Pastor's Autobiography
by Rev. Linda Shaw, M.Div., M.Ed.
It was at “Miracle Camp” when I was 13 years old that I
made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and
entered into a personal relationship with him for life. Youth
for Christ meetings were my source of spiritual nourishment
in those days. In high school my friends and I learned
evangelism skills from Billy Graham’s organization and
witnessed to our whole class until they all accepted Christ
as Savior and Lord. Eventually, my mother, my father and
my little brother became Christians in the same way. We all became members of the
Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Essex Junction, Vermont.
I dreamed of becoming a missionary doctor when I grew up and I was a volunteer at the
hospital at 15, but when I was actually exposed to surgery in a veterinarian’s office I realized
that I had perhaps misinterpreted some part of God’s message for me because I discover
that I fainted at the sight of blood.
I went to college in 1969 and my faith journey took some predictable turns in that turbulent
counter-cultural setting. When I graduated God seemed to be leading me to become a
Secondary School teacher of English, but there were too many teachers at that time, so I
tried my hand at banking.
I went to the Baptist Church around the corner from my apartment
in Springfield, Massachusetts for the simple reasonthat I could walk there. I found myself
singing in the choir there, and eventually, I was baptized by immersion in 1975 and I joined
the Park Memorial Baptist Church.
I entered a new career of Industrial Sales for a company that designed and manufactured
cardboard boxes. In 1981 the cardboard box manufacturer that employed me shut down and
left my colleagues, my customers, and me lost and unemployed. I was able to find other
vendors for my customers and thus began my own business buying and selling all industrial
packaging products for industry from an office in my house for six years.
At this time in my life I earned a Master’s Degree in Education with a concentration in
Management from Cambridge College in 1986. Eventually I joined the Church in the Acres,
Baptist, in 1984 where I was welcomed like family. I became the Church School
Superintendent and I was involved with lots of meaningful activities that helped me bond with
other members of my church family. They became a significant source of strength and love
for me through several surgeries and illnesses. In 1986 I sold my little business and went to
work as Sales Manager for one of my previous vendors. No matter where I was, or what I did
though, I always rounded out my life with volunteering in one capacity or another.
One day (it actually was one day) I met and fell in love with Jack Samplatsky, the love of
my life. We were married in 1990. Jack is a wonderful, kind man and a huge blessing in my
life. He immediately recognized that if he wanted to be with me on a Sunday, he would have
to go to church. Jack’s presence has given me a new understanding of and vision for my life.
He and his mother were responsible for seeing the potential for ministry in me long before I
did.
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