Pastor
I gave my life to Christ in 1981 at the age of 17. Shortly after that I started attending Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and had a strong desire to serve the Lord in any way I could. Setting up chairs, sound equipment, cleaning up - just wanted to be available wherever God was doing a work. I started to practice guitar and learned a few worship songs, and the next thing I knew I was leading worship for home fellowships, groups of friends... I met Mary in 1982 (well, I fell in love with her in 1982) and we dated for 4 years and got married Sept. 6th, 1986. Our life together is and has been centered around the Lord, serving Him in ministry and seeking to present Him rightly to our children, Natalie, Nathan and Zachary.
After I graduated in 1992 from the School of Ministry at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, we moved to northern California to serve at Cornerstone Ministries in Napa with Pastor Bill Walden. In 1997, sensing the Lord’s leading, we started helping at Calvary Chapel Petaluma, and I was brought on staff as the associate pastor in 1998.
In early 2000, the Lord worked through multiple confirmations, and Mary and I felt the Lord's leading to start Calvary Chapel Healdsburg in February of 2001, which is now Calvary Chapel River Fellowship in Windsor. We have seen God faithful in the work here, and feel privileged to serve the body of Christ. We have found a wonderful extended family in our church body, and we see Him transforming our lives and the lives of others all around us. Praise the Lord for His grace!
Elder
Here at Calvary Chapel Healdsburg, we desire to make prayer the foundation of all that we do: worship, preaching and teaching, service, fellowship, leadership and stewardship. As we pray, we are intently listening for His answer, and we believe the intention and desire of His heart is to instruct, teach and lead us in the way He has for us. Therefore, we expect Him to do so.
As an Elder, Don functions as a part of the servant leadership team that seeks the Lord on behalf of the fellowship. Being a believer for his entire life, Don has a heart for seeing the body of Christ healthy and well cared for.
Don and Pauline can’t remember a day when they didn’t love Jesus. As they have walked with Him, the Lord has proven His faithfulness over the years time and time again. Pauline served with the intercessory prayer team at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa for many years. She continues to serve in prayer, leading the intercessory prayer group here in Windsor and discipling her fellow prayer partners. We meet for prayer every Sunday morning from 9:25am - 9:45am at the Church. The intercessory prayer team is available for prayer on Saturdays at the Living Room from 10:00am - Noon.
Women's Ministry
In 1982 at the age of 16, I made a decision that forever changed my eternal destiny. I had no idea that day just how simply saying, "Yes, Jesus" would not only impact my life personally, but would touch the lives of everyone I would come into contact with from that day forward. Christ in me, the hope of glory, became a reality. Over the years in ministry, I have gained a strong love for women and women's ministries. My heart is to encourage women to grow in their understanding of the Word of God, and to walk brave and strong in ALL that the Lord would call them to. He who calls us is faithful, and He will do it!
"Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love." 1st Corinthians 16:13-14
Elder
Some of my earliest memories are of being in church. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about the Lord, and I’m truly grateful for that, for I am sure that at a very early age He came into my heart and saved me.
It’s been said that it was one thing for the Lord to get the children of Israel out of Egypt, but it was yet another thing to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. Like those children set free from Egypt, He set me free from bondage to Satan and the world through the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. Also like those children, I have spent many of my years not entering into the promised land of the Spirit-filled and Spirit-directed life, content to be in the desert and missing out on the joy of a real, personal, fulfilling relationship with my Savior.
The Lord has been working in my life faithfully to draw me into this promised land more fully and consistently through many circumstances, one of which was bringing my wife Kim and I to a small church in Napa in 1995, where Chris and Mary Blaustone served as our worship leaders for a couple years before they were moved on to Petaluma, and later to Healdsburg and Windsor. As Kim and I were from different church backgrounds, the Lord not only drew us together but drew us closer to Him through the consistent teaching of the Bible, and through worship, fellowship and serving. We so much appreciate the Lord’s work in and through the Calvary Chapel movement – something we hadn’t heard of before stepping into that small church in Napa – and are grateful to be part of this fellowship of believers.
After almost fifteen wonderful years of growth in fellowship and serving at Cornerstone in Napa, the Lord directed us to Windsor, arranging a reunion of serving with the Blaustone’s again. We’re happy to be part of this fellowship, and to take part in serving, leading worship, teaching kids, and however He would desire to use us. As an elder, it is my prayer that the Lord would use me and direct me as a sheepdog, and to assist my fellow sheepdog, Pastor Chris, to bless and protect the sheep in this fellowship, and to have us all be focused on and guided by the Good and Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
We look forward to fellowshipping, serving and co-laboring together with you, as long as He tarries, and worshipping Him together forever when He takes us home!
Elder
In 1977 my wife and I gave our hearts to the Lord. It was on the same night in different rooms! Saying "yes" to Jesus changed our lives forever. About two years later we became part of a Bible study group, which became the first Calvary Chapel Healdsburg. We opened our home for Wednesday night Bible study for 8 years. What a blessing that was! We've served the Lord in many different capacities since.
Being available for what the Lord has, I am currently serving as the Men's Ministry leader, and I'm always looking for people to encourage.
We are very blessed to be a part of Calvary Chapel River Fellowship. The love of Christ is evident in the people here. The Word is being taught, and the leadership seeks to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Administrator
“Therefore I tell you, her sins, many (as they are), are forgiven her – because she has loved much.… But Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you; go (enter) into peace (in freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin).” – Luke 7:47a, 50.
In response to such a great gift, I look up toward the window of heaven for His returning. I love to serve, and I think I always have. I have a strong personality; I tend to be bold in approach and follow through. There are still rough edges, which are graciously being chipped away at by the Master Builder… I am yielding. Much of this bold character is derived from many years as a single mom (of two girls) and as a Marine. I believe ‘to honor, protect and to serve,’ is God’s mold for me. I’ve known Him since I was saved at the age of 8, but didn’t understand what to do with His presence in my heart. I spent way too many years using Him as a yo-yo. He knew when all that had to stop - August 1995.
Since then, “He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it.” He is not finished by any means, but oh how marvelous my life has been since Jesus became my very best friend. He has restored my soul, my marriage and my life. My husband Jerry and I have been married now for 15 years and I am so thankful for the presence of God’s love and forgiveness in my life through him.
I have been blessed and honored to be given an opportunity to serve this beautiful body of Christ as the office administrator by the equipping of the power of His spirit. May His name be glorified in all that He does through the work of my hands.
Youth Ministry Director
I've been serving in youth ministry as a volunteer since 2013, and the last two years I was up at Calvary Chapel Bible College in Seattle. Up there I did an internship with the Jr. High youth ministry and the Lord showed me a little bit about what full time ministry looks like.
The Lord has put a calling on my life to minister to the youth in our community, and I'm excited to see what God is going to do in the youth here at River Fellowship.
