"I never tired of God’s stories. The truth of the story was always fresh and, despite repetition, always new."
Madeleine L’Engle
I’ve always seen myself as a storyteller. As a distracted child, struggling to find my place in a school system not conducive for boy with undiagnosed learning disabilities, my stories often got me into trouble. As I continued through school, "storyteller" was rarely used as a positive label. Yet like you, I’ve been shaped less by a list of dates and places than by the stories I’ve been told and have retold.
What Mason says – that "children are born persons" really is true – and I see it now in my own life. The thing my teachers assured my parents I’d grow out of has become a defining part of who I am. As founding pastor of Water City Church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, my life centers around telling the God Story – and helping others to find their place in it.
My wife of 23 years, Amy, has been my patient tour guide on this Charlotte Mason journey since 2012. My joy is to be called "dad" by our four children (ages 16-8).
In recent years, I enjoyed building my own working classic arcade, discovering the world of Lloyd Alexander, traveling to Burma as part of an education initiative, and buying my daughter a lizard. After reading Donald Miller’s book "Through Painted Deserts" in 2002, I decided a ’76 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper Van was what my life was missing. That was a fun experience that turned out to be more of a short story than an epic narrative.
– Jason Fiedler
