Greg has lived in Vancouver since 1967 when his family moved from Wenatchee, where he graduated from Columbia River High School. He attended Yankton College in Yankton, S.D. where he studied mathematics and business administration, graduating summa cum laude in 1976. He entered the insurance business that same year with the Standard Insurance Company and then joined Biggs Insurance Services in 1981, then known as Don Biggs and Associates. His work at Biggs Insurance has been primarily as a consultant in the area of life insurance and employee benefits. He recently ended 12 years as the president of the 53-person agency, and still serves on the board of directors.
He is married to Karen, first meeting her in 1972 in Everett, Washington. Together they have five children, Lindy, Christy, Mary, Emily, and Connor and have been additionally blessed with 10 grandchildren and several bonus “children” they have been allowed to love and assist in life, both here and overseas.
Outside of work he coached soccer for over 10 years and has been active with his children in their school sports and other activities such as Boy Scouts with Connor.
Introduced to Christ by some good friends, he and his wife Karen came to salvation in their mid-twenties. Since coming to faith, he has worked to serve the Lord in different ways. He has been a deacon in his local church, served with his family as a volunteer with Kings Kids, a mission of YWAM, served on the board of a local Youth for Christ chapter, served on the board of Portland Christian Schools, taught Sunday School, and did his best to lead his family in the ways of the Lord. For the past nearly 20 years he has been working with Heart of Hope International, a ministry to the institutionalized and poor children of Romania. He served on the HHMI board for nearly 10 years and most recently has served the children with teams at the Camp of the Good Shepherd near Sibiu, Romania. He also traveled to Peru on a team with his daughter Christy where he was blessed to make adobe for a boys home at 10,000 ft. elevation.
He first became aware of Forward Edge International while working with Karin Anfuso at Portland Christian Schools. Since then he has followed some of their work from the outside and hoped to find a time when he could become more involved in the FEI work with disadvantage children in central America and Africa.
What drew you to the mission of Forward Edge? What drew me to FEI was the uniqueness of their work organizing short-term mission teams and then the child sponsorships that I became aware of more recently. The heart of the ministry, which resonates with my heart, is clear from hearing from those working in other countries for FEI and by listening to Joseph and his story.
If you could have dinner with any person in history (excluding Jesus) who would it be and why? If I could have dinner with any person in history it would probably be Abraham Lincoln, maybe George Washington. Both appear to be great me of faith who relied on that faith in times of great turmoil.
What is something about you others are often surprised to learn? I think the one thing that others are surprised to learn about me is that I am not as stern and serious as I may appear on the outside, and am in fact am quite emotional at times, especially when it involves children.
