Meet the Leaders: Pastors

:: THE PASTOR'S HEART

Our prayer for every believer is that they would firstly come to know and believe the amazing, unchanging and unfailing love of God the Father for us. It is His love for us that secures our hearts when everything else seems to have failed. Secondly, we pray that all believers would come to know the truth about God as it is in Jesus. Who the Father is, what He is like and how He deals with us as His beloved and precious children. Thirdly, that in Jesus, we would learn the truth about ourselves; who we are as new creations in Christ, and that having been made the righteousness of God in Him we would learn to live lives that honor His sacrifice and His love for us. Fourthly, we pray that all would learn to walk in the greatness of His power, which empowers us to defeat the devil; to destroy his works in our lives and in the lives of others. And finally, we pray that the body of Jesus would fulfill the great command and the great commission. That is that we in return would love our God with all of our beings, that we would love one another and that we would tell the world the great news of their salvation in Jesus Christ. May the Lord fulfill this prayer in your life. Amen.

Eskelunds

> Erik and Tami Eskelund

Tami and I came to Living Hope Family Church in May of 2003, when I joined as co-pastor; we have been friends of the church for many years. Originally from South Africa, we’ve been in full-time ministry in the United States since 1992. In addition to pastoring, we have had over 17 years of experience in ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including youth and young adult work, foreign missions (in a dozen different nations!); concerts, praise and worship leadership and seminars, marriage counseling, camp meetings, and one-on-one evangelism. We have also recorded and published an independent music project, Days of Spring, which was produced in Nashville, Tennessee, released in 1999. I have served on the faculty of the International Worship Institute since 2003, and am the founding director of Emoyeni USA, a public charity that serves HIV orphans in South Africa. (More about this work can be found in the Foreign Missions area of the site.) Tami and I have two children, Luke and Tehillah, both of whom are schooled at home. They are familiar faces around LHFC, with Tehillah singing on the worship team and Luke making his appearance on the drums. We have been close friends with the Mather-Pikes since Bible School days, where we all sat under the same ministry as Living Hope’s founder and former pastor, Mike Petzer. Our two families even worked together in business for a short period of time in Zimbabwe in 1991. [Interesting Trivia: Tami and Darryl were born in the same hospital in Rhodesia; Darryl and I grew up in the same South African town (though we attended rival schools), and both of us served in the South African military.] Our families share many common bonds, not the least of which is an overwhelming love for the Lord and a passion to proclaim His gospel of grace.

It was a tremendous time of blessing to serve as Co-Pastor with Darryl, who is my brother, my friend and mentor. As of January of 2006, Tami and I have been honored to accept the mantle of leadership as Senior Pastors of the church. We receive this responsibility as the Lord's mandate, and we eagerly continue to fulfill our commission to serve the Lord and his people here.

:: THE PASTOR'S HEART

> Erik and Tami Eskelund

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