Grace For Life Ministries is not a church but we are part of the Body of Christ. Our heart is to encourage and uplift those in the Body of Christ and anyone who may come by this blog.
Linda and I have been married 35 wonderful years. We have three amazing kids, all married and serving the Lord. We enjoy spending time with our grand children. My wife and I try to keep physically active with bicycling, tennis, walks and hiking. We love the outdoors, camping and visiting the ocean.
Linda loves to do crafts, paint, and invite people over to the house for dinners. She’s a farm girl at heart. At one point we took care of a few goats and chickens on our own little “mini-farm.” She also enjoys spending time with close friends, cake decorating, and garage sales. Linda has a passion for women’s ministry and children’s ministry and she also has a great ability to organize and streamline things.
Church Background
Linda was raised Catholic, attended Carmen Presbyterian Church after she was saved at 18 for 6 years, then New Life Ministry for 6 years, and then finally New Hope Gospel Fellowship.
I was raised Baptist for a short time, received Christ while I lived in Colorado Springs and attended Calvary Chapel at the age of 22. After moving back to NY, I was water baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit at New Life Ministries in Schenectady, NY. I worked as a janitor at New Life Academy (New Life Ministries) for a year before attending Rhema Bible college in Broken Arrow Oklahoma in ’84 and ’85.
Linda and I met at New Hope Gospel Fellowship in Schenectady NY and married in 1987. We attended New Hope from 1985-2005. ( 1985-2005-ministry helper, youth pastor, Associate pastor) I was the Senior Pastor at New Hope from 1996-2005. After that we took a three year sabbatical to focus on our kids and family.
In 2009 an opportunity opened up for us to pastor at Schoharie Valley Gospel Church for twelve years.
In July 2017 we were ordained through Reach The World Ministries, Rev. Gary and Gwen Bailey of Pennsylvania.
Currently, we attend Redemption Church in Clifton Park, with Pastor Jason and Danielle Cooper.
Vision
Our heart is for the lost, the hurting and the broken of all ages. To Reach, Rescue, Restore and Rebuild. We value the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lead and to empower believers. Below is a painting my wife did years ago that speaks a lot about our hearts and passion: to rescue the lost and dying, those who are shipwrecked in life.
Some Ministry Philosophy
How do you spell ministry? W-o-r-k. We believe in the equipping of God’s saints through discipleship for the work of ministry. –Eph. 4:11. We believe in servant leadership –leading from the bottom up and leading by example. We value teams rather than committees. Ministry is a calling not a position. God’s Word and His love is the foundation for everything we do. We value excellence not perfection, doing our best for Christ. We value the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lead and to empower believers.