I was raised in a Christian home where family was a big word - literally! Although I was an only child, I had a very large extended family. My father was orphaned at an early age. My grandparents on my mother's side migrated to the United States from a small and very poor town in the eastern part of the Slovak Republic called Nižná Slaná. They had 14 children! I was very close to our extended family growing up. I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior at the age of 13 during a youth group meeting at Christ The King Lutheran Church, but just as quickly I put Jesus in the rear view mirror and said "No thanks." God's call on my life began tugging at my heart in my early teen years, although I didn't recognize it at that time. I remember always having an affinity toward music. And so it was at this time that I began to be drawn away from God's plan for my life as I became heavily entrenched into the secular music scene. I began using drugs and alcohol. Life was a party with no consideration for the future. I didnt know where I was going, so I always ended up someplace else. I didnt stand for anything, so I always fell for something. The heavy drug and alcohol abuse continued for 4 years.

My first band was the Max McGraw Band. We traveled throughout Ohio, playing mostly in the bar scene. I developed an interest in recording, so in the late 70s I began to study audio recording at Kingsmill Recording Studios in Columbus, Ohio. Shortly thereafter I was offered a position mixing sound for a newly formed group from Europe named Carnegie. The group was formerly known as the Mark & Clark Band. Mark and Clark Seymour were identical twins that played baby grand pianos back to back in concert. They had just returned to the U.S. after cutting a gold album in Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden. We had two studios, one in Queens, New York, the other in Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville was also the home base for our band. We played to standing room only (SRO) crowds along the Eastern Seaboard. Life was a non-stop party and it was at this time that I really began to sink deep into my addiction with drugs as I developed a heavy dependence upon Cocaine. In 1978 I was arrested for trafficking of cocaine and I was sentenced to 2-10 years in the penitentiary. I completed nearly 1 year of that sentence and was then released on shock probation on Christmas Day of 1979. I immediately entered a 10-month residential treatment program that I successfully completed. I then enrolled in The Ohio State University College of Music and began to fulfill my dream of becoming a musician. There was however, a major flaw in my program. I still wasn't walking with the Lord, and the whole music endeavor was only to exult myself. At the end of my sophomore year I became very discouraged as I began to compare my talents to those around me. I listed to the voice of the enemy telling me that I wasn't who God said I was. I soon transferred into OSU's college of business. By this time, the drug abuse had resurfaced again and I was performing poorly academically.

In 1984 I withdrew from Ohio State and entered the work place. I soon found my niche in sales and marketing. For the next 12 years I would earn a living in the financial sales arena. I continued to drink and on occasion I would smoke marijuana. Then in 1996, while I was at a party, I saw some cocaine on a table. The memories came rushing forward, and just that quick I was using again. We had just sold our first home, and while our new home was being built we lived with my mother. It wasn't soon before the $20,000.00 we had cleared form the sale of our first home was gone. I had spent it all on cocaine. I had also rented my BMW to my supplier for drugs. He was later arrested on a Federal indictment, and my vehicle was later recovered and repossessed in White Plains New York. By Gods grace I broke away from it all for a short period of time, but by Christmas of 1997, I was deep in the throes of addiction again. I had sought out the drug again, and it was at this time that someone showed me how to cook powder cocaine into crack. This was the beginning of the end. During the following 7 years I would languish in the bondage of addiction. I had a steering wheel in my back and the drug was driving. My life was like a Tsunami, causing pain and destruction to all of those with whom I came into contact, but particularly my former wife Kelly, my children Marissa and Luke, and my mother Martha. I experienced many periods of homelessness, multiple arrests and the painful losses of a 12-year marriage, the custody of my children, my home, a successful insurance agency, and all of the material trappings of a country club lifestyle. I went to prison twice during this period, and in January 2004 I was released from a 2-year incarceration. But it was during that last period of imprisonment that God began to speak to my heart. As the song says, "I was numb to the core, and I just couldn't fake it anymore." God knew that. He knew that my state of brokenness was His opportunity to put me on the Potter's wheel and begin to shape and mold me into the original that He had always intended. And that He did. It was at this time that a "New Heart" was birthed. In the winter of 2002, I was led to once again pick up the guitar. Everything came back to me. God is true to His Word when He says that He gives us our gifts without repentance. After a 20-year period of stagnancy, I began to write songs of praise - something I had never experienced before. The thought of writing music which would give God the glory had never before crossed my mind. When I came from freedom to prison, it was like coming from prison to freedom. It was during my imprisonment that I found true freedom and that the vision for the ministry was released to me. I was invited to join the institutional praise team at PCI where I began as a vocalist. Shortly thereafter I joined in playing the guitar. I was soon elevated to soloist, and then to Praise and Worship Leader. During my incarceration I composed and Copyrighted my first 23 songs.

Two days after my release in January of 2004, I was led to the C.R.A.C.K. (Christ Resurrects After Crack Kills) House Ministries in Columbus, Ohio where Pastor Mitchell Ellison befriended me. I was asked to minister with my music on my first visit. Soon I was invited to work with the praise team and then I was installed as their Minister of Music. I also began to work with the New Covenant Church and ministered at some of their community outreach events. In August of 2004 I completed a lifelong dream, the recording of my first demo CD entitled "Poor Hearts Door." This was the last song that I had written before being released from prison, and the last song that I played for my brothers before being released from prison. It was also the first song that I ever recorded. The testimony of the origin of this song and how the Lord arranged for its recording is moving evidence that we serve a God who will give us our hearts desire, a mighty God who comes to us when we pray.

Today, each day, my heart desire is still being fulfilled by my heavenly Father. King Jesus has come in, swept the dirt away and blessed me beyond all I could have ever hoped or imagined by counting me faithful.

There is nothing like knowing Jesus personally, and knowing your  purpose in this world. He takes all the wondering, and the wandering, away. Jesus offers us completeness in Him. He promises us the peace that passes all human understanding. He is faithful. He is true. His mercy endures forever.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I pray that someday we will have the opportunity to fellowship together, and that you will hear our testimonies and the music firsthand.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you all of His blessings and great peace of heart and mind.

Mark