I am originally from Minnesota and know how to dress in -40 degree temperatures. I have been doing Christian youth-work since I was 19 and was one of the first Catholics to work as Area Director for Young Life. I write a monthly newsletter on youth culture (http: //kairos-na.org/YouthCulture_News) and am the International Director of Kairos, a Christian youth program serving those aged 13 to 30. We sponsor high impact retreats, gap years, mission trips, university campus missions. To learn more about the work I do visit (http: //kairos-na.org/) I met Pope John Paul II in 1981 during a conference I organized for 600 leaders in the Charismatic renewal, five days before he was shot. I met Yasser Arafat, the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Patriarchs of Jerusalem and one of the Chief Rabbis of Jerusalem during the visit of John Paul II to Israel. I lived for 15 years in Belfast N.I., and London, England, which was where I wrote The Archangel of Westminster. I began writing The Red Madonna in 1998 and had more or less finished it by 2002. I began the follow-up novel in 2003, and hope to finish it before the next conclave. I am also the author of A Concise Catholic Catechism, a contributor to How to be Ecumenical Today, and the creator of iPray - an aid to daily prayer. I am a member of the Servants of the Word, an ecumenical brotherhood of men who live the vows of celibacy, simplicity and obedience. I have visited 26 countries and speak German fluently. I travel about 10 days of the month. My pillow lives in Lansing, Michigan. My vices are golf, pistachios, chocolate and single malt scotch. Someday I will repent of them