This was written to the people of Grace Community Church in Gresham Oregon where I've recently come on staff. I see God's hand everywhere and I'm thankful.
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Greetings Grace,
My name is David Piper and I love Jesus.
In 2014 I married my best friend and Air Force vet, Lauren Elizabeth. In our first year of marriage, I got brain cancer (my timing isn’t always that great), but by God’s grace, I’ve been cancer free since 2016. We’re currently expecting our first baby this February, and we couldn’t be more excited.
I grew up as a kid in the Bay Area, California, but would call Sequim, Washington home since 1997. Billy Graham led my father to the Lord in 1964; 20 years later my father led my mother to Jesus before dating and marrying her. I accepted Christ into my heart when I was 2 and was an evangelist at 3. It wasn’t until I was (nearly) 22 though that I fully surrendered my life to the Lord in Chimaltenango, Guatemala while serving people with disabilities. I preached my first sermon a week later to drug addicts and prostitutes on the streets of Honduras and the rest is history.
Prior to getting married in 2014, I studied theology in Auckland and have been in pastoral ministry since 2008. I’m currently a student at Western Seminary where I met your beloved Gerry Breshears. If you didn’t know this, Gerry is your biggest fan and talks about you all the time. All the time. If his wallet was big enough to store all your pictures, he would.
I was first introduced to this loving community of believers through Gerry in 2020 when he set me up to interview Rhonda Patrick for a class I was taking. In that project, I wrote about how it would be neat to attempt to do some of what she did, somewhere, someday. Little did I know that that’s what God had in mind for right here and right now.
Today, my wife and I look forward to getting to know you and hearing your story. God is doing something in Gresham, and we’re excited to join you in this adventure.
His,
David and Lauren Piper
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