian side: to make my commitment to Jesus -------------------- more total and life-changing, and to be used by God in whatever way he chooses. Otherwise: to be a first-rate husband when I'm married, and a competent mathematical researcher when I have my PhD.

 

Prayer requests Hmm. This sort of thing changes all the time, of course. --------------- My parents can always use your prayers. I frankly don't think there's anything much I can say to them that will change their minds about God; certainly not without a bit of influence from Up There.

 

Greatest concerns for CHRISTIA ------------------------------ That greater tolerance should be shown in it by all, even towards those we consider to be desperately wrong; that God's love should be visible in everything said there; that God's love should be felt by all who read it, and lived out by all who post to it.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -PBI-