Hope Presbyterian Church

LEADERSHIP

 

 

REV. DAVID C. ROWE

 

Reverend David Rowe grew up across the river in Yardley, Pennsylvania and spent many an hour in Princeton working on a student public affairs show at WPST radio. After attending Ithaca College in upstate New York for a Communications degree, David began working WABC radio producing various talk shows and NY Jets radio broadcasts. After a brief stint at the ABC Radio Networks, he moved over to the television side and worked in the ABC Entertainment division of the network for 6 years.

 

It was during this period that David was invited to Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, and the Spirit moved him to receive Christ as both Lord and Savior in the autumn of 1994. He left broadcasting in 1997 to attend Westminster Theological Seminary in the Master of Divinity/Counseling program. David married his wife Awilda at Christmas time, 1998. They love film and travel both of which they have enjoyed with far less frequency since the birth of their twins, Ethan and Olivia, in September of 2000.

 

David was ordained in 2004, and previously served as Associate Pastor at Westerly Road Church in Princeton for 5 years. He is a lecturer in Practical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and is a founder and board member of The Wilberforce School, a classical school here in Mercer County. David came to Hope Presbyterian Church in October 2006. The Rowe family resides in Lawrenceville.

  

 

MEMBERS OF THE SESSION

 

 

 

Carl Corson - Ruling Elder - Carl was raised near Cape May, NJ and is 80 years old.  He came to know the Lord in 1952 at the Church of the Open Door, Philadelphia, PA.  He’s served as elder at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Levittown, PA from 1954-1959, elder at the Covenant Presbyterian Church of Chatsworth, CA from 1959-1965 and as elder here at Hope since 1966.  

 

 

 

 

  

Hootae Kim - Ruling Elder - Hootae Kim is 38 years old, and is originally from Korea . Hootae came to know Christ when the Lord came to him during a youth group worship service in high school.  Hootae and his family moved to the area two years ago from Newark , DE , where he was an elder at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Newark (PCA).  Hootae is a tax accountant working in New York City , and lives in Morrisville with his wife Hitomi, and children Jimmy, Hannah and Daniel. They have been coming to Hope for well over a year.

 

 

 

 

 

David Watson - Ruling Elder, Clerk of Session

Present commission elder Dave Watson is 49 years old and grew up in Port Huron Michigan (60 miles north of Detroit, boyhood home of Thomas A. Edison).  He was born into a church going family and was active in the church until leaving for college when his church-going became somewhat sporadic.  In 1990, the Lord really grabbed hold of him and Dave committed his life to Christ and began his involvement with the PCA in 1991. Dave was ordained as a Deacon in the PCA in 1995, and then when he and his wife, Debra, moved to New Jersey in 2003, he joined Princeton Presbyterian Church and was ordained as an Elder there in 2004.  Debra and Dave began coming to Hope in June of 2005 as he began his service on the temporary Session.

 

Christian Education

 

 

Fred Lo – Director of Christian Education

 

Fred grew up in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. at seventeen to attend college in the Midwest.  After finishing college and graduate school, he came to New Jersey 17 years ago and began to work as a Research Biologist at pharmaceutical companies.

 

After a sudden conversion in 2001, he immediately began serving in various capacities at Princeton Christian Church.  In 2005, he came to Hope Presbyterian Church.  Fred began serving as the Director of Family Ministries in 2007, and is now the Director of Christian Education.  Fred recently completed his PCA internship and graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with a Master's degree.  Fred and his wife, Kaling, have two girls, Sophia and Susanna.

 

 

Church Life

 

 

Jennifer Perry – Director of Family Ministry & Fellowship

 

Jen is new to our staff in 2011 and will be overseeing youth Sunday school, women's ministries, and our fellowship groups.  She brings with her strong gifts of community formation and discipleship, which fit our needs perfectly.

 

Jen grew up in Palm Beach Florida in a Christian home, but through challenges and the questions that come with them, her faith became her own at a young age.  Many of you know that Jen has worked with the ministry Young Life (and Jim Cunningham) and for a time led one of our women's Bible studies.

 

Jen, her husband Clif, and their two daughters, Hope and Hayden, have lived here in Lawrenceville since 2004. Jen enjoys living out the Gospel as a mother and wife in a largely unchurched community where faith cannot be presumed. Our hope as Jen joins the staff is to facilitate deep, Gospel-rich community between both those in our church family and those to whom we extend the good news of Jesus.

 

 

George Rambow – Director of Music

 

George Rambow was born in Houston, TX where he lived until moving to Denton, TX to begin studying music at the University of North Texas in 1997. Since the age of fourteen he had been an atheist and remained one for the first two years of his college career. Then, during the summer before his junior year, he endured the loss of an influential person in his life. This set him on a quest: for comfort, for meaning and purpose, and for hope. It did not take long before Christianity began to make sense to him. By November of that year, after participating in a weekly Bible study, devouring C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, and finishing the New Testament, he found himself convinced of the truth of the Gospel. In December of 1999, he was baptized.

 

After graduating with a B.A. in music, George worked for a year and a half as a private guitar teacher and then for four years as a music director at Denton Community Church. In 2006, he and his wife Emily were married, and a year later they moved to Argentina where they served as missionaries until the end of 2010. In July of 2011, the Rambow family moved to New Jersey so George could begin his studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. They have one daughter and another one due on December 25th.

 

Antonio Bellamy -- Sexton

 

Antonio was born and raised in Trenton, NJ.  Growing up in an impoverished community with a dysfunctional family, he chose the road far too often travelled by our inner-city youth.

                                    

In 2005, he joined a gang in hopes of satisfying his hunger for love and significance, only to be disappointed and left with more questions and no answers.  In 2006, through a series of events, his thirst for love and significance was quenched when he met the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

He currently resides in Trenton with his wife and two young daughters and serves at Westerly Road Church in Princeton.