Van of Urantia
Co-Founder and Spiritual Director
Theology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Van of Urantia began his lifelong commitment to doing God’s will at the age of twenty-four. Over the course of his ministry he has served the homeless, runaways, drug addicts, alcoholics, and those damaged by society or early family life.
In the early 1970’s Van worked as a counselor with the halfway house program of Nicky Cruz's Homes/Teen Challenge Programs in Huntington West Virginia & Fayetteville, North Carolina.
In the mid 1970’s he was a counselor for one year with Reverend Pete Perterson’s Lost and Found Ministries on 4th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona.
For CENTRUM of Hollywood Van was a counselor with 24-hour help line.
He has years of experience in working with and rehabilitating street people and prostitutes.
Van was a counselor for 6 months for Brother Phil’s foundation, Angel Flight in Los Angeles, California which was located upstairs from the Downtown Gospel Rescue Mission.
In Dallas and Tyler, Texas, he was a student trades craftsmen, counselor and street minister for Youth with A Mission (directed by Bill Frances). He consulted with Keith Green, Director of Last Day’s Ministries and a musician (now deceased). He also counseled with and received a life prophecy from David Wilkerson of Teen Challenge Programs. This handwritten prophecy is framed and hangs in his office today.
Van was also a volunteer chaplain of the Pima County Sheriff's Department where he worked with the pre-trial release program, and he ran his own halfway house on 4th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. He has counseled in the jails and on the streets.
He works with not only teens but adults who have been addicted for years. One of his missions, which continues to this day, is to reach people who are oppressed or feel alone and frightened. He is dedicated to enabling them to develop their faith and walk with God and fulfill their destiny purpose. Van believes that those who enter his programs are not to be institutionalized. He has no dorms where they all live as he believes in assimilating them into community families where they are treated like family.
Van's program is probably the best kept secret in rehabilitation in the United States.