About Me

The Story of My Twelve-Inch Journey

I grew up going to church. I learned the stories, the verses, and the teachings. But I realized that knowing about God is different from actually knowing Him. My faith hadn’t yet made the “twelve-inch journey” from my head to my heart.

One of the first seeds God planted in me was at Young Life’s Frontier Ranch. While I was rappelling down a 120-foot cliff, I ended up hanging upside down. The gear held me, and I was safe. Years later, I saw that moment as a picture of my faith: I was connected to God, but I wasn’t really trusting Him yet.

College was when everything started to change for me.

I drifted away from the faith I grew up with, not because I wanted to rebel, but because my roots weren’t deep. It wasn’t until my junior year that I returned to church, a small congregation in central Illinois. There, God used Dan and Gayle Wilkinson to help rebuild my life. Their love gave me stability, and their example shaped who I became.

At my graduation reception, the church gave me almost $500. I told Gayle I didn’t think I could ever pay them back. She put her arm around me and said, “Someday you will be able to do this for someone else.” A few months later, as I was deciding between two job offers, Steven Curtis Chapman’s song My Turn Now reminded me of her words. It was my turn.

That moment helped shape my calling, and eventually, it led me to create this site.

I’m not a trained theologian. I’m just the guy you might sit next to at church, listening for God’s voice and trying to follow His path as best I can. My background is in aerospace engineering, not ministry, but for over forty years I’ve served in five churches—teaching, mentoring teens, leading classes, serving on boards, and stepping into whatever role God gave me.

I grew up in a home where unity was more important than denominational differences. My dad was Catholic, my mom was Protestant, and both were deeply devoted to Christ. Their quiet faith shaped how I see the Church. It is richer, stronger, and more beautiful than our divisions often lead us to believe.

Years later, during a quiet morning at my kitchen table, I felt God encouraging me to write. I never thought of myself as a writer, but I started journaling.  What resulted was a four-year journey. It showed me the gap between what I said I believed and how I actually lived. Writing became a way for God to peel back the layers of my heart, a form of worship that helped me rediscover the twelve-inch journey where faith is lived, not just learned.

That journey led me to write a book, which I eventually self-published. But the book was really for me, a journal of God’s patient work in my life. Now, that same journey shapes this site.

My hope is simple: that my story encourages you to think about your own twelve-inch journey and discover the joy of connecting with God: seeing His presence, responding to Him more clearly, and walking with Him more closely.

I’m still on this journey, and I’m thankful you’re here with me.

If this is the mission, the next step is to meet the person behind it.

In His fields, Jon