I’m an historian in my day job, though it often turns into my night job and my weekend job, as well.  In fact, I think the “historian” thing has now sunk so deeply into my identity that I can’t escape it. Still, there have been other formative influences on my life.  From 1986 to 1993 my wife and I were missionaries in Kenya with African Inland Mission.  We taught at Rift Valley Academy, a school primarily for the children of missionaries.  That experience shaped me in many ways, (or perhaps I should say that God shaped me in many ways through that experience), one of which was that I returned to the United States with about 143 unanswered questions about the world.  I guess it is a good thing that I went off to graduate school at that point (The University of Notre Dame)  where some of my questions were answered and a whole host of new ones were generated.  Part of the purpose for this blog, I guess, is to give me another avenue to explore those questions.  Since 1999, I have been a history professor at Malone University, a place that I love, for many different reasons.

My wonderful wife, Elisa, teaches history and English at Lake High School in Uniontown, Ohio.  I have three daughters (Karin, Brenna, and Kelsey), and a son-in-law (Jon, who goes with Karin).  Elisa and I are active at Jackson Friends Church, where I am an elder, lead a small group, and sing in the choir.  My attention is often drawn to baseball, the Cleveland Orchestra, Bob Dylan, Civil War battlefields, art, Beethoven, biking, Africa, theatre, fiction, Johnny Cash, film, Notre Dame football, Shakespeare, and the peculiarities of American denominations, but not necessarily in that order.