About us

Here is the text we sent to the nigeria team about who we are. I thought you might find it interesting!

Hello Team!

Kate and I wanted to introduce ourselves and express our excitement to be serving with you on the Nigeria project. This is our first EMI trip as well as our first trip to Africa.

Kate and I graduated from Iowa State University, in architecture and agricultural engineering, respectively, in May of 2007 and were married in December of 2007. Since then we have been living in Des Moines, Iowa where Kate works for DLR Group, an architectural and engineering firm that focuses primarily on the education sector and I work for John Deere where I have held a variety of positions including facilities design, construction management, product design and currently, product test.

We have both spent a significant time abroad in different capacities. Kate spent two summers working with Royal Servants in Nepal and Ireland and was in China for six months for a study abroad program where she worked with the IMB and the local house church movement. I spent 6 months with YWAM at a Discipleship Training School where I trained in Australia and had a two month outreach to Papau New Guinea. I also spent a semester studying/traveling in Brazil and worked for design/build firm doing construction management in India. These experiences, amongst others, have shaped our desire to serve people abroad and we hope to use our professional skills, coupled with our faith, to any capacity we can.

For fun we enjoy traveling, road biking, camping, sailing, rock climbing, skiing and tracking down good music/food/wine/beer. Kate has particular interests in photography, baking, mentoring young women, reading and art. I spend my springs coaching high school soccer and have taken to triathlons in recent years.

We look forward to learning more about all of you and the project in the next month.