Jeremy Lange

Jeremy's text was Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I was born in Grinnell, Iowa. My doctor was Dr. Wehr, and he was a good, church-going man. When I was born my PKU came up abnormal, which means that I was going to have a serious mental birth defect. My pastor at the time was Craig Peters, and his wife was Lisa Peters. They led Summer Games at Wesley Woods for several years. They met with another couple and directors of the camp at that time, and each day they prayed for me for a week, until we got my report back from the doctor. It came up normal.

I lived in Kellogg, Iowa for seven years, moved to Gladbrook for four years, and to Osceola when I was eleven years old. When I was a child, we always went to church and Sunday school.

Transitioning from Gladbrook to Osceola was hard, but Osceola has much more to offer in music, which I was very interested in.

When I was nine years old, my parents divorced. It was never fun at Daniel Ehler's house. He was my dad at the time. My sister and I would always try to be involved in school or church activities so we would not have to go to his house. We didn't feel welcome there. There was always yelling and anger. Neither of us had a bed or bedroom of our own, and usually slept on a cot. But I have come to know that God has a plan for all of us, and a time for everything we do. He gave me a new start with life, with a new loving and caring father that I can share time with everyday.

My sister and I were adopted by Eric Lange on March 11 of this year (2004). On that day, my sister and I changed our names to Victoria Lange and Jeremy Lange. Since then our lives  have been great because we don't have to worry that Daniel might show up at the event and ruin it. It is sort of weird when people ask "How come your name is Jeremy Lange and you tell them that you were adopted. Then you have to explain everything that happened. But I got used to it.

Where I learned the most about God and the remarkable things he has to provide for each and every one of us, was at Wesley Woods, which is a camp and retreat center near Indianola. Everybody there had something in common: we all loved God, wanted to grow in our spiritual lives, and wanted to share with others the wonderful things God has done for us. While I was there a friend told me about the New Way Singers, who are associated with Nebraska Christian College and do tours. She suggested I send in a cassette tape of my singing, and I was chosen to be included in their northwest tour, which will be June 6 through June 20. I am excited to be involved.

My future plans are to go to Simpson College or UNI (University of Northern Iowa) to study K-12 (kindergarten through twelfth grade) music. I plan to be a band director so I can teach younger students about music and the remarkable things it can provide. Music opened a new door to my life. It allowed me to express myself in a way I didn't know existed. It allowed me to let out anger in the way I played. If I was in an upsetting mood, I would play very bad. But if I was in a good mood, I would play very good.

I challenge everybody here to pray for someone in the community every day this week. Ask God to look over them and give them guidance to make it through the day. The prayers that were made by my pastor when I was little made a huge difference in my life. Let's see what you can do for someone, because it could make the biggest difference. It did for me.

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Last Revised November 13, 2012