Ron Woodward

My rags-to-riches story begins with seventh grade P.E. class where I was short-of-stature, athletically deficient, and almost always chosen last for games of touch football. In high school I was definitely a wallflower, and my claim-to-fame as an athlete was as the seventh man on a six-man varsity golf team in Southern California.

When I was 16, I had a life-transforming experience with Christ which later led to a call to pastoral ministry. With a desire to attend a Christian college, I transferred in my sophomore year to Taylor University in Indiana where I didn't know a soul. By some miracle, however, I was elected president of the student body late in my junior year—an event which obviously validates the American dream and proves that touch football isn't everything.

Since those heady days as a college senior, I've continued to play golf, developed a love for backpacking (in spite of all the blood, sweat, and tears required), and have been blessed by a whole bunch of years of pastoral ministry in the Friends Church. Married at the advanced age of 34 to an Iowa farm girl, I am very glad to have Nancy as my wife. Both of us are immensely proud of three adult children and six grandchildren. With a few years of employment remaining as a school librarian, Nancy signed a two-year contract in early 2007 to be the middle school/high school librarian at the International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So, for at least a couple years we'll be residing in the Far East!