Declaring God's Faithfulness- December 2017/January 2018

Tom writes: When considering how and what to write in my Christian testimony, I was unsure where to begin. After much thought, I decided to start with some background about my early life. I grew up in Rensselear Falls, New York. A VERY small town just outside of Canton, New York. As a little boy, I remember spending a great deal of time in hospitals. My mother had a heart defect, which continued to get worse as I grew up and she eventually passed away when I was six. My father was suddenly left with a young son to raise on his own. I only found out in my teenage years that he was unsure if he was up to this challenge. With the grace of God, I feel that he overwhelmingly passed this challenge.

I do remember attending church or the topic of God being discussed by my mother and father in my earliest memories, as well as attending church while she was alive. After her passing, my father and I started attending a Catholic church in Huevelton, New York. Often when a great loss occurs to us, we look for something to take the pain away, something to fill that hole in our heart. We cannot know another’s heart, though I feel that this was what my father was doing. The only thing that can fill that void that is missing in our lives is Jesus and this is one of the most vivid memories of my early years. I continued to grow up in the Catholic Church from this point on until I left for college.

I grew up on a farm and the value of hard work was instilled upon me from watching him work hard every day to support our family. My father also worked as a janitor for thirty years at SUNY Canton and I fondly remember going to work with him during the summer. We were not rich by any means, but I know that my father always did everything he could to provide all that I needed. My summer breaks, were spent cutting hay and riding horses. One of my greatest joys was watching the New York Yankees with my father. This very much became something that we bonded over. Not necessarily because I cared about the team at first, but because it was time spent with dad. We became very close during this time, leaning on each other in times both good and bad. He was and still is my inspiration to this day to always do the best in every endeavor I undertake.

As my graduation from high school neared, I was not sure what I wanted to do. I felt a strong pull on my heart with a desire to help others. I had briefly considered going to seminary and becoming a priest. God always knows best for us and He had other plans for me. Upon reflection, I am glad that He did. I knew that I wanted to pursue something in education, although I was not sure what. My guidance suggested attending SUNY Oswego following graduation, something I was hesitant to do. During my junior and senior year of high school my father’s health had started to fail. He had started to have his own heart problems and I was hesitant to leave him on his own. I decided to attend SUNY Canton following graduation, in order to stay close to home. While in college, my father started to eat healthier and lost weight. His health began to improve and he told me not to put my life on hold for him. Somewhat reluctantly, I agreed and began attending SUNY Oswego in the fall of 2000.

When you grow up in a small town like I did and then go off to college, it is definitely an eye-opening experience. After much consideration, I majored in Music with a minor in History. I called home often that first year, seeking advice from my father quite often. I was very fortunate to be home on summer break when God called my father home. It did not feel fortunate then, as I was not ready for him to go. It has often been said that we are never ready for the loss of a parent and this was very true for me. I experienced bitterness, anger and rage. I could not understand why I had loss my mother at such a young age and now my father. It made me question my faith and what God’s plan truly was. Now I know that I will see him again in heaven and this was not the end. Then my faith was not firm, especially as a teenager. I needed some way to understand this loss and I couldn’t seem to find a reason why this loss had happened.

I was not sure if I should or could continue going to college in Oswego after my father passed. I prayed for guidance, even though, I am ashamed to admit, I felt a great bitterness towards God. In the end, I felt that my father would have wanted me to finish college. I finished undergraduate school in 2003. Unsure what to do or where to go following graduation, I worked for two years until going back to graduate school at SUNY Oswego from 2005 to 2007. I majored in Childhood Education. During my time in Oswego I was able to meet new people and gain exposures to many different cultures. While I did date in college, I never met someone whom I felt was the missing piece to the puzzle I had been trying to solve. God’s timing is perfect, even if we do not realize it at the time. Little did I know, but my future wife and I were both on the Oswego campus during my graduate school years. We would not meet until later in life. More on this later.

Following graduation I began working for the Fulton City School District. I worked there for ten years. I started working in the district’s alternative education program. This program gave me the opportunity to work with students who were not successful in a traditional school setting. These students faced the very real possibility of not graduating from high school. This position taught me great patience as many of the student’s exhibited severe behavioral challenges. I worked in the department as tutor, teaching assistant and long-term substitute English teacher. My greatest take-away from my time there was the power and importance of building relationships. If you show someone that you genuinely care about them (sometimes when no else does) and take the time to build a relationship with them, you will be amazed how much that person can accomplish. Some of the students whom I saw graduate were the only ones in their families to ever graduate high school.

I threw myself into my work at Fulton, still feeling extreme loneliness and questioning why I had not found that very elusive missing piece to my puzzle. During this time, I started talking to a funny and caring young lady through an online dating website. We took it slowly and talked for two months through email before meeting in person. Her name was Cynthia and she also grew up in a VERY small town called Birdsall, New York. I remember coming home from work and walking to the library in Oswego to check my email (I did not own a computer at the time) hoping that she had written me back. I remember a strong tug on my heart each time I saw an email from her in my inbox and a sense of disappointment when there was not one there. Eventually, we started talking on the phone. I learned that while our core values were the same, we were different in other ways. She was a night owl and I was a morning person. She was a social butterfly and I had to force myself to approach people whom I did not know. I learned that she also, had grown up in the country on a farm. One of the phone conversations, I still remember was her telling me that her family had beef cows and she even helped her family butcher the cows, this made me raise a quizzical eyebrow.

Only later, did we both find out that we knew many of the same people through the SUNY Oswego campus and her brother had even worked with many of my students as a social worker. This may have helped me get my first date with my eventual bride. Our first date was at Dunkin Donuts in Oswego on January 14^th 2013. We talked the night away, even though both of us had to work the next morning. Her warm smile and infectious laugh melted my heart and I have never been the same since. It is amazing what God has planned for us, and when He has it planned to happen. I had given up hope that I would ever be married. I was turning thirty and had never really had a long relationship. A first date led to a second and then a third. Her faith was strong and she discussed my faith with me. I continued praying throughout college and while I did read from the Bible, I was not as close to God as I should have been. There have been two people in my life who have inspired and encouraged me to want to seek God and strengthen my faith. The first was my father and the second is my wife. I remember her telling of when she was saved as a teenager and her describing how on fire she was for God. I saw how loving she was and how she showed that love even to strangers. I wanted that. I remember the first time we read the Bible together; the feeling of us both seeking HIM together. I started attending New Covenant Community Church in Oswego with her shortly after we started dating. After seven months of dating, with bated breath, I asked her, in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, to be my wife. To my great joy, she said yes!

We became one with God through marriage on March 22, 2014. The Lord has blessed me with a wife with a strong faith, who makes me want to be a better person each day. I thank God for the opportunity to share my life with her. Shortly after we were married, I returned to college while working at Fulton to pursue my teacher certification in special education at SUNY Cortland.

I began applying for teaching positions and after a flurry of interviews was hired by the Whitesville Central School District in the VERY small town (this is starting to be a recurring theme) of Whitesville, New York which led us to move to Wellsville.

Tom Emrich

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