"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.” Psalms 127:3-5
William Callister
A simplified (sort of) outline of my life
1979 - Born into a missionary family during deputation for full-time ministry in Australia, or so they thought.
1982 - Family moved to the island of Guam, in preparation to serve full-time in Australia.
1983 - Accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, in the living room of our apartment in Guam.
1983 - Moved to an even smaller island in the South Pacific, called Kosrae (an island in the Federated States of Micronesia), when it became clear that we were not going to be able to get the VISA to serve in Australia.
1984 - Had my first seizure, which later led to a diagnosis of epilepsy, for lack of a better explanation for why the seizures were occuring. This led the family to return to the United States due to the lack of medical facilities on the island. Also, the same year my sister was born. More specifically, my first seizure was the same day she was born.
1985 - Moved to upstate New York, where my father would be serving as a missionary pastor in a local church in need of developmental assistance.
1985 - Started attending the public elementary school, where I continued for 1st-3rd grade.
1988 - Homeschooled for 4th and 5th grade.
1990 - Enrolled in a local Christian school for 6th through 9th grade.
1994 - First job! This was my first summer working at the Word of Life Ranch, as a summer staff member. I spent 4 summers there, as a High School student. Two summers in the petting zoo, one in the bakery, and my last one as a climbing tower instructor.
1994 - Family moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia, to work in a new church. Transferred from a small Christian school (c. 125 students, K-12) in a very rural area, to a public high school (c. 1,250 students, 9-12) in a very urban area.
1997 - Graduated from High School, still unsure of what I would do next. Spent the next year living at home, working at McDonald's, and helping with the youth group in a nearby church. Our church did not have enough teens to have any kind of active youth program.
1998 - Went back up to Word of Life to work on the climbing tower again, and enrolled in the Word of Life Bible Institute (WOLBI) in the Fall. My family was moving back up to northern New York, though on the other side of the Adirondacks, so I stayed at Word of Life, after the summer and did the Summer Work Program, to earn a little extra money for tuition.
1999 - Graduated from the First Year program at WOLBI, and transferred to Appalachian Bible College (ABC), in West Virginia.
2000 - Got sick (mono) at the end of the first semester at ABC, and my grades took a dive. Did not fully recover, going into the second semester, and my grades completely bottomed out. So, I decided to try getting a job and making it on my own. By the end of that year, I had moved back home, to try to recover some of my pride.
2001 - At the beginning of the year, I decided to look into the one thing I had always said I would never do. In February, I took the oath to join the US. Army. By July I had graduated from my Basic and Advanced military training, and had already completed one of my Annual Training requirements with my Reserve Unit. I went back up to Word of Life to help them in the kitchen, and then enrolled in the Second Year program at WOLBI.
2002 - After graduating from the Second Year program at WOLBI, I came on staff to run the transportation department. I did this for all of the fall semester, before receiving word that our Reserve Unit was being activated, to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan... or so we thought.
2003 - After a couple of months at Fort Drum, NY we were only a few weeks away from being airborne for the Middle East. Then we were told that they no longer needed our unit overseas. We thought we were going home; instead we flew to Texas. While there we spent the next nine months filling in, at Fort Hood, for soldiers who were deployed overseas.
2004 - Returned home in February, and was reaquainted with some friends from PA. A couple of friends of my sister had come out to visit, and in the process of a weekend, I had made a fairly significant connection with one of her older friends. Suffice it to say, about 6 months I married the love of my life, Megan.
2005 - 10 months after our wedding we welcomed our first child into the world. I, once again, found myself heading back to Word of Life, as there were few, if any, jobs to be found in the area my parents were living.
2005 - Worked at the Word of Life Ranch, again, in the kitchen for the summer, and then became a stay-at-home dad, while my wife enrolled at the Bible Institute.
2006 - Following Megan's year at WOLBI, we switched places, and I was brought on as a temporary full-time chef in the WOLBI kitchen.
2007 - Due to the temporary nature of my position at Word of Life, I had been looking for other opportunities for full-time ministry. The ministry of Agape Youth Ranch had come up, but we did not really sense any leading in that direction. Clearly we still had some lessons to learn. In January of this year, we moved to PA, near Harrisburg, to serve in another camp (Camp Hebron), again in the kitchen.
2008 - In the beginning of this year we welcomed our second son, Orrin into the family. We began, during this time, to feel like it was time to move on to other ministry opportunities. Once again, Agape Youth Ranch was suggested, and there still was no real sense of calling there.
2008 - In September we were back in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I began working for CLC Publications, as the shipping and receiving person. This move was partially a desire to be closer to Meg's family, and we felt that this new ministry opportunity would better allow me to utilize some of the training I had received in the military as a supply clear.
2010 - We began to feel that my role at CLC was not allowing me to really put into use the giftings and talents God has given me. We were not convinced that it was time to move on, but we wanted to be open to God's leading in our lives. Again, the ministry of Agape Youth Ranch was presented to us, and this time there was more than a little bit of a draw there. Prior to this there had been absolutely no real "call" to Agape. I believe we were not yet ready. This time, though, it was a very real sense of leading in that direction. In September we flew out to visit them, and see what it was like. From the very beginning there was a feeling that this is where we are supposed to be.
2011 - In January I flew out, with our oldest, to visit the ranch again, and meet with the board. We were accepted as missionaried with Agape Youth Ranch, and began the wild journey of raising support... in a recession. A few weeks after we returned from AZ, I welcomed our third child, and only daughter, Echo, into this crazy world.
2011 - We have set a move date in January to head to AZ. We still are in need of a lot of financial support, but we feel that we have enough to get out there for at least the short-term, and are confident that God will provide in the long-term. We have billed this as our "tentative" date, in that if we suddenly get a call saying that every one of our supporters have changed their mind, then we may have to re-think our plans. Otherwise, we are "go for launch." I have already informed CLC about the tentative move, and have committed to give them an absolute "yay" or "nay" by the middle of November, so that they have more than enough time to find a replacement, and get them trained before I leave.
2012 - Yet to be written.....
