- Proud to be an American from the great and free state of South Dakota!
- Ranch-raised on the White River south of Presho
- Anti- ‘Career Politician’
- Pro-life / Pro-nuclear family
- Pro-2nd Amdt / Gun Rights
- No to Globalism,
Yes to National Strength
- Reduced Federal Gov’t
- Supports Law Enforcement
& Border Integrity
- American Workers,
American Jobs
- Married 40 years to Paula Sack, Onida; Four grown children
- Entrepreneur: Musician, Writer, Educator
- “I will stand up and speak out for AMERICA FIRST values.”
- Determined to do what’s right!
- Surrendered my life to Christ, 1986
In my lifetime I have not made a lot money, but faith, frugality, and fortitude (along with a little ‘luck’ from time to time) has always seen me through. I have a wide work background among diverse groups of people. I am blue collar, I am white collar; I don’t know where the distinction begins and ends, and I don’t really care. What matters most to me is that faith, family, and freedom are protected in my homeland as established by our Constitution.
I’m ranch-raised, the middle son among three who was raised along the White River south of Presho. Both of my brothers followed in Dad’s footsteps and are ranchers today. I marched to the beat of a different drum, you might say. I attended a one-room rural school until 6th grade, then started going to ‘town’ school in Presho. I was better suited to town living than ranch living, it seems, and soon I was dreaming of being a star athlete in Lyman County. I learned a little too late how to dribble a basketball and do a good lay-up, but I eventually got a letter in football. The summer following my sophomore year, I started entering rodeo competition, and the following June, I won the South Dakota High School Bull Riding championship – life really is ‘like a box of chocolates’!
I also started playing the drums in the high school orchestra, and that came in pretty handy for me later. Even though I was an English major at Black Hills State University, my drumming ability allowed me a spot with the Black Hills Gold Troupe, and I got to tour Northern Europe along with my new wife, Paula Sack from Onida. BH Gold even got to play for Governor Bill Janklow at the Governor’s Banquet that spring.
During these years, I worked construction, worked at the Spearfish sawmill, and started a three-piece band that played throughout the Black Hills and across the five-state region.
In the fall of 1986, Paula started talking about Jesus all the time. Soon, I could clearly see that she had found something in life more significant than anything I’d been doing. I then also chose to make Jesus LORD and Savior- that changed everything!
I left the band and worked the next several years as an award-winning journalist, first for the Spearfish Queen City Mail, then the Tri-State Livestock News. All the while Paula and I were raising our four kids, going to church, dreaming of ways that we could do something important and lasting for God (along with raising children!).
One thing led to another, and in 1993, after seven years of calling ourselves Christians, we headed to Chennai, South India, where I worked at the national office of Youth With A Mission. In India, I conducted music projects, both solo and in collaboration with Indian musicians, taught English at international and Christian schools, and with Paula, started our own education company (I write more about this on the “Mark Mowry Speaks Up” page).
It was never a very steady or easy existence, bouncing back and forth between India and South Dakota. During those times back in South Dakota, I earned my professional credentials as a secondary Language Arts instructor while working in a facility for adjudicated youth.
Through the years, we could clearly see the emerging ‘culture wars’ that were developing in the United States. It bothered us to see what was being allowed to happen in our home country. We’ve been back from India since 2014. The societal changes have accelerated and become more drastic in the last few years. The Trump Presidency was the true breaking point for the polarity of the American citizenry. I’m convinced that we are in the final showdown for either a Constitutional Republic or a socialist regime. What a time to be alive – “for just a time as this” (Book of Esther 4:14)!
Original source can be found here.
