Jeff Porter

Jeff grew up in the small town of Mt. Shasta CA. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a BA in philosophy. While in college, Jeff was a volunteer youth director at his home church, The Evangelical Free Church of Mt. Shasta for three years. He also organized and ran Bible studies for non-believers with Campus Crusade for Christ. Following college, Jeff attended Talbot Seminary and graduated in 2009 with an MA in Philosophy.

Jeff is a certified Level 1 snow board instructor. Additionally, he loves surfing, skateboarding and playing all kinds of sports. He reads a lot and he plays guitar, bass and drums. His favorite recording artists vary from the Gaslight Anthem and Lagwagon to Josh Ritter to Postal Service. His favorite movies include classics such as So I Married an Axe Murderer, Braveheart and High Fidelity (the novel is great as well.) He's beginning to enjoy referring to himself in the third person.

Natalie Morgan

Hey, Nat here. Thanks Alisa, for asking me to join the Fearless Leaders blog! I thought I'd purposely make Josh and Kev look bad... by posting my bio immediately after becoming an official member of EPC's high school leadership :)

I was born and raised here in V-town. Attended Junipero Serra, Balboa, Buena, VC and then graduated from Cal Poly SLO. Most of you know, I just finished college in the summer of 2007. I was then a student-teacher in San Luis Obispo county for 6 months, finishing Cal Poly's teaching credential program this past spring. Yep... that's right.... I'm as legit as it gets! I'm a highly trained teacher, so don't make me give you "the look" at youth group!

I absolutely LOVE traveling the world. My first experience out of the country was my sophomore year in high school, when EPC went to Juarez, Mexico over spring break. Since then, I have been to Baja 5 or so times... Germany, France & Denmark as an exchange student with my German class at Buena... London, England... the Ukraine with IMPACT... and most recently, Peru!!!! Believe it or not, despite all of those awesome trips, my trip to Peru was actually my FIRST international "holiday" (as the Germans say). All of my other travels have been for school or missions :) God is so good! I feel extremely blessed for each and every service project he has taken me on.

And now... here I am. Back from the Central Coast...in Ventura and ready to serve again! This time, as your youth leader! It would be an understatement to say that I'm happy to be a part of Eastminster's high school ministry. I love you all very much... and I look forward to hanging out with you every week!

Booyah.
Nat.

Phil Houtz

Phil has been helping in youth ministry for over ten years now. His main qualification is the fact that he's never quite grown up. Sometimes he wonders if he isn't getting more out of the experience than the kids are. Phil's prayer is for young people to make the transition from sharing the faith of their parents to having their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Also that they would become deeply connected in each other's lives.

Maureen Houtz

Maureen Houtz is a child of God, a wife to Phil, a mother to Emma and Norah and a mother in law to Matt. I am also the middle child of five very Irish, very stubborn and wonderful siblings- three sisters and one brother. I was born in Queens, New York and raised Catholic.

I spend most of my days in the company of dear folks who tell me their sorrows and secrets. As a psychotherapist I feel privileged and blessed to be trusted by my clients and rely on God (most days) to give me guidance and wisdom. When I am not at my office, I spend many hours serving at Eastminster as an elder and as a youth leader. Years ago I was the children’s ministries codirector and I can say I have known many of our kids since they were in the nursery. Both youth leadership and being an elder provide opportunities to be blessed -by my fellow elders and my fellow leaders and of course the kids. I am the elder of social concerns and justice; a ministry that first and foremost desires to educate our congregation about what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Ventura County. The other time I spend is hanging out with great high school kids.

As our older daughter got close to graduating and I realized that my time with our kids is so short, I felt compelled to make the time count since we have one daughter still at home plus I really enjoy our kids at EPC. They are smart and funny and for the most part great friends to each other. Phil, my husband, has been in youth ministry for at least 100 years but I'll let him tell you about himself.
High School youth group for me was a life saver. The year was 1971 and I was brand new to California having come from a very distant land. The culture shock was amazing. I looked funny and sounded even funnier with my very strong” New Yawk” accent. My very first day of high school in Thousand Oaks, a dear girl named Janet befriended me. Our first conversation was about this weird girl reading a bible in school. I'd never seen that before and Janet was gracious and kind to me and didn't point out what a rude comment I made. Instead she invited me to her church and I went. I came to understand God and Jesus in a way that was much more personal and much more integrated than my Catholic upbringing had taught me. Well that began a deeper personal relationship with Jesus and a life long friendship with Janet. My life today is different because my dear friend reached out to me in high school. I consider it an honor to be a part of EPC high school kids' lives and hope I can encourage them to reach out to others at their high schools.

Alisa Bossoletti

Hi I am Alisa...

I graduated from Buena High School in 1997.
After graduation I went to SBCC to attend the Culinary Program for 2 years. I had hopes of being a pastry chef some day.

Once I was finished with the program I transferred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and received my Bachelors of Science Degree majoring in Food Science. I love food! I graduated on June 15, 2002. With my new degree I now wanted to work for a food company designing new products.

The very next Saturday (6/22/02) I got married to a wonderful guy! You might know him... Kevin. After one of the best days of my life, we spent a lovely week in Maui for our honeymoon. Upon returning we packed up our college things and moved back "home". Our first place was a condo in Camarillo. It was a nice place with terrible neighbors. After living there for a year we purchased my parent’s home, the house I lived in since I was 12. We still currently live here and have enjoyed (most of the time) adding our own personal touch to the house. It feels much more like our house than my parent’s house where I grew up.

As for work, there are not too many food companies in Ventura County. My first job was with Calavo in Santa Paula. There I was a Quality Assurance Tech. I made sure the guacamole was the right consistency, had the right about of avocado chunks, not too much salt...etc. Not very exciting but it was a job with a food company and I got tons of tasty guacamole! The plant was shut down about 6 months after I started.

My next job was for Dairy Farmers of America. In the Pepsi plant on the Avenue, they make and bottle the Starbucks Frappuccinos. Again I was a Quality Assurance Tech. This job was much more exciting and I had a lot more responsibility. I actually made the batches of frappuccinos. It was fun but I worked so much over time. My longest stretch was 27 – 10 hour days with no days off. So after about a year and a half I moved onto Natren.

Natren is a probiotics manufacturing company in Westlake. Once again I was doing Quality Control. This job had much more emphasis on microbiology than food. The job wasn't that bad but my boss was impossible to please. So finally after suffering there for about 8 months I got my "Dream Job".... a Product Development job!

February of 2005 was a huge month in my life, not only did I start working for Carl’s Jr., I also found out I was expecting our first child! I liked my job with Carl’s. My main objective was to invent new chicken sandwiches and salads for the chain. In my short run with Carl’s I have two claims to fame, The Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and the Teriyaki Burger.

Then on October 11, 2005 I became a mom to a beautiful baby girl - Lily! What a wonderful experience it was and has been and will continue to be. Kevin and I decided that instead of me going back to work I would stay home with Lily. Thank God for the wonderful blessing it has been being able to be a stay at home mom. I love it!

In January of 2007 we were blessed once again with the conception of our second child. It was fun with the first so two could only be more fun...right? RIGHT!!! On September 18, 2007 I became a mother of two. Olivia joined our family and has brought so much joy to us. It is hard to believe that Lily will be 3 and Olivia will be 1, time flies when you are having fun.

I am currently sitting as the President of Sonshine Preschool. I still enjoy food and everything that has to do with food. I love being a high school youth leader.

I have two cats and a turtle. CORRECTION: We are down to one cat, Higgins has been missing for about two weeks now. Lily says he is in the cactus... or that he moved to Heaven.

Things I am Thankful for...

• My loving God
• My awesome Husband
• Two amazing Daughters
• A great home to raise our family in
• The beautiful weather in Ventura