About Us

 

Welcome to 90/10 +Journey-. My name is Mike, and I am glad you are here.

90/10 +Journey- was an inspiration from my dad when I was young. My dad was a minister in a small farming community and dealt with a lot of happiness, sadness, and tragedy. Dad would receive calls at all hours of the day and night and often those calls were not happy ones. The calls consisted of someone calling about a death of a family member, police notification of a bad accident, a distressed person suffering from abuse, or someone struggling with life and needing to talk. I was amazed that there were so many sad things going on outside of my little world and how strong my dad had to be to be able to deal with these situations.

When my dad would go to the church to write his sermons, he would bring me along to do my homework outside his office door. As I found out, people did not just call him with their problems, they would stop by the church and see him. He would always close his office door when people came, but I sensed the common themes of the conversations were sadness, fear, hopelessness, apprehension, and anger. As a young person, it was very confusing that so much negativity could be happening in our small community.

Our church would welcome refugees from all over the world. My dad stated that my part in this was to help the refugee kids acclimate to school and the community as they have been through so much. At first, I did not know what “have been through so much” meant but I found out very quickly.

Refugee families would often have Sunday lunch with us so we could get to know them better. We would listen to their stories of their background, why they came here and what their expectations were. Hearing about their past experiences really made an impression on me. They shared memories of being shot at, bullied, bombs going off, constantly searching for food, fighting illnesses, always scared, and never knowing if they will be around the next day.

My parents did not have a lot of money, but I thought we were doing well because we had a home, food to eat and loving/caring parents that gave us opportunities. Dad always said life was short and that we should make the most out of each day. He said we never know when our lives will change or end. Live without regrets. Make it happen today. He mostly emphasized not to waste time being negative. He told me 90% of the time we should be positive, happy, nice, kind, helpful and humble. 10% can be negative as it is healthy to express our sadness and anger. There is enough negativity in the world, choose to not add to it.

The experiences I had as a young kid have shaped the person I am today, and I have passed that along to my family. My wife, Rhonda and I have embraced the 90/10 way of life as we have raised our family.