Declaring God's Faithfulness- May 2019

On every Sunday that an infant in our church is baptized, Pastor Tom prays that God blesses the infant “so they will never be able to remember a time that they did not know the LORD.” I can say with all honesty that I feel my wife and I have been blessed in such a way. There certainly have been times of immaturity in both of our lives, as well as our fair share of disobedience. Overall however, God has been guiding us in His providence.

I was originally baptized into a PC-USA church, Cassie into a United Methodist one. By middle school, my father and I had grown disgruntled with the liberal theology taught there and transitioned to a local Independent Baptist congregation. The congregation grew from 100 to over 2,000 people in the next 6 years. During that time, Cassie and I grew in our faith. She had a distinct conversion experience at a Methodist Youth Camp, and I continued to grow in my local church.

The summer before my freshman (her sophomore) year of high school, the LORD thought fit to introduce us to one another thorough another Christian friend. We started dating officially that fall. At that point, our faith journeys became inexorably linked. High school was spent leading bible study “Cell Groups” with other students, playing in worship bands and learning about the emotional side of the faith.

In High school, I met a biology teacher who guided me into a faith that satisfied my heart and my mind; namely, a Reformed faith. Cassie and I started meeting with him and his wife in the evenings. We studied great commentators on the Bible and worshipped together. In college, we grew through our local Methodist church and our participation in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. We continued leading Bible studies and leading the group through musical worship. Cassie went on an evangelistic mission trip to China.

We were married two weeks after graduation from college, and 7 ½ years after we started dating. My first two years of medical school (and Cassie’s first two as an engineer) were spent in Erie, Pennsylvania attending the same Methodist church and spending time in mutual growth with the new IVCF staff worker and his wife, John and Michelle Wagner (Yes, that John and Michelle). We also went on our first mission trip together to Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Our next phase of life took us to Pittsburgh, PA, where we attended an inner-city CMA church of 6,000. Needless to say, we felt a little lost in the crowd. We moved to an Episcopal church for the last 6 months of our time down there. While in Pittsburgh, we volunteered for the Summer Medical Institute in Harlingen, TX, serving the people of Matamoros, Mexico. We also made contacts at Valley Baptist Medical Center, a unique, unabashedly Christian family medicine residency program where God would lead us for the next three years. Shortly thereafter, we were blessed with the birth of our first child.

In Texas, Cassie and I both learned how to harness our vocations as physician, engineer, father, and mother. Under the teaching of some of the best Christian physicians in the country, I learned how to better see and serve patients as children of God, and Cassie learned how to utilize her gifts in parenting and serving the church. We continued with our mission emphasis, starting a clinic in Mexico and taking a trip to Ghana.

Through a business partner of my uncle’s we interviewed and accepted a position in a little town in New York called Wellsville. Since we couldn’t imagine moving across the country without an infant, we had Annalynn. Five years ago we were blessed by the addition of Scarlett to our family.

The rest, as they say, is history…

Note from the editor: The Rummel family has extended this past school year to include Elizabeth Coulibaly, an exchange student from Mali, Africa. Elizabeth is completing her senior year at Wellsville High School. We have enjoyed getting to know Elizabeth and appreciated her enthusiastic participation in the life of our congregation.

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