Gerald S. Sumeracki:
A Biographical Sketch
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I was born Gerald Sumeracki on September 4, 1938. I guess I can be referred to as a senior citizen now and can truthfully say I look and feel the years! I am called "dad" by five wonderful children, two daughters and three sons all of whom are grown and functioning as productive and law abiding citizens. So far the Lord has blessed them, as well as me, with five girls and three boys. Grandchildren, I have found, are a lot easier to handle then children.
I was raised a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools through college; I had a firm grasp of the faith. My first wife, with whom I had fathered four of my children, voiced her disapproval with my "seeking" when in the latter years of our marriage I involved myself in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. It was 1979. I can remember one heated discussion when she had said, "If you ever get as carried away with Jesus as your brother has, I'll divorce you."
That brother was a born again "Jesus freak" who really got me started. After he persuaded me to attend that first Ken Copeland crusade I had so many questions I sought answers through the Renewal. "If I ever was forced to choose between you and the Lord" I later said to my wife, "my choice would have to be the Lord!" Well that choice came when she divorced me leaving me to raise the daughter and three sons we had brought into this world.
I was employed at that time as an officer for the Detroit Metropolitan Airport Police, a department operated under the governmental control of the County of Wayne in Michigan. The divorce had left me a lonely and dejected man. I asked the Lord to bring me through the mess my life had become and asked him to take over in all aspects of my life including the selection of a new mate should He desire me to have one. At first He gave me a hunger for the scripture that lasted a full three years, I could not put my bible down. That Revised Standard Version my dad gave me in 1979 became so full of notes, arrows, underlines, etc., that I think the ink caused the bible's weight to double!
After the three years of incessant study ended the hunger left as well as the sense of the Lord's presence and I cried out to Jesus, "Lord---What have I done to cause You to abandon me?" His answer was a simple mental impression, "School is over. Now its time to put what you have been given to use."
What had He given me? Poems! I had written many as I read of Him and his life, all inspired by the Holy Spirit through my growing love of the Lord our God who did for all of us what only God can do if we will but ask.
He did bring me a wife. She was in love with Him first and foremost and we were married into a trinity of Love, our Lord and us. That woman had a daughter who brought to my family that second girl I had always wanted.
I will always have a love for the Catholic Church. It nurtured me and brought me to the place where I could take the hand the Lord reached out to me when I cried out for help. The freedom I have found in Jesus, however, could not be exercised within the doctrinal walls of its structure. "Whom the Lord has freed is free indeed" is true and in that freedom I have found need for nothing other than Jesus. He sustains me in all things as I have asked ever since I have made him the Lord of my life.
In the infinite wisdom only Our Lord is capable of I found the guidance to make a decision that would change the course of my life for the better. Due in no small measure to the prompts of the Holy Spirit I retired from Wayne County employment on July 1, 1997. I made my break and relocated my household to Nevada as the I felt led by God's Spirit.
My wife Jeanne and I had made several trips to Nevada over the years to see our daughter and grandchildren and on our last trip decided that the city of Henderson would be a great place to retire.
We are in our new home now and have found a church with a fine pastor named Darrell Bowen. The church, Crossroads Community Church, is non-denominational and new on the scene having been started in May, 1998. If you care to check their web site it is:
www.crossroadsweb.org
Having us in the area has made our daughter's life a lot more tolerable now that she and her kids have "family" around to be there to lend the support all families have need of. All of us attend our new church and see the Glory of God being magnified.
The Lord has let it be known that I have come to this place and in this time for a mighty purpose and I can only hope I can live up to whatever challenges he will place before me. I only hope and pray whatever it is will bring his kingdom to pass that much more quickly, Amen and Amen.