Mark A. Rains

Executive Director

We thought it would be helpful for you to consider briefly a few of the experiences which led Mark to work closely with those in crisis and transition and through them molded him into who he is in Christ and what he does for Him.

All of this started many years ago. Mark was raised in Wilmore, Kentucky. His parents were professors at Asbury College and spent most of their professional lives

there. From a very early age, Mark became aware of those who were marginalized. During the Civil Rights Movement, he became sensitive to those placed on the fringes of society due simply to the color of their skin, and also by the poor choices some made in the 60's, including himself, and the consequences of those decisions. What is most interesting, however, is how God has used all of those experiences–even before he was Christian not only to help others, but to prepare him for the work he does today. As Lynn Smith, one of his father's accompanists puts it, "Isn't that just like God?"

After he became a Christian, he returned to school and graduated from Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary, the two institutions which ironically represented everything he had rejected in his adolescence and young adulthood. He was ordained an Elder in The United Methodist Church and spent almost ten years in the local Church, but became increasingly concerned how the UMC was drifting from its theological and ethical moorings. As a result, he left the pastoral ministry after much prayer and consideration and returned to live and work in the community for whom, in retrospect, he has always had a special affinity. Eventually, he transferred to The Evangelical Methodist Church.

While retaining his credential as an ordained minister throughout this time, he has worked various places. Among other things, he has driven the Vo-Tech bus for Derry Township, the public school in the area and taught driver training at The Milton Hershey School, a private K-12 institution created for orphans in 1909. Mark is also a certified driving instructor with the PA Department of Education and is a state approved owner operator of The Road Rules Driving School, LLC, a private driver-training program which assists people from all age groups.

Click our Ministries page that summarizes some of the other work with which Mark is involved. For an account of his life and how he was led into this area of ministry, click here to read his personal testimony.

With the financial support of others, finally, it is our hope and prayer that Mark can become more bi-vocational, that is, continuing his work in the community, but spending an equal amount of time directing, developing and expanding CRM, a ministry initiated by a few others–unknown to him at the time–who had been observing his work for almost a decade, helping others, one person at a time. (Matthew 18:10-14)