RAMBLING MAN

Congratulations to Josh Smith for correctly identifying the location of the February gravel road of the month. Josh guessed that this muddy rut of a backroad was in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina within 5 minutes of the blog posting last Friday. Being from Kansas, Josh knows his major college basketball powerhouse states and quickly cashed in on the free copy of our book of the month: The Shack by William P. Young. Being an alum from Colorado, I'm not sure what college basketball is - but we do have a great ski team.

If I were to pick a theme song for the life and times of Mark Niemeyer it would have to be the Allman Brothers 1972 hit, Ramblin' Man. (For younger senior staff born in the 80's you can catch this hit from the 70's on You Tube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x28jaeyX2s)

Mark was born in the big sky country of Great Falls, Montana on September 19, 1964. Raised in a traditional military family (Mark was an Air Force Brat) he moved seven times before fourth grade. In fourth grade the Niemeyers moved back to Great Falls where Mark completed the rest of his schooling in the same area code.

Mark went to college at Montana State to pursue his degree in Geology. It was at the start of that pursuit that his spiritual journey came to a significant crossroads. "I heard about Christ in church growing up. I can even remember where I claimed to know Him as early as junior high. It was actually through Campus Crusade that I established a certainty of my surrender in 1983. That was at the KC 83 Christmas Conference."
A ministry perspective God has taught me over my years on staff is He will work according to His faithfulness (most poignantly in regards to support) rather than mine—often even despite my lack of it. That’s sheer grace.
Mark Niemeyer
GPI Regional Ops Team
Boulder, CO

Two years after graduating from MSU in 1987, Mark joined Campus Crusade for Christ staff in the winter of 1989 and started to hit the road again. His first campus field assignment was to Idaho State University for three years before going to the University of Utah. In 1994 he joined the Greater Northwest Regional office handling anything from conferences to tech to finances for the next 8 years. Then it was to Orlando to join the National Campus Office conference and finance team for four years before joining the GPI regional operations team as a conference specialist in 2006. Mark is still a part of the national leadership team for CRS as well as a national summer project operations trainer.

With travel comes variety and that has been the spice of Mark's life. "The thing I enjoy most about being on staff is all the variety of ways and places I’ve been able to serve the mission of reaching lost students. In fact one of my best ministry memories was from Sapporo, Japan in 1995. I was able to reconnect with a student I’d led to Christ at Utah who was there that summer reaching Japanese students for Jesus."

To be fair and balanced Mark even shared what he doesn't enjoy about staff life: "The thing I least enjoy about being on staff is the stigma of being viewed by others as a “professional” Christian." But with the Great Commission lifestyle and ramblings come quality people who shape who we are along the way. Some of those influencers for Mark include "Duane Baker, the student who discipled me, Pat McLeod, Marty Brown, my wife Brenda Niemeyer, and the late Bill Bright."

Along with being a conference guru and dancer, Mark also has a flair for the offbeat, "There was the time I lassoed a porcupine and took him to a Steve Taylor concert..." For even more intriguing insights (like his dance skills) to Mark's background you will want to go to his profile section by clicking on his picture to the right.

-Until next week
Bert