– Pastor  email me

Don has been the Senior Pastor at Westchester Evangelical Free Church since September of 2003.  He loves the Des Moines area and the makeup of Westchester with younger and older families and individuals, the Chinese Church, Hispanic Church and potential to reach into numerous communities around Des Moines.

Don is committed to clear and relevant teaching of the Bible as it applies to real life issues. He has a real heart for people and a desire to see them grow in their relationships both to Jesus Christ and to one another.

Don and his wife, Brenda, live in Altoona and have 3 children.  Brenda is an assistant professor at Mercy College of Nursing. Their daughter, Angela and husband Joel live in Ankeny, daughter, Ashley and husband Dave live in Ames are students at Iowa State University and their son, Alex is a freshman at University of Northern Iowa.  They work hard to balance their schedule and love to laugh, and have fun together.

Learn about some of Don’s “well-hidden” talents and aspirations:

Interests

• Anything his children participate in (2 of them loved him coaching their teams and another unnamed child forbid him to even cheer at games).
• Despite qualifying for AARP, he still loves playing basketball (he was never very good – his college career consisted of scoring 2 points . . . and 8 fouls).
• He loves the work God is doing around the world, and has a love for missionaries and the people of other countries.  He has traveled to India, the Philippines and Jamaica; and, with his wife, visited missionaries in France, Belgium, Germany and Poland.
• He loves the opportunity to be involved with people who come into his life who believe they are “beyond hope” and sense “God could never love and forgive them”.  He has never forgotten the joy of being set free himself!

Hidden (well-hidden) talents

• He is rather handy as a woodworker, and built some of the furniture in his home.
• He played soccer in college (100 years ago).
• He played bass guitar in a band in college (his instructor claimed he could teach a retarded monkey to play the bass in a month – and Don learned the basics in 2 months).
• He loves landscaping perennial plants and considers cypress mulch a great gift to receive.
• He and his son backpacked for 5 days in Wyoming and White Water Rafted during the summer of 2006.  His son did fantastic – backpacking Don barely lived to make it out of the mountains.  Whitewater rafting was more his style!

Brush with History

• He and his wife got to sit on the 3rd row on a visit of President Bush to Des Moines, and the governor and politicians sat behind them (they later concluded the Secret Service wanted “disposable” people on the front rows in case of any disturbance).

Adventures

• Riding a 350 dirt bike, he broke a foot one day after purchasing the bike and then a collarbone 6 months later in “idiotic” maneuvers.
• When living on the ocean as a teenager he tried surfing and almost broke an ankle (a pattern is beginning to form).
• On a mission trip in the Philippines he got separated from his group without a passport, identification or any money – in an area that was dangerous (his guardian angel works overtime).
• Within an 11 month period walked both daughters down the aisle and he and Brenda gained two great young men into their family.