Renaut van der Riet

If you find me at home, you’re likely to see me carrying heavy bags of food for the chickens or turning compost because Brooke is passionate about gardening. I love to go zip lining with my kids through the backyard adventure course we built together and make waffles with them on Saturday mornings. Every day I am thankful I get to wake up alongside them and explore the freedom for which Christ has made us free.

I came to know and serve Christ in a military home in South Africa during the apartheid era. By the time I was in high school, I had discerned that God was inviting me to pastoral ministry, so after graduation, I enrolled in Bible college in the Washington, DC, area. I met my wife, Brooke, there, and shortly after getting married in 1996, we moved to California, where I served as a student ministries pastor until we sensed God calling us to plant a church in Florida. We founded Mosaic Church in Winter Garden in 2002 with the goal of meeting the spiritual and tangible needs of the local and global community. It is an overwhelming privilege to watch Mosaic’s story unfold and, with it, to see lives changed along the way.

This incredible adventure I’m living with Christ has brought some amazing opportunities. Brooke and I were able to adopt four of our eight kids from Axum, Ethiopia. That journey inspired us to found Axum Coffee Company, a growing chain of coffee shops and restaurants whose goal is to fund justice and mercy initiatives, as well as Love Made Visible, a nonprofit organization that equips families, individuals, churches, and agencies to care for orphans and vulnerable children across the United States and worldwide. Most recently, I am developing The ReStory, a website aimed at providing gospel clarity to followers of Christ by extending them an invitation to tumble headfirst with me into the wonder of the freedom for which Christ has set them free.

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