Dear Readers
 
As I look back over the journey preparing me to minister to Christian families, I can truly say God has had His hand on me and is guiding me. I was a preacher's, and a missionary's, kid. My early education and my teen age years were wrought with fear, failure and insecurity—yet God had his hand on me. I have come a long way.

God brought me on a long journey from Jamaica, to Winnipeg, Canada, and then to British Columbia in order to meet and to marry, the love of my life, Lorraine—to whom this book is dedicated. She has been by my side through the hard times and the good.

After marriage He called us to go to Conquerors Bible College in Portland Oregon. I then got caught up in academic success which drove me on to Cascade College, Portland State University and on into post graduate work at the University of Oregon—majoring in Science, Teaching and Education Administration.

After getting a position in the Public schools, I continued my part-time job in the grocery store as well as getting involved as spokesman in union negotiations for the teachers and later in professional ethics cases involving administrators on the State level. I also took many hundreds of college hours and many professional workshops in education, in administration and in human relations—all paid for by you, the tax payer. Thanks!

All this may be helping me now, but it was not fulfilling.

We all have another road we must walk, it is the road of our personal and spiritual  life—I am no exception. This is the road on which we must succeed, if we are to be truly happy.

In my early adult life my professional drive for position, degrees and diplomas overpowered my relationship with my Lord, my wife and my children. God started to deal with me about my union and professional involvement, along with my second part-time job at the grocery store. I slowly released the positions and embraced relationships.

God has shown me that people spend the first two thirds of their lives getting things and position, and the last third down-sizing and giving things away.

Thank God, I learnt the lesson,  "Things are not important—people are!" I have also learnt that what is ultimately important in life is my relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ.

The road I have walked has been a long road and the route windy, but eleven years ago I took early retirement from public education in order to go full time into a ministry that will last for eternity.  This year I have been humbled and honored to become an Ordained minister in the work of Jesus Christ.

The problems families have today are not educational problems and cannot be solved by new educational solutions. The problems today are spiritual problems; sin and selfishness, and only God can solve them.

May God bless you as you walk down your own road of life. May these articles help you and your family. May you embrace the same truths—and arrive at the same destination.
 
                                                  David Reynolds