Leadership
Paul Vroom, Lead Pastor/Elder
Email: Family: Married to Laura November 24, 2001. Our daughter Grace was born on November 22, 2003. We were sweating the fact that our first child might have her birthday on our anniversary so that we would never have a “normal anniversary” again. Isaac completed our family on October 19, 2006. Personal History: I was born and raised in Pella, IA. I've lived my entire life in beautiful cornfields of the Midwest. I went through Christian schools all my life and became somewhat disgruntled with the Christian faith because what I was seeing the church and schools was not lining up with what the Bible was saying. Needless to say I did my best job at running from God. It wasn’t until I went to Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL and got recruited to work at Camp Manitoqua did it all come together. I put my faith in Christ as my Savior at the age of 19 there at Manitoqua. I graduated from Trinity Christian college in 1992 with a BA in Elementary Education. Using the gift of teaching I'd been given, it became my passion to give back. I began to teach, or what I thought teaching was, at Lansing Christian School. I soon found out that God had other plans in store for me. I was being called out to be a missionary in the public schools. I took on of the best jobs that I had ever had (not including the current position) as a fifth grade teacher in the Mokena Public Schools. During that time, I got reacquainted with an old friend from Trinity, Laura Van Dyken. Little did the two of us know that God had something in store for us… marriage! Key People: Laura, wife: My best friend, my love, my constant encourager, my sanity some days. Laura and I have been through a lot together over the years. Personal struggles, struggles together, and we've come out stronger due to our relationship with God and our commitment to each other. There is absolutely no one I'd rather spend my life with. She is my God send. Gracie, daughter: At the moment I'm writing this, she's just a little girl, but there is so much I've learned from her. My need for patience, my need to enjoy life, my responsibility of passing on what I've learned, and just how precious this life is. Isaac, my first son: The Vroom family name will now continue on into history with this handsome young man. It is amazing how these two children have changed our live immensely. There are so many other influential people in my life that I could never name them all and stay succinct, but if you're ever curious sit down with me because I'd love to share.
Favorites: Food, especially red meat. A triple grande Carmel Macchiato. Good glass of wine or a very dark beer. A good pair of broken in jeans and a t-shirt. The sound of my family laughing (with me not at me). Time with friends. Time alone with God. The sound of an acoustic guitar.
Nathan Phillips, Elder
Email:
Family: My wife Sarah and I got married January 12, 2002. We have two amazing girls that have been a blessing to us and we are expecting another child in late March. Abigail was born February 1, 2005 just a few days after my birthday and is the best birthday present I have ever gotten. Mia was born March 11, 2007 she is full of life, energy, and has been a source of great joy in my life. We are all excited to meet our newest family member and to see how God will further bless our family!
Personal History: I was raised in Frankfort, IL on a street where everyone knew everyone. Some of my best childhood memories are playing games with the neighborhood kids until well after dark on warm summer nights. I graduated from Lincoln Way High School in 1997 and went to college at Western Michigan University. It was not until I was at college that I realized that I had a choice to make, I could continue to run from God and think that I could do life on my own or I could live into what He was already doing in my life. You see I grew up in a Christian home, went to church and Sunday school but after I was confirmed I did not often give God a second thought.
When I was in college I met some people who invited me to an Intervarsity gathering, I went. It was there that I realized that if I was going to make God real in my life, if I was going to live into His plan for me I had to make a decision. My sophomore year of college, through the help of some key people in my life, my now wife included, I really gave over my life to Jesus and decided that it is not about me but about giving glory to our Lord and Savior. Since then God has provided some amazing experiences in my life from working summers at camps, to being on staff full time at Camp Manitoqua & Retreat Center to becoming a husband and father to now being an elder at Missio Dei Church. I could not have done any of this on my own, but only by the grace of God!
Favorites: Family nights with my girls, mountain biking with my buddies, snowboarding with my wife and our friends, mountainboarding and playing in our front yard every season of the year with my girls, spending summer days at my dad’s lake house behind the boat on a surfboard or wakeboard, seeing my children and their cousins play together and learn together, worship with other people who know what it is to love a God and savior who gave for us first!
