Jim Dirkes:
CLASS OF 1979
John Carroll High SchoolClass of 1979
Ft. pierce, FL
Jim's Story
Life
After nearly destroying my life through drugs and alcohol, it took losing everything of consequence in my life to change my thinking. I surrendered my heart to Christ, and put one foot in front of the other, doing the next right thing. I now live happily in South Carolina, married to a beautiful woman, 2 great kids (Ellisa just got married July 1, 2006), and I'm leading the Young Adult Ministry at Old Fort Baptist Church in Summerville, SC. God has blessed me as well in allowing my to play guitar in our praise band, where we were selected as a warm up band for Big Daddy Weave at the North Charleston Coliseum. God has been so awesome to us. I pay the bills as a systems engineer at MUSC, but my first love is to teach and share the Gospel message, I go on mission in Peru as an ongoing effort (8-12 trips per year) in evangelizing and discipling the people of the southern Ayacucho / Parinacochas in the Andes mountains. I also minister to the under 30 group, and take th...Expand for more
em with me to Peru to see God's hand up close and personal.
Praise Him...
Jim <><
School
High School was little more than a mess for me. It was all about getting wasted and killing time. Drugs, booze and other unmentionables nearly destroyed me. I find it amazing that I was able to maintain A & B grades all the way through school.
Couple that with trying to make sense of a religion that focused on the sacred, and ignored what was holy. Treasured ritual at the expense of relationship. I felt abandoned by catholicism, as it seemed to care more about its own political structure than actually offering ministry. Not once did we ever go out to share God's love, or to reach the lost. It left me feeling empty. I quit school in 1979.
After a stint in the USAF, I got out in 1982 and got my GED and went to college. A student of Philosophy and Religious Studies, I am now grounded in the work of ministry. It's my life, as it is what I have truly been called to.
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