ROB- My story begins 10 minutes north of the Mars Hill Ballard campus in Crown Hill, where I spent the first 17 years of my life.  I’m home grown and can’t imagine living anywhere else but Seattle.  I didn’t know it then but God called me to this city and through Mars Hill, I’ve been able to serve Jesus by loving the city of Seattle.

I grew up going to Viewlands Elementary, which is now closed because there are no kids left in Seattle.  I attended there until 5th grade, when after being taught sex ed by a lesbian nurse, my parents decided that Seattle Public Schools weren’t the best route of education for their third and final child.  I like to think that they saw how screwed up my two older brothers turned out and they didn’t want me to end up the same way.  I then started attending King’s elementary and continued there until graduation day. 

I love my parents for sacrificing for me to be able to attend King’s schools.  It was not easy for them financially and I took their sacrifice for granted the whole time I was there.  My life at a rich Christian private school was an interesting experience.  Going to the same school with kids driving their daddy’s Hummers and who’s parents would do their homework for them jaded me slightly.  I found it weird that there weren’t very many Christians at the Christian school that I was going to, but I found myself turning into one of the kids that looked like a Christian but didn’t really care about Jesus and what he has done for me.

This only set me up for complete failure when I moved out on my own and wasn’t required to go to church, or chapels or anything related to the church.  I was soon in a fairly tame world of drinking and partying with friends with similar experiences as me.

This soon went on until the summer of 2003, when I started attending Mars Hill Church.  The first sermon I remember vividly was Pastor Mark’s sermon on Revelation 14 in the fall of 2003, where the 144,000 come back with Jesus.  It was the first time I’d heard a pastor scream, and I felt like he was screaming at me.  He was calling all the men in the room to be one of those 144,000 that come back with Jesus.  From then on, I wanted to be one of those men.

Then in the fall of 2004 when Dr. John Piper came to Mars Hill for the Reformation Conference, it was the first time I had seen a pastor be both passionate, and true.  For the first time, I saw my grievous actions as the betrayal to Jesus and the Jesus’ love for me anyway.  I consider this my conversion day and thank God for Mars Hill and how it has brought me to Him.

LIZ- I am from a great family and we are very close.  Sometimes my siblings (I am the oldest of four) were my only friends when we moved to new towns.  Growing up we moved every 3 years to the opposite side of the country, back and forth and once overseas because my dad was in the Navy.   That lifestyle shaped my life in a big way well into adulthood.  After college graduation I did my best to stay mobile, traveling wherever I could afford to go!  It seems weird and abnormal now for me to consider life in one place! God has me in Seattle with Rob for a good reason.  I’m learning through His grace that life is even better if you stick around long enough to let your roots down.
 
I accepted Christ into my heart at the age of 7 but I didn’t start walking with Him until I was in college.  After a brief stint with a cult on campus that kicked me in the butt I found a great college ministry and Mars Hill Church.  My spritual journey really took off at that point.  And with one last overseas jaunt I temporarily took myself out of the community of believers that I had come to love in Seattle and went to Rome for a year.  There I believe God really enraptured my heart with the beauty I was deep in and with a lot of time to think and contemplate life (it was nearly two months before I started making any friends and found a church to attend).   Through the italian culture that I immersed myself in God taught me so much about Himself, His creation and how I played a part in it as worshiper!!
 
When I came back home nearly 5yrs ago, I was eager and ready to become a member of Mars Hill, (finally settle down) to deepen my friendships with other believers and truly learn what it was to be a follower of Christ.

ROB & LIZ (in Rob’s words) – I met my wife Liz, at the breeding ground for marriage known as Luke & Jessica Abrams community group.  We have been married for three years and I am continually humbled by what God teaches me through Liz and my relationship with her.  AKA, I’m an idiot most of the time and Liz gives me grace.

In December of 2008, we had our first child Jonas Michael.  He has been a constant blessing to us and has shown us just how rich we are.  God blesses us despite ourselves and Jonas is a reminder of God’s continued blessings in our lives.