I've been accepted at the Stanford Graduate School of Business!!!

Well... I hardly know where to start!

I guess (if you don't mind) I'll back up a bit and start at the beginning...

Ten years ago I was an undergraduate student at Rensselaer (in upstate New York) studying Civil Engineering and working at GE Energy designing power plant foundations. Over the year-and-a-half that I interned at GE I discovered that I have a much greater passion for business than for engineering. Because of this interest, I managed to shift my internship from engineering into the mergers and acquisitions group of GE and absolutely loved every minute of it.

I decided that I wanted to obtain an MBA (Master's of Business Administration) in my future and planned my career accordingly. Over the next five years I continued to focus on my professional development, relocating from Albany to Atlanta to Albany to Los Angeles to Boston and back to Albany. I managed to close more than $750 million in contracts over this period and was blessed with rapid promotions and job advancement.

At this point I had begun to prepare for my MBA when the Lord spoke to me (five-and-a-half years ago) through prayer to focus on leading the youth ministry at my church, causing me to shelve my dream for graduate school. Over the next two years Anne and I invested heavily in our church as volunteers while I continued to work at GE. Three-and-a-half years ago I resigned from GE and went to work at Cornerstone full-time in obedience to what I believed the Lord had spoke to me.

Two-and-a-half years ago I began to think about school once again. In fact, I couldn't take my mind off of it. I prayed about school. I dreamed about school. I day-dreamed about school. And all the while I felt guilty for my obsession, wondering why I was focused on school instead of the ministry that the Lord had called me to. Finally, after a long season of prayer and waiting, God spoke to me and confirmed my desire to go to school. I felt very clearly that God told me that I would go to school and that I would move forward into my progressive dream of investing my career into the field of economic development (working to increase the standard-of-living of people living in poverty throughout the world).

However, over this same period of time, my church went through a season of crisis resulting in the eventual resignation of our senior pastor (a year ago). Because of the church's needs I again shelved my desire for school and gave 100% of my time and energy to supporting the church. Following the resignation of the senior pastor I stepped in to fill the gap and led the church for several months until Pastor Mike Servello, a very experienced and capable senior pastor, agreed to act as Cornerstone's senior pastor and I, subsequently, acted under him as the lead pastor on a local level (Pastor Mike is based out of nearby Utica - about 90 miles away).

Anne and I entered a time of serious prayer - seeking God for direction and guidance. After about four months of prayer I came to a definite conclusion that I am not called to be Cornerstone's senior pastor and shared my heart with Pastor Mike. He encouraged me to apply to school and so I began working until 2am virtually every night of the week studying, writing, and working on school applications.

On a related note, the field of economic development is very difficult to get into, requiring a top-shelf academic pedigree. Because of this I decided only to apply to top schools (which scared me because these school are VERY hard to get into). The number one school I wanted to attend was Stanford University.

In the business world Harvard and Stanford are the top two schools. There is a world of opportunity available to graduates from these schools. Graduates are guaranteed amazing job opportunities, incredible starting salaries and signing bonuses, and are members of an elite alumni base for years to come. However, Harvard and Stanford are incredibly difficult to get into. Stanford, in fact, is the most selective business school in the entire world (about twice as hard to get into as Harvard). This year Stanford received in the ballpark of 6,500 application and only 370 or less are accepted. This means that about 6,100 applicants are turned down! The acceptance rate is about 5% - an incredible hurdle to say the least. I didn't think my chances were that great (I'm a pastor for goodness sake!)

Anyway, to wrap up this longwinded story, I was accepted at Yale, Dartmouth, and Stanford and am planning to matriculate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business this fall!!! Anne and I are absolutely excited - Stanford is a dream come true. We are guaranteed on-campus housing - meaning that our family will all be together while I am in school. Additionally, I have been accepted to Stanford's public policy program and will be getting a master's degree in both business (MBA) and public policy (MPP). I am also considering studying at Harvard for the public policy - although I won't know for sure for another year or so. We are so excited to move forward into another season of our lives and so grateful that Cornerstone is healthy and has great leadership to carry it forward in the years to come.

Lastly, Anne and I are planning to move back to Seattle over the summer for a much-needed rest and for some much-desired time with friends and family. We will probably be arriving in Seattle around the middle of June and staying until the end of August.

Anne and I are SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!! God has done a miracle for us! Also, another cool thing: I was invited to interview with Stanford (only about 25% of applicants are even invited to interview) on the same day that Caroline was born - confirming that God was bringing both of my dreams (having a little girl and going to school) to life on the same day. I still can't believe it. The Dean of Admissions at Stanford even hand wrote me a note, saying "Your faith will enrich the Stanford community, we are so excited that you and Anne will be joining us." It is a real dream-come-true and a miracle that I've been accepted at the most elite business school in the world.

Thanks for reading all of this (assuming you made it this far!) - we love you guys!

-Kevin