Joe Spair was born in Trenton, New Jersey on May 10, 1959. He has 4 brothers and 4 sisters: John, Cathy, Dan, (Joe), Ellen, Carrie, Michael, David, & Marie. At the age of 5, his mother abandoned the family and his alcoholic father was sent to prison for incest. The children were taken to foster homes except Joe and his brother Dan who were taken to Saint Michael’s Catholic Orphanage in Hopewell, NJ. Life at the orphanage was filled with much sorrow. Four years later, the state torn down the orphanage and Joe was moved to a foster home.
Joe was unable to adapt to his foster family and ran away. He was caught by the police the same day and brought to a youth correctional facility. For the next five years, he moved from foster home to foster home. By the time he was 15, he was homeless living in a 1955 Rambler Station Wagon that he purchased for $50.
When Joe turned 16, he visited his brother Dan who was living with a wealthy family in Hopewell, NJ. His brother Dan convinced his foster parents that Joe needed to stay. At his point, Joe had long hair, sunken in eyes, was 6’and weighed 120 lbs. Dale and Anne, Joe’s new unofficial parents, lived in a large, White House type, 4 story historical home with a maid, maid’s quarters, maid’s private stairwell to the kitchen, and multiple rooms (library, dens, private studies, music room, etc). Dale was a theological professor at Princeton Seminary and Anne was a psychoanalyst who was a writer and had written several books on child cognitive development. Living in this home was an extreme change from being homeless.
In June, 1977, while standing on the front deck, his neighbor, Ted, told him that Jesus died on the cross for him. Joe had much religious instruction in the orphanage but never understood that Jesus cared for and died for him. One week later, Joe attended a Bible Study that Ted invited him to and heard, “He who has the Son has Life, but he who does not have the Son does not have Life” After the Bible Study, Joe asked Ted to show him how to have the Son. They both knelt down in a field behind Ted’s house and Joe asked Jesus to forgive him and to come into his life. Three months later, to escape the influence of friends and bad habits, Joe dropped out of 11th grade and joined the Marine Corps at age 17.
The Marine Corps was a fresh start for Joe. No one cared who he was, where he had come from, what he had done, or what he thought or had to say. He was issued a Gideon pocket New Testament Bible that he read each night and throughout the day would sing the songs in the front. During the next 13 weeks, he was physically, emotionally, and spiritually transformed. By graduation day, he had read through the New Testament, was named Honor Man, which is the top award given to one recruit, and was promoted to the next rank.
Joe’s first Marine Corps unit was with the infantry in Okinawa, Japan where he served with Pastor Walter Wolmart who is our Spanish Pastor here at Calvary Chapel Oceanside (CCO). Joe spent most of his off hours at the Christian Service Center and served with the Navigators sharing the gospel and promoting a Scripture Memory Series. One year later, he was promoted to Corporal and was transferred to Kaneohe, Hawaii where he tested and passed the screening process to enter a Special Operations Reconnaissance Unit. During the next two years, he continued to grow as a Christian by attending church and at the home of Dole Wilson who trained missionaries from other countries. In 1980, while on a six month deployment, he experienced his first combat mission during Operation Eagle Claw: the failed rescue of American hostages in Iran.
While in Hawaii, Joe met and married a Navy girl that was stationed at Pearl Harbor. The Lord blessed the marriage and gave them three children: Sarah, Joshua, and Jacob. Joe was selected for an officer commissioning program and moved to Norfolk, VA where he earned a BS degree in Criminal Justice and Political Science. Upon graduation in 1987, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and was reassigned to the same Reconnaissance Unit in Hawaii as a Platoon Commander.
The pressures of military life caused by numerous lengthy deployments, training exercises, and a deployment to Kuwait during Desert Storm resulted in severe marital problems. Joe was promoted to Captain and moved to Bangor, WA to serve as the Security Force Company Commander; however, the marriage continued to deteriorate and eventually ended in divorce.
In 1995, Joe moved to Camp Pendleton, CA with his three children and was promoted to Major. As a single parent, he was exempt from deployments which gave him the opportunity to get involved in children’s ministry at Pacific Coast Church in San Clemente. To better serve the children, he attended and graduated from Trinity Theological Seminar with a master’s degree in Christian Education. During this time, he met Kelly Smith who was serving in the High School Ministry. Joe struggled with his feelings and with God because he had failed in marriage and was content to live single as a result of this failure. Over time, the Lord made it clear that His plan was for them to be together so on September 18, 1999, Joe and Kelly married. To avoid the pressures military life can create on a marriage, although selected for the next rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Joe decided to retire in September 2002 after 25 years of service.
Upon retirement, Joe began working on Camp Pendleton as an Information Technology Manager. He was also ordained as a pastor at Calvary Chapel San Juan Capistrano where he served in the children’s ministry. Upon moving to Oceanside in 2004, Joe attended CCO and taught CKC alongside Pastor Walter. In 2006, he was asked to return to San Juan to assist the senior pastor prepare for the mission field. In 2007, after helping to form the Leadership Training of Africa (LTA) non-profit organization and sending the senior pastor and his family off as missionaries to Mozambique, Africa, Joe returned to CCO.
Joe recently completed an Information Technology doctorate program at the National Defense University and is serving as an associate pastor here at CCO for the Saturday night children’s ministry. Joe still has a crush on Kelly and is extremely blessed and thankful that she is his wife. They have two children, Madeline 9, and Bradley 7.
From an orphanage to a place waiting for him in heaven, Joe lives in constant awareness of God’s goodness and desires all people, especially children, to know and glorify God. |
