 Bill Wood is an RTS Virtual student in the MAR program, living in Southern California. His journey through life to this point is a great testament to God’s ability to pull people away from false teaching and point them toward His truth. Raised in a family that was influenced by Mormonism and Unitarian Universalism, Bill began his undergraduate studies looking for answers. He studied education and philosophy at Cal State University – Northridge and received a B.A. in Philosophy. Although he later took an 18-week course on converting to Judaism as part of a marriage requirement, Bill remained an agnostic until the age of 45. Walking into a church one Sunday for reasons he would only later come to understand, he was given a paperback Bible that would ultimately help lead him to salvation. After several months of faithful attendance, Bill met with the pastor and, later that same day put his faith eternally in Christ! Now, Bill serves Christ’s Kingdom through his work with Joni & Friends, in the Wheels for the World department as Senior Administrative Coordinator. Bill sees this work as an opportunity to share the Gospel with others. “Having spent half my adult life in darkness, not knowing Christ as Lord and Savior, I have a deep thirst for understanding and sharing the truths of God.” To that end, Bill successfully completed RTS Virtual’s Disabilities in the Church course to augment his capacity to serve at Joni & Friends.
His goal in enrolling at RTS Virtual was to “develop a deeper understanding of God’s written word within a reformed theological framework. I chose RTS Virtual campus because of the flexibility it provides, and the MAR program because of its multi-disciplinary curriculum.” Through courses like Systematic Theology & Introduction to Biblical Theology, Bill is “quenching his thirst [for God’s truth] and growing in [his] understanding of faith.”
Taking classroom ideas into the church, Bill also serves in the disability ministry at Grace Community Church in California. Since 1995, Bill has attended Grace with the prayer that God would use him to encourage and train other Christians, and guide others on the road to a relationship with Christ. From this standpoint, he has experienced the personal wonder of seeing the Holy Spirit work through him to open the eyes of his father. After spending most of his life as a Mormon, Bill’s father came to understand the difference between Mormonism and Christianity, and placed his trust solely in Christ. They found joy in praying and worshipping together before his father went home to be with the Lord. Bill continues to present the Gospel to others in the hope that “the gospel of Christ Jesus will be advanced & communicated, and that God will be glorified!”
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