The Garage Shop

About our ministry

About the Garage Shop

"My Boss was a woodworker"

The Garage Shop is a stewardship of the gifts of my soul and the use of the breath in my body. We have never made a dime of profit on any commissioned project we have built. It is a joy to have these tools and space to be able to serve God. ‘What we have is a gift from God. What we do with it is our gift to God.’

If you would like to commission a project for your community, we would be happy to chat with you. You may contact me by clicking the menu item "Commission Request.

Blessings,
--Mark

Our Beginnings

In 2000, I began my woodworking in earnest when I needed to build some chapel furniture for my chapel community. I looked at the supply catalogs and had a LOT of heartburn spending three or four thousand dollars of the tax payer's money on furniture when I had no idea how long the Navy would assign me to the base, so I went to Home Depot and purchased $100 of wood (my money) and designed and crafted an altar and baptismal font. From these first two woodworking projects have sprung hundreds of others.

In June 2003, our family said goodbye to the military community and returned to the parish. I am the former rector (lead priest) of Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Castro Valley, California. Looking for a community of faith, come and see...

I am formerly an active-duty Navy Chaplain. Below is a picture of me on an exercise in Thailand with Marines making 'Helo' insertions. I served in the Navy as an Enlisted Boiler Technician (Second Class) in the seventies as well.

I have done some woodworking in the past, but never very seriously. I have worked on and off as a residential electrician, mainly during my school years and when I got out of the Navy (for the first time).

I am now a retired Episcopal Priest, setting up my retirement shop and loving that I have the time to do the projects that feed my soul!