JONATHAN CASAS
I have had an amazing journey through life. I was born and raised in the Santa Cruz mountains. I lived in Bonny Doon on a street called Ice Cream Grade Road. We lived so far up the mountain that it took about 20 minutes to get down to civilization. It was there that I learned about the beauty of God's creation. I spent a lot of time playing in the dirt with hot wheels cars and my dog Fluffy. We lived on an acre lot in the home my Father built from scratch. He and his wife Sylvia (mom) crisscrossed the United States looking for a place to call home. They ended up finding and clearing the lot in Bonny Doon. He had a great desire to build in a beautiful place where he could raise his kids and call it home. He told my mother that he could do it all himself. She questioned that statement. In an effort to prove to her that he could do what he said he could do, he set out to the local contractors to see how it was done. He also visited the Library and checked out books with the titles like, "How To Build A House", "How To Wire A Home", "Electricians For Dummies", etc. He took the time he needed to study, then he simply up and built one, then another, then another. He had the home I grew up in completed in a year. I was very young then. But I have a photo of me holding a hammer trying to help build. I don't think I had been walking very long. My Father (Frank) passed away on December 26, 2017. He was a great mentor.
I went to a private School called Baymonte Christian School. It was so small (back then) that there were only about 40 kids in the entire school, grades K-8. Needless to say, everyone became the closest of friends. Click on the promo video to the right.
I took 17 years of classical piano lessons from Margaret Schmidt. She was a meticulous teacher that didn't believe in teaching chords. I had to learn those on my own. In my case, necessity really did bread invention. When I got my first Worship Leading position, I needed to learn all about chords. Up until then, I only read notes on a staff. The letters and numbers were as foreign to me as another language. Margaret passed away when she suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of her body. It was the first time I realized that a single person could matter so much to someone. I could not replace her with another teacher, though I tried.
I married my childhood sweetheart. We have 3 wonderful kids together. I met her in high school. I first noticed her on the bus going to school. She used to sit in the front and I used to sit in the back. I knew I had to meet her. We became quick, best friends and I married her 6 years later in 1998. It's ironic because neither of us knew we lived so close to each other for most of our lives until we started going to high school. Sometimes I think how good our relationship would have been if we had grown up and spent our entire lives together. Even today, I learn new things about my wife and her childhood. I wish I had known her then. There's so much more to say on this subject, I could write a book. Needless to say, my wife is the best person I know. I don't deserve her.
CONTACT ME
