Meet The Pastor
Pastor Nate Elznic
First and foremost, I am madly and passionately in love with my wife! I love being a father and raising our four radical kids for God's Kingdom!
I was born and raised in Nebraska, so yes I love Husker football! My parents moved a lot when I was younger which made it hard to make friends. As a child, the longest I lived anywhere was Alliance, NE for six years. I was a late bloomer, 98 pounds as a freshman, but had a big mouth! I got into a lot of fights. By the time I was a Senior in high school, I was in jail twice, had a gun pulled to my head (thankfully the trigger jammed) and was part of The Crips gang. I decided I wanted to changed and that if the Navy couldn't change me, than no one could.
So I left for San Diego, CA in September of 1993 for boot camp and "A school". I was training to be a dental tech and third in my class. But on the weekends, I was gang banging and going to Mexico to get drunk. I also started smoking marajuana. One day, while I was on watch, I got in a fight and got kicked out of the military. When I got home in March of 1994 I was not only an alcoholic but a pot head.
I continued to gang bang and sell weed to support my pot habit. I liked smoking weed so much that I dropped out of college from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and move to San Antonio, TX in November of 1994 to start a roofing company with some friends. We ended up buying 20 pounds of weed and bringing it to Omaha to sell it to our gangster friends. Ten thousand dollars later, I decided this was not what I wanted to do with my life. I left to go to college in Milford, NE for Building Construction Technology in March of 1995. While I was attending college, I was still selling weed. I was in the top of my class, but I got busted in the fall of 1995 for DUI, MIP, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.
I knew there was more to my life but I hated what I had become and wanted to be dead! Many nights I would contemplate how I would end my life in a gun fight. On December 2nd at 2:32 am, I woke up from a dream were angels were telling me how to give my life to Christ. I awoke hearing, "You have knowledge, now gain wisdom!" I also knew that if I did not get right with God, my life was going to end up dead. I didn't grow up in church or have any idea what to say or do, so I just began to tell God how my life was all jacked up and asked Him to forgive me of all the messes I have made and the people I hurt.
When I woke up the next morning there was my weed and bong. Every other day I would "wake and bake" to face life, but today was different, I wanted the peace I felt last night! So I prayed and I began to cry tears of JOY, I was truly free for the first time in my life! I decided this was it, I had tried everything the world had to offer and was still empty. Now it was on! If Jesus was the real deal I told Him, He has the next two weeks of my life to prove it and if He is real then I will serve Him all my life and do what ever He asks! I have never looked back!!!! I am loving the life I am living with no regrets!
Four months later, I was tricked into a blind date and met Heidi. She was not serving God, so I just told her about my life. She thought I was a Jesus geek. Before giving my life to Christ, I had no respect for women. I asked her on a real date the next night just to see if I could actually treat a woman with respect and honor for once in my life. The next day at church she accepted Christ as her Savior. We hung out as friends for three weeks with no romantic intentions. One Sunday after church, I was at the altar praying and God gave me a vision of Heidi and I holding hands and she had a diamond ring on. I didn't want anything to do with women or getting married because all I had done in the past was mess that up. I was loving being single and sold out to God! I asked God if He wanted me to marry her and He said, "Yes," and I said, "No!" I felt miserable inside and when I asked Him again He said "Yes!" I was in turmoil and didn't know what to do. Heidi was driving me home from church and asked what was wrong? My reply was, "God wants me to marry you!" Her reply was, "Yes." I wasn't even asking as the question, and was in disbelief.