Meeting the Lord
Max was born on 24th of June, 1941. He had one older brother, who died at birth and one younger brother, Dan. He grew up in Holland, Michigan. His family loved camping, hunting and fishing. Growing up, Max loved animals. He had a pet crow, a pet racoon, chickens, rabbits, etc. Looking back, it seems God used this care he had for animals later on to care for people. Another trait, that was typical Max from early on, was his ability to rope people into joining him in projects. He used to involve his brother Dan and Dan’s friends a lot. Over the years, God used this ability as a bonding tool for discipleship, the gospel or just getting to know his sons-in-law better. :)
One of Max’s first jobs when he was in his late teens was being a milkman. One of his fellow milkmen was a Christian. Max never really talked to him, but he knew he was different and it made an impression on him. Max grew up in a family that went to church every Sunday. He was always one to sit in the back row at church and couldn’t wait till it was over. But then, one Sunday, they had a visiting preacher and he preached on John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The Scriptures just spoke to his heart. He wanted to abide in Christ and asked Jesus to forgive his sins and be His Savior. From that point on, Max started sitting in the front. The Bible was opened up to him with a whole new meaning. He started reading the family Bible and would often talk about the Scriptures with his grandfather.
Meeting Dawn
Fast forward…. Max was working as a barber at this time. His pastor had a talk with him about possibly teaching Sunday School. Dad said he didn’t feel like he knew enough about the Bible if the kids asked some hard questions, so the pastor suggested taking some night classes at a local Bible school. The pastor also talked with him about marriage and prayed with Max that God would bring him a wife.
Max went in to sign up for classes and he noticed a girl signing up for classes in a room full of people. He had an overwhelming sense, this girl could be the one. So he sat next to her and borrowed a pencil. In the process of chit chatting, he found out she was signing up for classes on different days than he was. So he prayed, “Lord, if she’s the one, help me to get a date with her.” Max walked her to the car and asked her out for a date. She said on principle, she didn’t date men she didn’t know. Dad said, “Well, that’s the kind of girl I’m looking for, someone who lives her life by principles.” He explained his predicament and Dawn agreed to have a coffee with him. Over coffee, they talked for hours as both had never met someone so much on the same page. One thing led to another and they were married five months later!
Meeting the Navigators
It was about that time Max’s cousin took Max to a Navigator conference. This opened up a whole new world for Max. Time ticked on and before long he and Dawn had a family. First came Marie, then Mary Jo and then Martha! Max was busy barbering and they had a number of their neighbors in Bible study. They were also being discipled by someone in the Navigators, who later invited them to pray about getting training with the Navigators and being in full time work.
Max and Dawn prayed about it and decided God was leading them at least for a first step to get training. The whole family moved to Virginia, where Dad barbered and received training at a Navy base. Then the Navigators asked Max to take on a base in North Carolina. With the Lord’s help, Max witnessed to the first three soldiers he met on that base. Two of them became Christians and they became lifelong friends. In fact, one of them would later lead an officer’s son to the Lord; this son would become a Marine and lead another man to the Lord and both these men would be in our ministry in San Diego several years later! God is amazing!
God really gifted Max for starting up ministries. So, about every three years, God moved Max to another location. From North Carolina, God moved Max to Florida for about another 3 years, then the Navigators asked Max and Dawn to pray about going to Germany and working with American military over there. This move was a big step for the whole family. The girls even went to German school. God blessed the ministry at the base and Max and Dawn were also able to lead their German neighbors to the Lord. God is so good! They lived in two different locations during their 6 ½ years in Germany at two different bases. It was during this time, when “Surprise”, Harvey was born (10 years after Martha) and then another “Surprise” Heidi was born. As you know, Heidi was born special, and this was both a challenge and a blessing to the family. But the whole family felt, “What would we do without our Heidi? We all feel God has used her in our lives for the better and love her so.”
Then God led Max and Dawn to San Diego, where Max started a ministry at Miramar Naval Air Station. God blessed the ministry there and out of that ministry, two different couples came to be staff with Max and Dawn in Arizona. They recruited a third couple later on from a former ministry. Max had been given the responsibility of Arizona and later New Mexico. It was an exciting time over the three years in AZ and five years in NM to see God work in their ministry as well as these couples’ ministries.
By this time, the two older girls had finished their education. God called Max and Dawn to Russia for what would be four years. Two of the girls had done a mission trip there, but all three wanted to join Mom and Dad in this mission. It would be the highlight of their lives together. Max felt like God put it on his heart to ask God for five men he could disciple, who in turn could be doors (Col. 4:3) to the Russian people for the gospel. The girls were looking to have a ministry with kids in the neighborhood, which worked really well with their younger brother being about the same age as a lot of the kids. God blessed both ministries. They have pages of stories to tell!
After the four years in Russia, by this time Dawn had some health issues, Max and Dawn felt God was calling them back to reconnect with family in Michigan. Max initially was doing ministry in both Holland and Grand Rapids, then just in Grand Rapids, always having a phone/Skype ministry with others from all over.
