On a rainy, March, Cleveland night in 1968, my life changed radically. David L.C. Anderson, the founder of Lutheran Youth Encounter, prayed with me to receive Christ. From that moment nearly thirty years ago, I began to realize that God had apprehended me and called me to a destiny and purpose which my sixteen year old heart could barely comprehend. Even today I marvel as his plan continues to unfold.

My experience that March night lit the fires of passion in my soul. God stepped forward and became my life's number one priority. With my parent's blessing I skipped my high school graduation ceremony in the spring of 1969 and caught a plane to Minneapolis. There, along with many others, I trained two weeks for summer mission work. That summer I served in four inner city churches - two in my hometown of Cleveland and two in Chicago. My faith in Christ surged forward.

Two summers later I returned and became captain of one of the special music teams. Again, a summer full of fellowship and focus propelled me even deeper into Christ. Little did I know then that my summers of '69 and '71 would be a preparation, a seeding of experience for where God would take me in my middle years.

Twenty-six years have passed since the summer of 1971. Today, at the age of forty-five, the fires of passion still burn brightly. I now live in Manassas, Virginia, a growing suburb of Washington, DC. I am employed by a company selling concrete pipe and precast concrete structures for underground utilities. And I remain eager and willing to serve and please God.

I am partnered in ministry with my best friend of over twenty years, John Jenkins. Though we both have full-time, secular jobs and families, somehow, through God's grace, we have managed to do many exciting things together on a variety of creative fronts. Here are some highlights of what God has done through us:

1985 Hosannah Music released our worship song Shout Joyfully on their fourth Praise/Worship album.

1992 The Manassas Christian Writer's Alliance is formed, a fiction writing partnership dedicated to "shining a bright light on old deeds."

1993 Servant Publications published our novel Bloodlines, a complex, fictional, Christian adventure/mystery story linking characters from the Civil War to their modern day descendants struggling as Christian warriors in the battle for the sanctity of life.

1994 The Covenant: Dance of Nations, our unique, multi-cultural, multi-media musical journey through American history is written and performed at our local National Day of Prayer Observance in May of '94 and '95.

1995 HEAL, a work of racial reconciliation in the body of Christ is established in our own, local community.

1997 Reconciliation Press, a division of Trinity Rivers Publishing, Inc., is about to be launched. We will write and publish historical fiction for home schoolers-historical fiction with a twist - we will be exploring the dark side of American history, looking at our nation's gradual departure from its Judeo-Christian center. Three books are nearly ready for press.

I am deeply grateful to David Anderson and Lutheran Youth Encounter for introducing me to Christ. I pray that all who read my story will be encouraged in their walk with the Lord. I want to remind every reader, young and not so young, that while service and ministry are important, our ultimate goal is Jesus. Let us all keep pressing toward the mark!

Mark Weaver
is the co-author of
The Century War Chronicles
and the co-founder of
Reconciliation Press.

Write Mark at mark@reconciliation.com

Mark Weaver served on Youth Encounter
Summer Teams in 1969 & 1971
This article was originally published
in the Summer 1997 Issue
of the
Youth Encounter Alum Newsletter