Dr. Helmar Heckel, born in Germany during the II World War, was nominally raised in the State Lutheran Church. After his parents divorced and his mother remarried an American soldier, he immigrated to America in 1958. One year later, on a street corner in Topeka , KS, Helmar asked Jesus to come into his life when two faithful disciples from the Navigators shared the gospel with him. From this time on, Jesus has turned Helmar's life upside down and inside out. Changes of huge proportions began to take place in Helmar's life. His intellectual curiosity and creativity caused him by God's grace to earn a BS degree from Washburn University, (1967), a M.Div. from Bethel Seminary, (1971) and eventually a D.Min. from Fuller Seminary, (1994). He and his wife, Judy, have founded three churches in St. Cloud, Little Falls and Orono, Minnesota. He has served as Sr. Pastor, Founding Pastor and Associate Pastor and Dean of Living Faith Training Center, now known as ACTS, Antioch Christian Training School. There he shaped and formed the curriculum that has impacted many students from across America and the world.  He loves to teach and built the word of God, by God's power, into people's life for effective and eternal change.