Pastor Jared was born in Illinois and his family moved to Arizona before turning 2 years old.   He received Jesus as His Lord and Savior at the age of 7 with his Dad.  At the age of 9 his parents divorced, his Mom was suffering with cancer, and his Dad abandoned them and moved to the east coast.  His Dad re-married that year and at the end of the month died in Pastor Jared’s arms before he would turn 11. At age 18 the Lord called Pastor Jared to be a missionary and to to study at Bible Institute. At age 21 his brother was paralyzed in a serious car accident leaving Luke Air Force Base and after Pastor Jared graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a B.A. in International Ministries, he became his brother’s principle care giver, and helped him through rehab for a year.  This is where he learned what it mean to be a servant and be greatly humbled by the Lord daily washing, helping, and caring for His brother.  During this time he was trying to raise support to go to language school and  to Nicaragua as a full-time missionary.  

The Lord delayed these plans for six months and brought Tanya all the way back from Africa. They started dating, then quickly engaged they got married the following July.  Five months after their wedding they moved to Costa Rica to begin language school and to Nicaragua the following year.  After 15 years of beginning a successful movement of church plants, a camp, a farm, and a pastoral training institute in Nicaragua. God called them to turn everything over to the national leaders because they were ready to take full leadership. Pastor Jared finished his Mdiv. from Western Seminary with a focus on historical theology while living and serving in Nicaragua.

During this time of transition the Lord called Pastor Jared and Tanya to Bozeman, Montana in the year 2015 to set up a base for the mission to begin working in new locations.  During the next two years the Lord put an heavy weight on Pastor Jared and Tanya’s heart to begin a bilingual Christ-centered church plant in Bozeman because of how many lost people they witnessed, and the hidden sufferings of many people that kept coming to light.  More and more people were coming to them for help and counsel and at that point Pastor Jared and Tanya knew it was time to start the new church plant from ground zero.  Petra Bozeman started principally as a Spanish speaking church and slowly moved into having an equal English focus.  In 2022 Petra Wilderness Ministry was founded for the purpose of evangelizing, training, and equipping young people in the outdoors.

Pastor Jared most enjoy going on date nights with Tanya as she is the fun one, listening to his children talk about their adventures, see all of them grow in Christ and want to serve Him in full time ministry, and being with their Bernese dog, Zermatt, in the mountains.