Michael Lester:
CLASS OF 1974
Beecher High SchoolClass of 1974
Flint, MI
Bartlesville Wesleyan CollegeClass of 1982
Bartlesville, OK
Jordan College Class of 1980
Cedar springs, MI
Spring Arbor CollegeClass of 1978
Spring arbor, MI
Michael's Story
If you put a great deal of info in these kinds of postings... they soon become outdated. So I am attempting to be as personal and yet generic so as not to date this too much.
So life doesn't ever turn out like we thought it would when we were young. My red hair is white and I fight a few extra pounds. I look like a cross between Elton John and Santa Clause! And if you don't think that is a flattering picture just imagine looking at that in the morning.
I have two beautiful, intelligent, talented, successful, wonderful children (they were adopted at birth and still turned out OK... perhaps coming from a different gene pool really helped). The oldest Tyler, and Actuary for Signa Insurance, is married to Kelly, they now have two children, Isabel Maria Lester born Oct 11, 2009, and Solomon Michael Lester born Oct 22, 2010. They have a beautiful family. I am very proud of them. My daughter Emily is now teaching in Holy Springs High School, Holly Springs, NC. She teaches History and helps with coaching the women's JV Volley Ball Team and the JV women's Basket Ball. I am very proud of her accomplishments and dedication to her work.
My career path has taken a few twists and I am sure there are still some changes brewing for the future. I studied art and taught art for a couple of years... then back to school. I became a Minister and after 14 years and more education I did a residency at The University of North Carolina Memorial Hospital as a Hospital Chaplain. Then all hell broke loose when I admitted I was gay and came out of the closet. I am now a hairstylist in Raleigh NC and own a salon. I still paint and occasionally show my work and sell most of what I produce... I am a lazy artist and do not produce much but luckily others think I have talent and want my work. I attend and actively participate in a Methodist Church. Do some local theater and even get paid occasionally, I also sing when ever I get an opportunity... And now have written a children s book that I am hoping to get published, and have more books in the works.
I once was a Pastor and became a Chaplain but when I was honest with who I am, the church ruled and led by men rejected me.
My faith has and always will be central in my life. I struggle to walk faithfully and honor God. I have become very involved in a movement in the United Methodist Church called "Believe Out Loud". This movement seeks to give a voice to our gay and lesbian brothers and sister who have been reje...Expand for more
cted by the church. We strive to make the UMC honor their creed of being a home for all people. As a gay man I have sought to live with honesty and integrity, and to be morally responsible. This struggle has been a journey of hate from those who profess to be the loving representatives of God, and self hate because I sought to please those individuals. My faith is no longer comprised of pleasing other people.... that as we are taught is a religion for man. My faith is in God who still loves me, and has not attempted to change me, and yet still calls me to serve and minister to those who suffer. I reject the self hate, the language of hatefulness and shame, and seek to find a place in God's service. I am very active in my local congregation, I entered into service with fear and an over whelming sense of humility as God chooses to give me a place to serve and minister.
Now I stand and seek a place for others like me who have been denied the opportunity to fulfill their call. God calls but people who use their faith to define God, restrict the power of God to transform and enlighten by denying the call of God in the lives of others who are not like them. Get out of God's way, Jesus died for all.... and God chooses whom He will use. Let your faith be an instrument to FIND God, and not to define Him. We profess the belief in the infinite power of God and yet we choose to put boundaries on God's love and ability to work in others. The church has chosen " to have a form of Godliness and yet to deny the power of God".
I serve an incomprehensible, unimaginable, boundless God whose love seems ridiculous to the finite mind of humans. It is absurd to think that God created everything we can touch, smell, imagine, and yet not trust God to love and use whom ever He chooses.. God, the very essence of creativity, has infinite power to do what is miraculous and incomprehensible in our limited reality. Who chose to become one of us to better understand us.... that is vain foolishness. God became one of us so we could better understand Him. Yet we continue to attempt to confine the power and limit the love, and deny the joy to others. It is no more ridiculous that God loves me than any other of His creation. So allow God to challenge your faith.... open your hearts to the infinite love,
Up date.... Tyler and Kelly, my son and his wife adopted a baby boy born Oct 22, 2010. His name is Solomon Michael Lester, He is beautiful and I am a very proud Popi Claus!
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