Hello!  My name is TJ Lewis, and I am a certified lay speaker with the United Methodist Church.  My wife Jenny and I will be helping to cover Sunday worship services until further notice.  This past summer Jenny, Juli (our youngest daughter) and I moved to Owatonna, MN from Blue Earth, MN.  My wife and I got married 17 years ago and about ten years ago we began our journey into lay speaking and youth ministry.  Jenny began working at Josten’s in September in their Accounts Receivable department.  Our oldest daughter Amelia began her Junior year at the University of Minnesota Crookston working on an Equine Business degree.  Our youngest daughter Juli began her senior year at Owatonna High School.  We also have a Japanese Chin/Beagle cross puppy that loves going for walks and protecting the family from the mailman.  In my free time, I work at Deibel Laboratories as a Regional Operations Lab Manager.  Currently I have five labs report up through me.  We are excited to be able to help out with leading worship and supporting the church as you go through this transition.

My calling to serve started 18 years ago.  I grew up in the church where we rarely missed a Sunday, and then as I graduated, I moved away from the church mainly attending on Christmas and Easter.  When my wife and I were dating we decided to go to Duluth for a weekend.  The only available hotel was Motel 6, and walking into the hotel where the front desk is surrounded by bullet proof glass and the clerk has a pistol on the desk was not welcoming.  But we went to the room and locked the doors.  The next day we came back to the hotel so my oldest daughter could take a nap.  While she was napping and my wife was in the shower I had a conversation with God.  He asked me, “Do you want to marry this woman and do great things in my name or leave?”  I obviously said to marry her, but I asked, “How can I do great things in your name when I don’t even attend church?”  That was a question that went unanswered until our first Christmas together as a married couple.

That first Christmas started out like any other.  Beautiful winter day.  Then it started snowing and blizzard warnings came out.  My wife picked up a couple of shifts at the gas station so others could spend time with their families.  Shortly after, the storm broke.  So, my wife packed me and the kids up in the car and we took off for Blue Earth to be with my family.  To be close to us my wife went to the United Methodist church in St Peter which was having service in the daycare center the girls went to.  That is how we started going back to church.  A few years later my parents asked us to attend the Great Plains Pilgrimage and on the last day of the retreat looking over the river I had clear visions of us standing in front of a church speaking.  Since that time we have done our best to follow the journey that God has set before us. 

I invite you to attend and see where the journey takes us.  During my sermons, I will typically include stories of situations that have happened to me or to others.  Putting the scripture together with real world application.  I would love for you to attend service and join us on this journey.