I grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, yes Michigan…please don’t hate me for that as I’m not a big sport fan. I was raised in a Christian home, and from a young age I knew I loved Jesus and wanted to live for Him. God has always been my safe place and a faithful refuge in the more painful seasons of my life. For me, not following Jesus  wasn’t really an option. I say that not because I didn’t have a choice but because all my life I remember thinking, “Where else would I go? Who else would I turn to?” As I grew older my children’s ministry director noticed I was gifted working with children, and it gave me a lot of joy and life. Over the years she took me under her wing and empowered me with many opportunities to serve, teach, and lead children. Her discipleship led me to pursue a career in working with children, helping them develop spiritually, and seeing them thrive holistically over time. 

 I went on to pursue working with children at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. My wife Hannah and I met there while studying to receive our children’s ministry degrees. We not only fell in love with each other, but we also fell in love with the west side of Chicago. It was there in west Humboldt Park that we lived, served, and ministered for 10 years. As with most Christian non-profit work, we did a variety of ministry over the years including afterschool and summer programming, mentoring, community development, gang intervention and neighborhood advocacy. My wife also restarted a jewelry entrepreneurial business run by middle and high school girls and ministered in the late-night hours to women struggling with prostitution and drug addiction. 

 Though we worked in Chicago, Urban Vision had always held a special place in our hearts as my wife grew up in the Akron area and worked at Urban Vision for 9 months in 2015-2016 just before we got married. In 2018 our first son Malakai James Olson joined our lively ministry lives and in January of 2020, our second son Josiah John Olson burst onto the scene just in time for the pandemic. 2020-2021 held a lot of painful transitions for our family, our ministry, and our church, but we continue to serve faithfully as best we knew how. In May 2021, we began to sense the Lord, impressing us into a new season. We carried much resistance to this transition, especially if it meant leaving Chicago and the students, families, and community we had served for a decade. In the middle of our wrestling with the Lord, Rodney reached out unexpectedly and offered me a position as the K-5th grade afterschool program director. Through much prayer, grief, and surrender, my wife and I decided I should accept the position, and we made the move from Chicago to Akron in September. After a much needed two-month sabbatical in October and November, I officially started at Urban Vision and began falling in love with the new ministry, and diverse community of North Hill.  

 In April of 2022, we had our sweet little girl, Amani Joy Olson. When Amani was one month old, we began the process of genetic testing as there was concern of her having a genetic syndrome. In July of 2022, Amani was diagnosed with an extremely rare genetic syndrome known as Pallister Killian Syndrome or PKS. She is 1 of less than 500 people in the world ever diagnosed with this disease. Fast forward to now and Amani's syndrome has led to a variety of other diagnoses. We had over 150 appointments within the first year of her life and she continues to follow up with all of her specialists while also doing consistent physical, occupation, hearing, vision and feeding therapies. Amani’s medical care has been an incredibly challenging transition for our family as we are still adjusting, grieving, and navigating the newness of having a daughter with special abilities. However, one thing has always been clear with our precious gift of a daughter, loving her is always the easiest part. She teaches us daily that she has deep, intrinsic value as she herself holds the imago Dei in her very being. In her DNA she bears the Gospel, both perfect and broken, every cell calling out for redemption and destined for glory. Her simplicity is convicting, and her smile is contagious. She is our Amani Joy, reminding us daily of our eternal resurrection to come. 

 In the present moment, my family is learning to love taking life one day at a time. We are determined to not let our intense and busy lives steal our joy, so we prioritize laughter and being very silly in our home. My wife and I are learning new ways and rhythms of taking care of ourselves and our marriage so that we can be the best we can be to our three beautiful children. Our oldest, Malakai, has the privilege of attending Chapel Hill Christian School, an opportunity we never thought would be possible, and it is a joy to watch him grow in confidence and kindness. Our little “Siah Bear” (Josiah) started pre-school at Urban Vision this year and it’s hard not to crack up laughing most days as we continue to hone the skill of gently re-directing his humor, passion, and energy. And then there is our “Amani girl!” She will forever be too cute not to kiss and we have loved seeing her develop at her own pace and learn to interact more and more with her brothers in her own special way. 

 Living as a family in North Hill is like getting a glimpse of what Heaven will be like some day with every tribe, tongue, and nation proclaiming Glory our Lord Jesus. There are not many places in the world where you can walk down your block and encounter people and languages from nearly every continent in the world. It is such a joy to learn new languages, eat delicious food, and have the honor of being trusted with people’s stories, many of which include suffering, grief, and great resiliency. Not only that, but after living in Chicago for 10 years, having North Hill located right in the midst of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park district is a blessing. The combination of culture, nature, and lots of beautiful children is hard to beat! 

 In the two years that I have worked here, the impact I am most proud of when working with the students is when they start to grasp that they are “a leader” in their family, school, and community. There is a “holy” moment that happens when it “clicks” that is hard to explain. After that moment, they walk more confidently, are eager to serve others, and are kinder to themselves when they make mistakes. I have seen many children believe in Jesus over my years of ministry, but nothing is more powerful than a child who not only believes in Jesus, but also believes that God wants to use them to love and transform their neighborhood. Hands down the best part about my job! 

 Thanks to all of you for supporting me, my family, and this ministry to see the kingdom of God work here.