Pastor Dave and his wife, Kaidi, moved from New York to California (Pastor Dave’s home state) in 2011 as Dave followed the call to become Senior Pastor at Union Church in Los Altos. Pastor Dave and Kaidi have two daughters, Liisa & Daisy, and two dogs, Muki & Toby.
Born in Modesto and raised in Thousand Oaks, the son of a Presbyterian pastor and a retired Pepperdine professor, Dave is one of four children. After graduating from Pepperdine, Dave worked as an insurance claims adjuster but found greater fulfillment in volunteering at his mom’s inner-city church, where he worked with kids of all ages.
Feeling the call to seminary, David studied nearby at Fuller. After seminary he helped at local churches before accepting a cross-country call to a church on Long Island, where he spent the next eight winters.
While in New York, Dave met his wife Kaidi (pronounced like Heidi but with a “K”). Estonian but born into the Soviet Union, Kaidi was in Estonia when it recently regained its freedom. Kaidi graduated from Stanford University with a nursing degree and works at Stanford Hospital.
Pastor Dave was drawn to Union when he discovered our strong Biblical foundation and our desire to reach out and do missions. Dave has been on mission trips to Africa and he continues to be involved in helping locals in Kenya as a board member of Staff of Hope, a community building and water drilling ministry.
David’s heart for missions and ministry stood out to us from the start, and we believe that this same heart will reach powerfully into our communities.
Dave loves sports and is willing to shoot hoops or play frisbee with anyone. He loves hiking and exploring, geocaching, and playing guitar with the praise band.
Jamie brings a host of wonderful talents God has poured into her, including being a vocalist, pianist, guitarist, flutist, organist, choir conductor and music arranger. She understands both traditional and contemporary church worship styles and enjoys blending them, as we have already started to experience over the last few months.
Jamie holds Master in Music, Master in Education, and a Bachelor in Music Performance degree and she brings a total of ten years of music ministry staff experience working in both small and large churches in the Bay Area. Additionally, she has been a music coach to people of all ages and desires to build others up to achieve their God-given potential for worship participation and leadership while encouraging volunteer teams in their Christian faith.
Her communication and team building skills will help as she integrates all ages in music participation for a multi-generational worship experience. Jamie’s music experience is broad and displays versatility, having conducted senior adult choirs and being a former choral conducting student of Dr. Archibeque.
There are many other work experiences and talents Jamie will bring to this new role at Union, including being a flute teacher, classical piano teacher and leader of a seven-member contemporary band as a guitarist and singer.
Jamie thrives on doing things together in community, and helping people experience God’s love and worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Her goal is for church music to draw people into a meaningful relationship with their Savior, Jesus.
A bit about Jamie’s family: Jamie met her husband, Daniel, at Clemson in South Carolina. Daniel and his team just won the NASA software of the year award for the second time. Her children are: Matthew, Naomi, Hannah, and Esther.
Cindi comes to us through teaching art to Pastor Dave’s daughter, Liisa’s class at Heritage Academy (has been with Heritage since 2021) and she brings great experience in teaching kindergarten, middle school and junior high school students, as well as teaching art courses to older patrons. Some of you may have experienced her art skills during one of the FabFamFun events in Summer 2022.
She holds a Masters in Educational Technology, a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and a Bachelor of Science in Art Education, is a member and presenter of the Association of Christian Schools International Educator and has gone through Child Safety training and seminars and is certified in Child Safety.
What has impressed us so much about Cindi is her heart for God, her priority for spiritual formation and how she uses art as a vehicle to help kids understand that they are loved by God and their self-worth. Cindi commits all she does to God in prayer and is a compassionate and nurturing person who loves mentoring kids.
She also loves working with families and building cohesiveness across the teams she works with. Cindi is married to Ken, who is also passionate about Jesus and is also great fun to be around.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.