We, my twin brother Richard and I, were born in August, 1974 at the Colchester Regional Hospital in Truro, Nova Scotia,Canada. Our childhood years were spent in a small village twenty minutes outside Truro called Belmont. We terrorized our little village until we started school. As Belmont was small, we took a twenty five minute bus ride to Chiganois Elementary School in Masstown. Most of my childhood memories include running though the neighbours corn and hay fields, tobogganing down steep hills, playing cowboy and Indians, building tree forts, constructing dams in the river, building snow forts, laughing, playing, buying candy at Garry Brown's "Pic and Pay", playing in the Mill pond, collecting tadpoles, swimming at Red Rock, cycling to the spring on a hot summer day for a drink of cold water, and getting into lots and lots of trouble.

My most vivid recollection of some of the trouble we used to find ourselves in involved building a fire behind our garage. My father kept everything in that garage--tools, a row boat, lawn furniture, lawn mowers, paint, all sorts of fluids for our vehicles, and, of course, gas cans. Upon lighting the little blaze, the three of us boys (me, our next-door neighbour Jason Barnhill, and my brother, Rick) heard my mother's call "Boys, what are you doing?" of course "Nothing mom!" was our quick reply as the wind billowed the smoke up behind the garage and directly toward my mother's clean clothes she was hanging on the clothesline. Somehow we were able to stamp out the fire before mom yelled "Get out here where I can see you!"

We three shuffled out from behind the garage with our hands trying to conceal the evidence (a book of matches) behind our backs. My mother's burrowing stare hypnotized us and caused us to instantly obey her every command. She recognized the look of guilt on our little faces. I must say that this was one of the most powerful experiences in my life. This and other similar experiences caused me to think that I should become a teacher.

"Put your hands out boys!" she demanded. We all obeyed as if in a trace. The thought never occurred to us to put the matches in our pockets (they were for half eaten lollipops and other treasures). We were caught red handed. I am sure we received a strict punishment, but I don't remember what it was. We didn't see our next-door neighbour for sometime after that. I think Jason's mother was afraid we would corrupt him and had him stay away from us. It was at least a couple of weeks before we started to play together again. There were only a few children our age in that neighborhood so you couldn't be too picky in choosing your friends. I will always remember the fun Rick and I had with Jason Barnhill, Glen Delanie, Chris and Ronnie Linkletter and the other kids in the neighbourhood.

During our junior high school years, our family moved in town so our parents could be closer to their work. We went to a private Christian school for sixth and seventh grades. My parents hoped that it would straighten us out I think. That school is no longer in existence. It was ploughed over and became an extension of the K-Mart parking lot.

I lived out my teen years in Biblehill. We went to Biblehill Junior High School for eighth and nineth grade. The Village of Biblehill is like a sister to the Town of Truro with the Salmon River as the only boundary between the two. It was nice to be close to town. Truro is a budding small business town with two colleges, the Truro campus of the Nova Scotia Community College and the Nova Scotia Agriculture College, and numerous small business schools. Originally a railroad stop, Truro became a centre of small business and commerce.

It was during my junior high years that I joined Truro's 77th Air Cadet Squadron. My brother talked me into it. I had no desire to spend hours on the drill square marching around, taking orders from my peers, shining my boots and ironing a uniform. I had developed an interest in computer programming (on my Radio Shack Color Computer III) and wanted to spend my Thursday nights learning how to write programs and playing computers games. My brother told me I was becoming a geek and so he talked me into joining. I think he was probably right. I really enjoyed Air Cadets, especially the bush trips we took. I learned a lot about self discipline, wilderness survival, and the mechanics of flight (even though I never had the desire to become a pilot).

It was also during my junior high years that I first started to volunteer at the Colchester YMCA. My mother had been working there for sometime in the weight lifting department and desired our participation in some of the activities of the Youth Leadership Corps. The Corps was a program designed to train young men and women to be community leaders through volunteer work in the Y's programs. I tried to work with the gymnastic program but I realized the only activity I was co-ordinated enough to accomplish was vacuuming. I needed to find an area I was good at. When I heard of volunteer opportunities in the aquatic department opening up, I jumped at the chance (there is only so much leadership development in vacuuming floors).

I have always been really comfortable in the water so I volunteered to help the aquatic instructors with their classes. I loved to see the faces of the children when they finally learned to accomplish a skill with ease that they had been working on for weeks. When I was old enough, I earned my instructor qualifications so I could go on teaching swimming lessons.

I spent my later teen years at Cobequid Educational Centre in Truro, Nova Scotia. It was during these years that I discovered my love for music, theater and literature. I was coerced into trying out for the musical and vocal jazz ensemble by some flirty girls. I auditioned for both and made the cuts. I sang bass with the CEC Jazz Choir in 1991-1992 and participated in the musicals "Brigadoon"(91) and "West Side Story"(92) while at CEC. In grade twelve, I decided to take two English courses, honors English and Canadian Literature, because I have always enjoyed reading the classics. I also expanded my activities throughout my high school years with the YMCA, continued to participate in Air Cadets, taught Sunday School, and volunteered at Mount Traber Bible Camp and Malagash Bible Camp in the summer months.

In September 1992, I went to Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia to begin my Bachelor of Arts Degree. The English literature and history courses really interested me and I studied long hours immersing myself with these fields. While in Antigonish, I wanted to continue acting and I became interested in auditioning with Theater Antigonish. I tried out for "The Miracle Worker" a play focusing upon the change Annie Sulivan had on the life of Helen Keller. This is another experience which contributed to my desire to become a teacher. The thought of helping kids to learn, no matter how difficult the task, became a goal in my life.

After a year at St. Francis Xavier, I believed it was in the best interest of my pocketbook to try to commute to school from home. I applied to Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax and was accepted. In the fall of 1993, I commuted three days a week to Halifax with Mike and Felicity. Three days a week I engaged in my studies and I spent the other two days working at the YMCA and Centennial Pool.

That year, I decided to choose English Literature as my major and I worked hard during my two years to gain an understanding of the nuances of English Literature and the criticism of it. It was a difficult time working and studying and after two years I had worn myself out. I graduated in October of 1995 with a BA in English from Mount Saint Vincent.

My mother noticed the burdonsome effect that the numerous responsibilities I had taken on had caused me and she encouraged me to leave them behind and go somewhere else. I had always wanted to study theology.... After some investigation and soul searching I decided to leave Nova Scotia and headed Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa. I applied for the "one year" certificate program which is a survey of bible doctrine, history, and culture. I thought this one year would help me to pursue my studies of the bible and doctrine in the future. Little did I know it then than Someone had other plans for me.

My first few weeks in the midwestern United States were extreamly different from anything in my life. Emmaus is known world wide as one of a very few colleges who hold "Plymouth Brethern" distinctives in doctrine so therefore the students who go to Emmaus are a cross section of youth from all over the world. Half of the students come from almost every state in the union and the other half are from numerous other countries world wide. What made my first few months confusing was understanding people who grew up in socities drastically different from my own. It has been and will always be a marker in my life. Few places I have been are as multicultural as Emmaus Bible College.

It was during my first year that I met and became friends with an enchanting young woman named Robin. Robin was a good friend and seemed to be interested in many of the same extra curricular activities as myself. Robin and I were both in a vocal ensemble, a drama-music group, and seemed to hang around a number of the same friends (which is not to hard to imagine in a college of 250 students.) As I got to know Robin more and more I realized that we had much more in common than I had at first thought. It was at the end of my first year of study at Emmaus that Robin and I fell in love and a year and a half later we married at her home church in Anchorage.

I had always planned to go into education so staying at Emmaus was not a draw back to my future plans. I enrolled in the Elementary Education program at Emmaus at the end of my first year there. My third year at Emmaus I had enough credits to complete the program and in August of 1998, I graduated from Emmaus with a double major in Biblical Studies and Elementary Education.

My last six months in the elementary education program were my first six months of marriage. This also was the period of time I completed my student teaching. It was a very bust time. I worked with Mr. Carroll at Irving Elementary School in Dubuque in his sixth grade class. He taught mostly reading and writing which was right down my alley. I had a wonderful time with Mr. Carroll's class. I will always remember the students (Thank you for the memories "you'se guys!")

In August of 1998, I was hired to work at Tri-State Christian School in Galena, Illinois (just 20 minutes East of Dubuque) to teach high school English and physical education. Since that day I have taught a number of subjects including world, American and English literarture, creative writing, detective fiction, classical literature, economics, and web page development. The experience has widely varied and so I have decided to begin a master's degree to better meet the challenge of teaching in a private school. As life is, so is this biography--to be continued...

i found my humble beginnings at providence hospital in anchorage, alaska. yes alaska. born and raised. my parents moved to alaska from colorado with my grandparents to work at a kid's camp. they loved it so much they decided to stay. i lived on robin street for most of my life, really. it was a great street. my grandpa had me convinced that he could never remember the name of it.

i have two little sisters and one little brother, none of whom are very little anymore, and i love them all to death! we had lots of fun growing up playing games, keeping secrets, and laughing. there was always lots of laughing. especially when corie dropped her blankie out the window of our car, when thad wanted to eat at super chicken, and when jaime "the ghost" fell down the stairs.

my parents are gifts from God. i love them to pieces! they have proven to be two of my very best friends. i can never repay them for all of the love and time they invested into my life. my grandparents (all of them) fall into this same catagory, irreplacable gifts. without them i would not be who i am.

i ran track, swam for the swim team, played softball, sang in the choir, played clarinet in the band, danced in swing choir, appeared on stage in several shows, and laughed a lot in school. oh and i learned stuff too. i attended northern lights abc elementary school, romig junior high school, and west anchorage high school in that order.

in the summers i love to work at kid's camps like north star bible camp, camp elim , and malagash bible camp.

i am a lifeguard at the ymca and i love to teach little kids how to swim. my favorite part is the smile on their faces when they finally get it for the first time.

currently we live in dubuque, iowa . i am working on two bachelor's degrees at emmaus bible college , one in biblical studies and another in elementary education.