What Once Was Lost Has Now Been Found!

A little over fifteen years ago, Marianne and I moved to Muskegon with nothing to our name but tiny red-headed baby doll and a bunch of hospital bills from her birth. We bought a modest home and began our Muskegon-life together.

I had my dream job. I worked at my alma mater, and got to teach the Bible to teenagers five times every day. I was helping disciple several young people, and on the weekends I got to serve in a pastoral role for middle schoolers.

During these two years I created a four year Bible curriculum for Christian high school students. I had never completed such a large project, and in the process I discovered a passion for writing and creating educational materials. Even to this day, I consider that project one of my favorites of all time.

After two short years in that role, I shifted directions and became the Pastor of Student Ministries at my church. I was still working with some of the same students, as well as many other amazing kids from other schools; but my teaching load was significantly decreased. I did, however, continue to create curriculum and study material, but rarely on the same level as that initial project.

Sadly, in the move from one church buidling to another and in a computer crash a few months later, all copies I had of that curriculum were lost. I thought I had passed it on to a few people before I changed roles, but I was never able to successfully figure out who those people had been. Over the years, a few inquiries and searches yielded nothing, and I eventually concluded that the curriculum had been lost.

Until today...

Today I found myself in a storage barn digging through old files in a rusted out cabinet when I came across a hanging folder labeled "curriculum". My heart skipped a beat, partly because I thought the writing on the folders tab might even be my own. I opened the folder to discover...

It was Bible curriculum from Dayton Christian High School.

Disappointed, I returned to my task and discovered in the folder behind the Dayton Christian curriculum another folder which contained my curriculum in its entirety. I didn't weep, but on a lesser day I might have.

What once was lost, now is found... And what a strange path it took for me to find it.

Without a ridiculously twisted and involved series of events, I might never have found myself in that barn, today, looking through that filing cabinet...

So for whatever it's worth, for a moment I'm grateful for some really messed up events, if only because they helped me rediscover a piece of my past... And if anyone is looking for a high school Bible teacher, or a four year curriculum (with complete scope and sequence) for high school Bible, you know where to reach me!