And just where do you think you are going, Mr. Hatley?

These are probably some of the questions floating through your head:

Why on Earth is he going from Texas (God's country) to Michigan?
What the heck is he going to do in Michigan?
Does he know it gets cold up there? NO--I mean REALLY cold!!

Well: Have no fear! I have arrived to answer all of your questions! Just as a side note, I'm pretty sure that very few of you are really asking these questions, but it helps me feel a little bit more validated in my ramblings if I think that people are sincerely interested; I hope you'll bear with me.

Let me start off with the question: "What the heck is he going to do in Michigan?" Well, the short answer is this: I'm moving to Michigan to attend grad school at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and to be closer to my girlfriend. The long answer, however, is a little bit more thorough...

I received my call into Christian ministry when I was about 12 years old--I wish that I was one of those people who could remember the exact date and time and what I was wearing...but I'm not. All that I know is that I was attending a Christian summer camp and we were in a seminar over full-time ministry. At the end of the seminar, there was a time of prayer in which the speaker asked God to lay it on the hearts of anyone in the room that was being called into full-time ministry. I was one of the people in the room. I also remember that at worship that night, they asked all of us who felt the call into ministry to go and stand at the front of the worship gathering for a corporate time of prayer,and I remember there being a large number of us at the front of that small tabernacle.

Well,okay Jeremy, so you were called into ministry...but what does that mean? -- That's a good question, and one that I spent the next 13 years trying to figure out, too...waiting, listening, and in some cases trying to take things into my own hand to make this call fit my own plan (I don't recommend that last one, by the way), but if there's one thing that my life in Christ has taught me, it's that God works in His own time, and His timing and planning are always perfect.

Fast forward to March 2007: I had the opportunity to go on a motorcycle prison ministry trip, and having recently learned to ride a motorcycle, I was most excited about getting some time in the saddle, and a few hundred miles on my tires. I always felt like prison ministry was an important outreach, but one in which I never felt I would want to participate. 

But, as I'm sure you've already guessed, the Lord opened my eyes and my heart that day, and in the time since that first prison ministry trip, I've been behind the walls of at least 7 prisons, and I've discovered within myself an unbelievable love and passion for our brothers and sisters behind bars.

I began searching for seminaries to attend, and spoke with the pastors of my church, and nothing seemed to be really falling into place at the time for me to go straight into seminary. Some of the best advice I received at the time was from one of those pastors who told me not to rush things and to really value the experiences I had in the secular world because they would be extremely useful in my ministry. So, reluctantly, I settled back to wait for God's timing, and listen for His call that the time was right.

Well, about a year ago, things started to click into place, and though I'd applied and looked at various other seminaries, everything at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary looked perfect to me, and after visiting the campus, I know that this is where God wants me. So, that's what I'm going to be doing in Michigan!


Next time we'll tackle another question...."Why Michigan?"