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:: OUR ELDERS (Part 2 of 2)

> Mike Tirrell

It was not all that long ago that I (Mike) was firmly and happily entrenched in a mainline denomination.  Life was going along smoothly; I had a good job as a professor at Stonehill College, a wife, two young children and two cats.  Sure, we had faced a few curve balls such as heart arrhythmias in the children and financial setbacks but things were fine. I had settled into a routine that met my needs nicely. It went something like:

• Monday thru Friday: 8am - 5pm Work; 8pm - 11pm TV
• Saturday: 9am - 12pm Grade papers; 12pm - 5pm Household chores; 8pm - 11pm TV
• Sunday: 10am - 11am Church; 1pm - 7pm TV Sports (e.g. Football); 8pm - 11pm TV

It doesn't take a psychologist to see that my life was out of balance but I, the psychologist, couldn't see that. I had prayed the Sinners Prayer and accepted Jesus as the Lord of my life when I was a college freshman (1971), but I put all that "God stuff" on the back burner of my life.  I met the requirement of weekly attendance and a couple of dollars in the basket but that was about it.

Even some difficult religious personal history couldn’t keep me turned off to God, though, and I became a member of the Parish Council, and then a Eucharistic Minister and took on even more church responsibilities. All that activity still did not bring me to a better understanding of the Lord.

In 1991, the Lord touched me at a Bible Study my wife took me to.  There was no lightning bolt or rushing wind.  He touched me in the only way that a college professor can be touched - through the intellect.  The message was on the difference between godly wisdom and human wisdom.  All night long, just as I raised an objection in my mind to what the speaker was saying, he would address the objection.  All my arguments were supernaturally shot down!  At the end of the meeting, I went forward for prayer.

When Pastor Mike, Living Hope’s founder, decided to open a church on the Cape, I agreed to go visit one of his first services. I knew the 65 mile trek each way would really be difficult but I could do it once! I’d heard him preach at a Bible Study and I had enjoyed the message immensely so I thought it would be worth it.  Since that date almost 10 years ago, I have made the 65 mile trek about 500 times.  By my calculations, that means I have traveled 65,000 miles going to and from church*.  What I once thought I could never do, I find has become time with the Lord that I treasure.  Were it not for the grace of God and my wife’s support, I would have missed out on this incredible experience.

Since 1991, my walk with the Lord has continued to deepen and strengthen. Some of the outward changes? I greatly diminished my TV time; I am more sensitive to family needs, and I relish praise and worship and hearing the Gospel like I never imagined. The Lord continues to shape me into the person He would like me to be. Praise God!

* To put this in perspective, if you travel 5 miles each way to church on Sunday and Wednesday, you will have to do that every week for 65 years to equal this amount.

> Charlie Markarian

I’m a Massachusetts native; I grew up in Worcester and migrated south to the Cape in 1976. I never imagined growing up that I’d ever be a Elder in a church (I became one at Living Hope in 2004). I never imagined that I’d really be doing anything in relationship to God at all.

Growing up, my parents were great caretakers. They provided for my every need -- food, shelter, clothing and medical care were all well done. I didn’t know much about God, although we attended the Armenian Church. But something was very wrong; I did not understand what it was, and no one talked about it. It was a general condition I internalized, of fear, loneliness, emptiness, anxiety and unworthiness.

It stayed with me into adulthood and was partly the cause of my problems with drinking and relationships which brought me to divorce twice within a fifteen-year span. My second divorce, which tore me away from my wife and two children, devastated me in pain and brokenness. In that brokenness I met God.

Everything in my life changed when I had a personal experience with God and came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior eight years ago. I’m a business owner, our family business has been plumbing and heating for nearly 50 years. While I expend a lot of time and energy to be a good steward over my work and exceed my customers’ expectations, the real joy in my journey these days is in my time spent with the Lord, and doing my Father’s business.

I facilitate the Christian Recovery Group which has weekly support fellowship meetings in Hyannis and we also sponsor the Alpha Course, which runs in Fall/Winter and Spring at the Salvation Army, also in Hyannis. I am always ready to help the newcomer who is struggling. I believe that the visitor, the one who crosses the sanctuary threshold for the first time ever, is the most important person in the Church. That's the person I'm driven to help, and if there is anything I can do to help someone find their way to an abiding relationship with Jesus, that's where I'll be, and that's what I'll be doing.

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