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Les Anderson 346-8262
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I accepted Christ at age 18. I was serving in the USN and the one who 2 years later would become my wife led me to the Lord. Since that time, Ann and I have walked through life together. We have 3 children and 10 grandchildren. We love the Lord. We have known both joy and sorrow and have learned that in every circumstance …. God is faithful. It is my privilege to serve as an elder here at Change Point. Romans 15:5-6 “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” |
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I was educated at a young age about God and Jesus Christ, and when I was young my mom was involved in choirs, usually at a military chapel. I remember going to classes and doing all the craft projects that were a part of Sunday school. I am thankful for my parent’s involvement in church and I believe that these seeds were planted a long time ago because of this. However, they were planted but not watered. |
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I was raised in a household with no religious participation or instruction. We never attended church, and my mother did not speak well of her religious tradition. My father did not really weigh in on the subject. As a teenager and young adult, my particular lifestyle was “working for the weekend.” At that time I partied and abused alcohol and other drugs. A former classmate visited me a few years after graduating from high school. He had made a big change in his life and wanted to tell me about Jesus. After some conversation I explained to him that it wasn’t for me. He was pleasant and left on good terms. He came back a year later and we had another long conversation. In short I told him that I would “look into it.” The following year another friend, a roommate at the time, started attending Abbott Loop. This was a big change for him. A man at work started to talk to me about Jesus about this same time. I finally accepted an invitation to church. While I was there I felt the urge to respond to the invitation to go forward and accept the Lord as my Savior and I did so. I didn’t connect with other believers, and I did not live the life of a born-again Christian until Joni and I began to attend church on a regular basis. This still was not what I would consider the moment of truth about my salvation. I had struggles and concerns and much conflict. My parents lived out of state, my father was ill and my mother was trying to care for him by herself. I had other worries about my family, life was wearing me down and things seemed hopeless. There was this hollow place inside of me and it was growing. It all culminated in a moment of brokenness where I confessed I could not deal with it all. At home, by myself, I truly asked the Lord into my life and felt at that very moment that things would be alright regardless of the circumstances and concerns that I had if I would put my trust and reliance on Jesus. There was no crisis that blew up. This is not a “drugs to Jesus” story, but it was a place of total humility and brokenness where I realized that hollow place is only filled by Jesus Christ, just as God planned. Please let me be clear, I don’t want to sound shallow and trite – this moment confirmed without any doubt that Jesus is my Savior. In spite of life’s circumstances, in spite of my sin and short-comings, I have the assurance of His grace, the assurance of His promises, and the truth of God’s Word. That assurance is the ‘joy’ that underlies all circumstances. I have seen God’s hand in my life throughout the years in my marriage, in my business, in my friends and in my church. I settled up much of my past and made things right with people I’d wronged. God has shown me in life the things I need to address – not all at once, little by little, day by day. I try to be more sensitive to God’s leading regarding my weaknesses (sin)…particularly my temper and impatience. I am trying to be slow to speak, quick to listen. When I stay close to God I find that I can better address these weaknesses. When I am distracted from God, these weaknesses tend to control me. I recognize this and realize I must continually, moment by moment, rely on God. I give thanks every day that God gave His only Son for a wretch like me, and saved me from myself. |
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I was raised in the church and if the doors were open with any activity my family was there. There are so many things that are positive about that but for me legalism crept into my life over the years. God has taught me to listen and not do something out of a “should” do or “have” to but out of a response to the Holy Spirit’s prompting. I am a list checker guy who wants to get things done now but many times God has told me wait, listen and abide. Some of the ways he has taught me to trust him have been through watching His faithfulness in times of trouble. I have seen God be faithful many times in my life and in many ways. One of the ways is that my wife struggled with severe post partum depression. God was present with us and brought about healing beyond anything we could imagine. We have been blessed with three children, two sons and a daughter. God was faithful again and again through other serious medical issues with my family and myself, growing my faith and ability to believe in Him. I am thankful the Lord has given me an awesome wife that challenges my kids and me to grow personally each day. Another way that God has revealed Himself to me is by allowing me to see miracles in my life and others around me. When I was in high school I attended a small Bible Study. God performed a miracle and a small church was born which later lead to a Christian school. Over time other churches were planted and one ultimately grew into a big church, now called ChangePoint. Having that unique perspective as well as watching God perform a miracle in providing for us this wonderful facility has helped me to believe that anything is possible. Those two examples as well as others in our family and business have helped me trust God for little things and big things. He has been so faithful to us and has gently taught me to walk with him and to hear His voice. Now my relationship with Him is not about what I have to do or should do but because I am aware of my great need for Him and a desire to be near Him. |
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I grew up in a great home – son of a pastor, but spent my childhood lonely and afraid, I found acceptance and love through performance and recognition. I was a High School National Champion, a two sport All-American and on everyone’s recruiting list. I was a can not miss. Two years later I was flunked out of college, my sports career over and my identity destroyed. I had screwed up the only thing I knew. I was left with a life that had no meaning, no direction and no joy. I no longer felt loved or accepted. I drifted from thing to thing, trying to recreate a new identity – I didn’t need God, I was going to pull this thing out of the ditch myself – time to suck it up – be a good husband, a good dad have a successful career. I was going to be the kind of man that people would respect maybe I could gain back some of my dignity. What I didn’t see was that my performance based life was killing my family and myself. My beautiful wife was at her end – she desperately prayed to God, begging for me to become the spiritual leader of our family. Then in 1994, God allowed me to see my life for what it was (a mess) I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. What Jesus had done for me was very real, however I had no idea how to really live. Having grown up in the church, I new how to be a poser … So I went to church on Sundays; I worshipped him and prayed to him only to live a lie during the week. I was trying to fit Jesus into my life; I still wanted to do it my way, Oh how I tried to change! I would start every week determined to be obedient, only to find heartache in my daily failures. I was angry, the emotion of that saving moment was gone and my life was still a mess – I prayed the prayer God, Where are you? Why are you not helping me? In that crisis I saw God for who he is. He is the God of mercy and grace which is made new every day; he had always been there for me. God wanted all of me, He didn’t want by best effort – He wanted my heart, He wanted me to need him, not perform for him. He said “Do you get it? Can’t you see it was never about you and your plan; my son came so that you might have life - I am your life”. At times I totally get it and other times I struggle, but I have much hope, for God continues to increase my understanding of his mercy and grace. Life is beautiful and life is hard, and I find a joy in Jesus that magnifies the beauty and transcends the pain. It is in that joy that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is more real and more beautiful to me every day My name is Clark Hopp and God continues to transform me every day through the overwhelming beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. |
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I’m married to Kathie and we have 5 children (Jessica, Amy, James, Andrew, and Molly). Kathie was born and raised in Alaska and after spending 12 years in Little Rock, Arkansas, we returned home in 2000 to serve at ChangePoint. I entered a relationship with Jesus in 1977 while studying Geology at Southern Oregon University and over time realized that God had given me a passion to teach the Bible. Before coming to Alaska, I served on the faculty at Multnomah University, planted a church in Conway, Arkansas and served as teaching pastor with Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock, Arkansas. My graduate degree is from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon where I am currently finishing my doctoral program (just the dissertation is left). I love the church! My passion is to lead the church as it becomes a community that enjoys God fully, is constantly transformed by God’s Spirit, and demonstrates the heart of Jesus to the world around it. ChangePoint is becoming that sort of community and it thrills me to see it happen. As our community grows and serves we get to watch God fulfill the vision he placed in our heart . . . Life in Christ for Every Alaskan and the World Beyond. |
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Nearly 20 years ago, I had an interesting encounter with Jesus Christ. I was attending the University of South Carolina where I met my wife, Ann. While we were dating, we attended the student ministry program at a church near campus. The group was studying dating from a biblical perspective, and I stayed after class to talk to the instructor. The instructor talked about dating for a time, but soon starting talking winsomely about Jesus Christ. I started to cry. He asked me if I wanted to make Jesus my leader, and I simply said “no.” I remember existing the building weeping, but not broken. What a mistake! Over the next several years, I followed my natural instincts in all aspects of my life out of ignorance and disbelief. My sins hurt me and the people around me. Unfortunately, my lovely wife bore the brunt of much of my sin. I hurt her badly in many ways. I simply had no spiritual bearings in my life. I was completely self absorbed, mean-spirited and miserly. As the years went by, we moved to Alaska and started a family. I continued to attend church with Ann. She was forgiving towards me. Out of His grace and mercy, Jesus Christ continued to pursue me despite my unrepentant heart. I know now that he was being patient with me and kind to me, because he wants all men to be saved. Over time, Jesus really began to work in my life. I started reading the Bible regularly and began participating at church. I allowed men who followed Jesus to speak Truth to me. My outward behavior and even my thought patterns began to change as my heart softened towards the things of God. Notably, I took a big step forward in trusting God when I started to give to His causes despite my formal training in ways to maximize financial wealth. As more time passed, I was convicted by the fact that I was guilty of breaking all 10 commandments. At the end of the day, I did not love God or love people. Through my conviction, God illuminated for me that only the Lord Jesus Christ could offer forgiveness for my sins and reconcile me to my heavenly Father. I was finally broken. Everything that God had showed me about myself and Himself, converged when He called me out of darkness several years ago right here at ChangePoint. I certainly still do not have all the answers, but I continue to recognize my deep need for Christ regularly. I’m so grateful for His forgiveness and power in my life, and I love Him more and more as I follow the path He has for me. |
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I was two years old when my parents were spiritually “born again,” my mother first and my father later that year. Their commitment to following Jesus was real and life-long, and as a result my three younger brothers and I had the privilege of growing up in a Christ-centered home. |
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I grew up in a Christian home in Ohio and, in 1985, joined the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I met my wife, Sonia, in a college Sunday school class. We got married in 1989 and travelled the world with the Air Force, which led us to Anchorage in 2000. We fell in love with Alaska and a group of Christ-followers who called themselves ChangePoint. We immediately began to feel God's calling to settle down here and, in 2004, I was blessed with an opportunity to finish out my military career in the Alaska Air National Guard. Time after time, God has used my friends at ChangePoint to catapult me forward in my walk with Christ and my love for his church. In 2009, God called me to join the elder team here and, in 2010, he called me to serve on the Executive Leadership Team. I will retire from the Air National Guard in 2011. Sonia and I have been married for 21 years, an we have two "man cubs," Michael (18) who attends UAA and Cody (15) who attends Highland Tech. |
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Growing up in a home with parents who follow Christ, I was taught biblical truth from a young age, both at home and at church. I invited Jesus into my heart many times as a young boy, worried each time that it didn’t “take” before. I began to really make faith in Christ my own when in 6th grade I attended a summer Bible camp and, after studying the story of Daniel for a week, decided at the end of the week that I wanted to “be a Daniel”, willing to take a stand for God and do what is right, regardless of consequences. I was mentored through high school by my parents and a great high school youth pastor. Though well-known and well-liked at school, my faith in God was also well-known due to a life that was lived for Him. A plaque my mom gave me while in high school has a quote by Albert Einstein that I aspired to then, and still do to this day. It says “Try not to become a man of success, but rather of man of value.” I am convinced I cannot live that out in my daily life without Christ empowering me as I seek after Him. Though I have witnessed God do some specific, dramatic and amazing things in my life (beyond what I could ask or think!) my more common, everyday experience is that as I draw near to Him, He draws near to me. I have learned while here at ChangePoint to be less duty bound in the time I spend with my Savior, growing instead to anticipate my times with Him as times in which He will guide me and show me things about Him, myself, and others. I enjoy being available for Him to use in the lives of others, and appreciate the glimpses He gives me from time to time of what He is doing there. Recently I have enjoyed working my way slowly through Proverbs. The nuggets of truth found there are refreshing, encouraging, and instructive. One of my favorites remains Proverbs 3:3-4: |
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I had a plan. I never put pen to paper to lay out the way I intended to redeem this life, but I worked on it in the back of my mind every time I felt the need to insulate myself from embarrassment, disappointment, or the persistent sense of my own failure. Having been raised in the church, I had a clear sense of how I ought to feel toward God. I considered him just and good but I did not have the sort of relationship with him that many claimed and that is taught in the scriptures. To say that I loved God was a stretch. At age 15 I started to find my identity in high altitude mountaineering. Even though the peaks dwarfed me by their size; by achieving a summit I felt I could apprehend something of the mountain’s significance. By the time I graduated from high school, academic achievement began to play essential part in my plan. I gained admission to a top engineering school. That set me up for another component of my plan - to distinguish myself as an athlete; you see for me athletic achievement would only be possible if I was competing with total nerds. After college I married Laurie, but the joy of our union was diminished by my efforts to make her and our children the cornerstones in the wall that would protect me from the pain of this life. I saw God as a deserving authority but my dealings with him were almost adversarial. I acknowledged him only because I thought that following his rules would assist my efforts to save myself. It was much like the way I accepted the authority of the IRS and took its regulations into account as I formulated a strategy to make and keep my fortune. I had a plan. But God in his mercy thwarted my plan and brought it to complete and utter ruin. He did not allow my plan to keep me from his presence. Through a variety of crises in my life, God made it impossible for me to pretend any longer that I was unaffected by the disappointments I had experienced. The sense of my own inadequacy became inescapable. For nearly 25 years I had suppressed a feeling of deep personal injury and since childhood I had tried to hide from unrelenting reminders of my failure, weakness and mortality. By God’s intervention and the spiritual direction of Joe Clausen and Dan Jarrell I began to see that the source of my wound, the reason for this sense of spiritual exposure was not outside of me. It was in fact the remnant of my own depravity. My lingering rebellious determination to work life out on my own terms had nurtured and sustained this nakedness of the soul. Within a passage that Dan assigned me to memorize were these words: For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. [2 Corinthians 5:4&5] This has become for me the basis of my hope and the ground by which my adherence to this nameless fear has come to an end. For my perishable mortal self, in its dishonor and weakness, has died with Christ. By his power, my spirit has been raised in glory and one day my body also will be raised imperishable to reign in life through him. |
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My walk with Christ began at a fairly young age. When I was 17, I was in my first exciting and just as terrifying… dating experience. It was a true hormone plus high school emotions situation. I was dating a young lady named Debbie, who just happened to be a Mormon. As things got more serious on her end (for when do I get serious) she started introducing me to her church, her family and their faith. Eventually my lack of seriousness culminated in 3 really-really tall Elders, literally backing me into a corner one night in their effort to convince me of my errors in thinking. After a brief wrestling match, what started next was a period of time of investigating why they believed something that would make them act that way. And, mostly, just because I was mad. I read the Pearl of Great Price, slept through the Book of Mormon and watched some cool film strips about the temple. (which by the way, happened to be high tech at that time.) In my investigation, things seemed confusing. It all seemed very contradictory. So I went over to my grandmother’s house (next door on our ranch) and asked Stella for what information she might have on this God business. I figured, “Why not look into what everyone else thinks? Those pushy tall boys can’t be all right.” This next arm load of material started some serious reading, comparison of information, and frankly…just a whole lot more confusion. One Saturday afternoon, while lying on the living room floor, with all this research stuff out in front of me…out across the dusty road into the ranch, came a car. It happened to be a friend of my dad’s, who just happened to pick that day, to drive up 400 miles to see us unannounced. After a few pleasantries, he came over and asked me what I was up to. I said, “Albert, aren’t you like some kind of preacher or something?” Yes. “Do you know anything about all this stuff? It just doesn’t make sense. They all seem to take different views. What’s true?” Albert explained out things and that afternoon, led me to accepting the “truth” of Christ. I didn’t have a church or had even been to church, so as he explained baptism, we agreed he would find me a church in Portland, where they offered unrestricted baptism. Later that month he baptized me in front of people I didn’t know, in a church I’ve never been back in, and started a life I didn’t know anything about. But one thing I WAS convinced of, this God dude, He was real. He was even interactive. He would talk to you if you listened. He was not remote. So not knowing that some believed God might be distant, or only cerebral, or to only be known in church….I talked to Him. He led me to change college plans. He gave me men who mentored me. He led me to a beautiful wife. And he led me through many more stories of life- of which some have been quite hard. Yet over the last 33 years, He has been continually – tangibly – there. And I have enjoyed spending time with a God that would reach down to a boy on a lonely ranch. And I have enjoyed spending time with a God who still communicates to that boy, who is now an old man. |
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