Aaron Ward

I have lived in Michigan, California and now currently in Shorewood, IL. I have been blessed with two great children; Aiden and Amaya, and now married to my incredible wife Krissy. I moved to Illinois due to a job change with my current employer. I have been playing guitar for over 14 years. When I first started playing I was influenced by secular metal music. I formed two bands and have had the opportunity to play in front of 500+ people at functions. I lost my love for the guitar shortly after my last band broke apart and it was then I decided to pursue my current career in software sales.

Prior to moving to Plainfield, my family and I lived in the San Bernardino Mountains in sunny California. I was exposed to God while we were in the mountains and joined a Calvary Chapel located in Running Springs, CA. At the time I was not a believer. I was introduced to some Christian music that was similar to the secular music I was traditionally used to; Kutless, Jeremy Camp and Switch Foot to name a few. I soon found the music very moving and found myself in a struggle to listen to the older/secular stations. I began attending church only to enjoy the musicians who were playing. I was still skeptical about needing a savior and thought I had life down...notice the word "thought." One Saturday afternoon at a Christian Harvest Fest (featured artist was Kutless) I was enjoying the moments, the music and the time I had with family and friends. The music stopped and a pastor spoke on stage. He was speaking directly to me (though there were over 2000 people in attendance). I do not know why but when asked if anyone wanted to have Jesus in their life I was the first to raise my hands and move forward. I was moved by something spiritual that day and that is when I decided to give my life to Jesus. That was the most exhilarating day of my life. About a month after being saved I picked up one of my acoustic guitars and began playing music for the Lord. Ever since I have not put the guitar down and enjoy the talents God has given me.

Life was not so fun as I was relocated to Illinois for my job. I was crushed spiritually looking for a church that provided everything I needed and provided what my children needed. It was not until one day a friend invited me to Crosswinds in late March 2006. The Sunday I went I felt God with me, I saw God in the eyes of those who were there and I felt moved instantly. I began coming regularly and being introduced to many who are now very close friends to me. I was blessed with the opportunity to play a song; Great Humble King, for an Easter service for the church. I never have played and sung at the same time but God helped me and blessed me again with the opportunity of becoming the Worship Leader for this wonderful church. Now through the blessing of God the worship team has grown beyond what I ever dreamt it could be.

Over the past years I have grown with the Lord. I know I have found my spiritual home and can now work on my walk with Jesus. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus.

If you would like more information about the Worship ministry you can email Aaron Ward.

Michele Pitt

Do you have labels? I grew up being labeled. For most of the people in my life I was the “good girl,” but no one understood why. For that you have to look at another one of my labels -- “victim.” You see, I was abused for my entire childhood – physical, sexual and emotional, I hit them all. For those who abused me, I was an easy target. For those that didn’t, I constantly tried to be perfect… so they wouldn’t abuse me too.

Since I was a small child, I talked to God. Now you should know I wasn’t raised in a “religious” household, just required to go to church every week until my parents decided we weren’t going anymore. In spite of not knowing why, talking to God made me feel less alone, more loved and accepted.

It wasn’t until I went away to college that I learned why talking with God was important and that there was a “fancy” name for it – prayer. I learned that God had always been there with me and cried every tear that I did with me. He loved me more than anyone ever had or would – and he would never hurt me like others had. I became a Christian while away at school and my life was never the same.

I have learned the blessings of forgiveness and felt God’s healing hand as He took away so much of the pain I grew up with. I still have a long way to go on my journey, but knowing that God will always be at my side gives me strength and courage. One of my favorite verses is: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6). God’s promise to me – and to you – is that He will never give up on you. What a wonderful thing to know!

I am honored to spend time not just each day, but many times a day with my God in prayer and want to encourage everyone in their prayer life. It is through prayer that God does His greatest work. He is your Counselor, your guide, your Father, your friend, your Lord, your shoulder to cry on – He is everything. Wouldn’t you like to spend time talking with someone who loves you unconditionally, wants to comfort you and see you grow into the wonderful person you were meant to be?

You can! I encourage you to spend time with that person – God. I would be honored to pray for you and with you – so please let me know how I can be there for you!

If you would like more information about the Prayer ministry you can email Michele Pitt.

Katie Purdy

My name is Katie. I’m married with two fabulous little boys. I came to be the new Children’s Ministry Leader on a sunny fall day. It was an answer to a prayer I prayed earlier that morning. I’d like to write that all my prayers are answered so quickly! My prayer was simply that God would use me. That’s it, a quiet, rather short prayer, that God would use me for His purpose and that He would make it obvious to me what that use or purpose was, so I didn’t miss it. An hour later, Pastor Ken called to tell me that the current Children’s Ministry Leader was stepping down to pursue other ministries. He asked if I would prayerfully consider taking the position. I said yes immediately because it was so obviously an answer to my earlier prayer!

I was, and still am, blessed to have parents that taught me about God and His love for me from as early as I can remember. My Father was in the Air Force, so I grew up in many different churches as we moved around the Country. He retired and our permanent home became Lockport, Illinois. I attended a wonderful church in Lockport. I meet my husband while in College and we married after I graduated and moved to Plainfield. We attended church back in Lockport on a very sporadic basis and gradually began to make our Sunday a day of rest, but not how God intended. We stopped attending church altogether. After our first son was born, I began searching for a home church. I knew how wonderful and important it was to grow up knowing God’s love and I wanted that for my children and for my husband and myself as well.

After visiting many churches, I began to attend a church that worshipped in the Elementary School in our neighborhood. I liked the church and the fact that I could walk with my infant son on Sunday morning to the church. Gradually, it became all too easy on Sunday mornings for me to tell myself it was too hard to bring an infant to church by myself and I stopped going. All the while, I was praying that Bill and I would find a church home together and we would raise our family in the church together.

God is good! Five years after all those prayers, we have a wonderful church home, another son and the peace that comes from knowing we are God’s children. What led us to Crosswinds is such an amazing and intricate story, that I am still amazed by God’s plans for us. Crosswinds, in its beginning stages, was not yet meeting on Sunday mornings. One of the founding families was holding a Bible Study in their home. We were friends with that family and they called up and asked if I would be willing to watch some kids in their basement (I used to nanny for them when my son was first born) while the adults meet upstairs for a Bible Study. I said ok. The first night I was scheduled to watch the kids, my husband had just returned from a week long business trip. He offered to come with me to help and that way we’d get to catch up with each other since he’d been gone.

We got to the house and the bible study members with children were not able to make it at the last minute. So, we were invited to stay for the Bible Study, if we were so inclined. I said sure, my husband was not so sure! He thought it was a plot to get him to the Bible Study. Of course it wasn’t and the rest just fell into place, as God wanted it to. We connected to the Church immediately. It just felt right and God was speaking to us in a way that we had never allowed Him to before.

That’s most of our story. I am blessed to be a part of teaching children about God, His Son and His infinite love, grace and mercy for us all. I think children are the best witnesses for the Lord. Their understanding of the simple, yet ultimate, truth along with their complete trust and faith in God’s goodness and nearness is something I strive to get back to as an adult. God is good...all the time!

If you would like more information about the Children's Ministry you can email Katie Purdy.

Todd Walter

My name is Todd Walter and I am the high school youth group leader at Crosswinds Church. My wife Sonja and I have three teen age kids; Julian, Micaela and Elijah. I was born in Aurora, Illinois and grew up in the church. I became saved when I was 12 years old. Our first several years of being married we lived in Aurora and attended the same church I grew up in. We moved to Plainfield and bought our first home about 10 years ago. Like many families that move to a new area we struggled to find a church and soon fell away from regular attendance.

It became comfortable to have my week-ends to myself. Sunday mornings became the time for a big family breakfast. While it was good family time it was missing something and it nagged at me constantly. It was missing God and I knew it but it was easy to come up with excuses of why not to go to church; I’m tired, I’m busy, I don’t know what church to go to, I don’t know what time they start, are the people friendly?, I don’t feel like fighting to get the kids up early, and it goes on and on. The problem was that my excuses were not only halting my growth as a Christian but they were getting in the way of my families own relationship with God.

One weekend my teen age nephew John was staying with us and he told me about a church he had attended called Crosswinds. He said it was a good church and the people seemed nice. He asked if I we wanted to go and I said sure. But we didn’t go that weekend or several other times after that. Finally through John’s persistent asking we got up one Sunday and went. We have been going ever since.

Since going to Crosswinds for nearly a year now I have developed many friendships but more importantly I have rededicated my life to Jesus and have been baptized. About 6 months ago I felt God calling me to get involved on our youth ministry. Recently I and another parent Caryn started back up the high school youth group, Gale Force. God has blessed me through the kids and this experience. I think he has taught me more through the kids than I have taught to them.

One verse that has stuck with me as I have begun this ministry is Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. But it was through the faith and obedience of a child that I found my way back to Jesus.

If you would like more information about the Youth ministry you can email Todd Walter.

Krissy Ward

Hi there! My name is Krissy and I was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia. As a child I regularly attended church. My Father was a deacon and my Mother was a singer in the worship team and a Sunday school teacher. I loved going to church and worshipping God. My parents had gotten me a little tambourine and I remember loving to shake that thing like crazy while singing to Jesus.

At the age of 8 our church Pastor was killed in a plane crash. After that my parents stopped going to church all together. At first I missed the church and Sunday school. I missed singing to God and learning about all the people in the bible. After a few years I lost all thought of church and God. As I grew older Jesus and his love for me became a distant memory. When I reached high school I was a full blown agnostic. I just didn’t care about God and whether he existed or not. By college, I was an atheist. I went from not caring to not believing at all. My life was spiraling down. I became out of control. I felt empty and surrounded by darkness. I had lost the light that was the love of Jesus and I didn’t even realize it!

After a few years of being at rock bottom a friend of mine introduced me to Wicca. I remember thinking, “Finally! Someone to believe in, someone that loves me for me.” She made it sound so good and enticing. So I told her to sign me up! Teach me all about it! I began reading books and studying about it. It all sounded good, but I still felt empty. I didn’t feel any love or light coming from this supposed extreme goddess. After performing the rituals I didn’t feel anything but silly! This just wasn’t working for me either.

That’s when I met Aaron. I first “met” him playing Halo 3 on Xbox live. We were friends online for about a year. We would play online and talk for hours! It was nice. I didn’t know that Aaron was a Christian. I think he told me once or twice but I always put it out of my mind and forgot about it. I liked Aaron; he always made me laugh so hard. At the time I thought Christians were hypocrites. I didn’t want anything to do with them. So in my mind I refused to acknowledge the fact that he was one.

We finally decided to meet face to face. He was working in Lexington, Kentucky. Not too far from where I lived in Charleston. I drove down to meet him. My parents were having a fit that I would drive 3 plus hours to meet some unknown dude that I met online. I assured them that I would be fine, I gave them all the information about Aaron and where I would be and then I left.

We met; we hit it off, and then started a long distance relationship. He visited me in West Virginia and then I finally came to visit him here. When I got here he surprised me with the fact that we would be attending his church the next day. I was floored! What?? Church? Me? Oh no, I don’t think so. I don’t do church. He finally convinced me to try it out one time for him and so I did. I was a nervous wreck! I hadn’t been to church in twenty years! I walked in to Crosswinds Church with sweaty palms and shortness of breath. No kidding, I was sure I was going to have a panic attack right there in the parking lot. When I walked in the church, I expected snotty people who would look at me like I was the scum of the earth. That was not the case. Everyone welcomed me with open arms. I had random people coming up to me and hugging me like I had been away for years and had finally returned home. The love these people showed literally brought tears to my eyes. I first fell in love with the people at Crosswinds. Christians were actually loving and caring people. Who knew?

I returned home after my visit and asked my sister if I could borrow her bible. I started reading it. I felt a war going on inside myself. One side was against what it said and the other side was craving for more. These stories in the bible weren’t just campfire stories. They were actually true! I was left with a big decision. Should I go with the one side that kept telling me this was all fake or the other side that told me this was the love that I remembered as a child and have been looking for all these years? At the time it seemed like a huge decision. Looking back, it should have been the easiest decision of my life! Yes, I wanted Jesus! I wanted the love and the light that only Jesus could provide.

When I made that decision I sat and cried tears of joy. My Father in heaven had been waiting for me this whole time. Aaron was a gift from God. Through Aaron I had finally come home to Jesus’ loving arms. I couldn’t wait to be baptized. I was on fire for God. I wanted to know everything about him. I read the bible like crazy, I took notes during all the sermons (I still do) I couldn’t get enough and to this day I still can’t. I am no longer a lost daughter filled and surrounded with darkness. I am now illuminated by God’s love and light.

I wanted to share that love so I prayed for a place in ministry. God led me to become a youth leader. At first, I was hesitant. What did I know about being a youth leader? God has his plans and the more I ignored Him about the matter the more he pushed. I surrendered and started up Whirlwinds; a kindergarten through 5th grade youth group, and also the Children’s Clothing Exchange. He continually gives me ideas on what to do and how to do it. He hasn’t abandoned me and I never have to worry about doing things alone. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me,” and that is what I aim to do.

If you would like more information about the Children's Exchange or the Whirlwinds ministry you can email Krissy Ward.

Tony Perino

They say the Lord works in mysterious ways and I can tell you from my experience, He does. Now I know that sounds like something Forrest Gump would say, but keep reading. Like a lot of people, I was raised Catholic. I went through the sacraments and finished off with my confirmation when I was maybe 12 or 13. I actually don’t remember. Does anyone really remember? I went to church on Sunday and really didn’t get anything out of it, except that the church was beautiful and sometimes the service was nice, but it was a lot of memorization. Parts of the service were almost like being in a trance.

That didn’t really turn me away from church. Eventually, something just happened, and to this day I am not really sure what it was; but I became angry with God. And when I say angry, I mean really angry. I have yelled things out to God that were so distasteful I am surprised that He never mopped the floor with me. He has had plenty of opportunities to remove me from this planet over the years, but He didn’t. I’ve been in some pretty bad accidents that could have ended it all. It’s a good thing He is patient and forgiving. Of course, I did not know that at the time.

So there I was going through life, angry at God for reasons I can’t explain, and all of the sudden I met Pam and we got engaged. We got married, but I still didn’t have a real connection with God, but my anger was less. Probably because I had a new person to get angry with…my wife! We went to a number of marriage counselors, fought a lot and I thought about getting divorced almost daily.

So what happens when you go through life being angry with God for reasons you can’t explain and don’t understand to getting married and finding out that marriage is a ton of work and is really hard? Oh, that’s right, having kids is a ton of work as well…I mean why wasn’t all this stuff in the life brochure???

So marriage and fatherhood is draining my will to live and I think about getting divorced almost every day and then one day my son starts asking questions about God. We talked a little bit and I told him it sounded like someone needed to go to church. I don’t really remember what his reaction was, but he said OK.

I have to be honest, our first service was interesting. I don’t know what I got out of it, but I did do a lot of thinking about things while I sat there that morning. My son was able to go to a class for kids, so he thought that was pretty cool. So, my first Sunday service, in who knows how long, was over and we drove back to the house. I asked my son how he liked it and guess what…he wanted to know if we could go back next week. So I said sure and was happy that he was happy and getting answers to the questions he had. Well we went to church for a couple weeks and his younger brothers say if he is having all this fun on Sundays they want to go to church too. So we’re off. The four Perino boys are going to church.

Our marriage was still struggling, but I was getting something out of going to church and the kids were too. Eventually, Pam came to church with us and slowly but surely she liked going to church as well. So we were all going to church every Sunday and really looked forward to it. I can promise you for all the years prior to this, I can’t ever remember looking forward to going to church. We started meeting people at Crosswinds and making some friends and getting involved with the church for some activities. Things like going to a small group and reading the bible. Not because I had to for theology class, but because I want to since my small group opened my eyes to the extremely relevant stuff in this 2000 year old book.

What happened next…I know you are on the edge of your seat. It’s like someone flipped a switch and our marriage is GREAT. What a difference being married is when you don’t want to kill each other. It’s like someone had some kind of plan, for a man and a woman to be together and really appreciate and love one and other. What a concept. Of course now I know that person is God and hey, He is a planner. So here we are, life is good, and it all started with my son asking questions about God…

Welcome to our church. I sincerely hope you will be able to get as much out of your relationship with God as I have from mine and I look forward to growing more in that relationship and I pray you do as well. Oh yeah, I am also the Men’s Ministry leader, so if you have any questions about what we do and when we do it, feel free to come up to me before or after service and I would be happy to talk to you about it.

Tony

If you would like more information about the Men's Ministry you can email Tony Perino.

Kathy Schultz

“Love is based on performance.” That was my perceived reality growing up. I was always searching for approval I never felt like I was a good enough person, always falling short of the mark. Each day was a challenge. One couldn’t be loved just for who you were, you had to work for it, you had to earn it.

As I got older, I made poor choices in my life. I now had many deep dark secrets to keep. I was fearful that someone would find out about my secrets. I had really fallen short of the mark of being a good person and of being worthy of love. I talked to the pastor of the church I went to. He tried to explain to me God’s forgiveness. But how could God love me? I couldn’t even love myself! I didn’t understand.

Many years later, some Christian girlfriends were talking unashamedly about the sins in their lives. They understood that God had forgiven them. I realized then that I wasn’t the only one with the hidden secrets in life. Everyone is a sinner and if God could love everyone else, then surely He could love me, too. And God did forgive me for my sins. All I had to do was ask. And He has never stopped loving me either even though I am unworthy. In the process, I discovered that I could love myself, too. God had forgiven me, I could now forgive myself. He lifted my burdens, and now I am free.

If you would like more information about the Women's or Hospitality Ministry you can email Kathy Schultz.

Terry O'Brien

If you would like more information about the First Impressions ministry you can email Terry O'Brien.

Dawn O'Brien

I grew up going to church with my mom, but when I was invited to a church lock-in with some friends from college, I discovered that there was something different – something missing in my perception of God. During the lock-in, I was exposed to students singing to God, not just with words, but with their whole hearts. I also saw people read the Bible, even though it wasn’t Sunday morning during church. They talked about scripture like it really mattered to their lives. It wasn’t until they announced that it was time for our personal devotions that I understood what I was truly missing - a Savior who cares so much for us that He is interested in a relationship with us. You see, at that lock-in, they told us to go off alone and have a time of prayer. So, I went off alone – and cried. I had no idea how to pray. Prayer was something that was done at church and sometimes at meals. So, I just sat there for 30 minutes and cried, wondering how I could feel so unworthy and all of these people seemed so joyful. Fortunately, these friends loved Jesus and me enough to introduce us. They explained how Jesus’ sacrifice was for me personally, that He could clean away that unworthy feeling and replace it with new life. I learned that the Bible is not just a book of history, but a book for life, an operation manual for our lives and relationship with our Savior.

My husband and I are now trying to impress these truths upon our three children. Crosswinds Church has been a huge blessing for assisting us in training our children, not only through Sunday School, but through active involvement in a group of believers working together to share their faith with this community.

As Audio Visual Technical Coordinator, it is my passion to see that all of the behind the scenes portions of the Crosswinds Worship Service remain unnoticed. We have a marvelous team of people who work hard to make sure that the sound, lights and computer images enhance worship. Feel free to stop by the tech booth some Sunday morning and say, “Hi”.

If you would like more information about the Audio/Visual ministry you can email Dawn O'Brien.