Meet the Staff: Brian Tanedo

What should we know about you and your family?
My name is Brian Tanedo. I’m originally from Green Cove Springs, FL and I graduated from the Florida Bible Institute in 2010 and from the New York Bible Institute in 2012. My wife, Rachel is originally from Jamestown, OH and we met here at Word of Life while she was in the first year in 2011 and I was on the Impact Team. We started dating when we were interns in 2014 and got married in March of 2015. We have two little boys and their names are Elias and Emmitt. Elias is two and a half and Emmitt is one
Share with us your salvation experience.
I came to know the Lord through a Fellowship of Christian Athletes program at my middle school. I was invited one evening to go see a play called “Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames”. I came to the realization while watching this play that one day I would actually stand before God and my sin would keep me from living with Him eternally. I believed the good news of Jesus’ sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection and repented of my sin that night.
What is your role at the Word of Life Bible Institute?
I have the amazing privilege to help as many people as possible come and have the life-changing experience that I did at Word of Life Bible Institute! Paul Bubar says that the Bible Institute takes young people and makes them passionate about God, and the things of God- which is exactly what happened to me. Because of that life change, I now work in the Enrollment Office and manage the team that recruits and assists incoming freshmen to the Bible Institute in New York. It has been a great blessing to give back to the organization that God used and continues to use, in such a mighty way in my own life.
Share your favorite memory of WOLBI when you were a student or something recently as you served with our students?
Meeting and dating my wife would have to be at the very top of my experiences here at Word of Life, but my absolute favorite happened during my first few weeks in Word of Life Florida as a first-year student. I was in Resident Assistant training, and we would do Quiet Time in the morning as usual, but afterward, we would come together and talk about what we learned and what God was teaching us. It was during those moments where I first witnessed people my own age, who didn’t just say that they loved God, but instead lived out their love in a tangible way! It was in the way they talked about Jesus and what they were learning that caused me to yearn for a deeper, more authentic relationship with Christ. I have been pursuing that ever since and I pray it never stops.
Can you tell us your life verse and why?
1 Corinthians 15:10a says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain…” Paul was defending his apostleship, but in my life, I use this verse to highlight that the only reason I am here right now is God’s grace. If it wasn’t for His unending, amazing grace, my life would be completely worthless. Now, because of His grace, I have joy in my heart, a future hope that is secure, the forgiveness of my sin and a relationship with my Creator. I could never say enough about what God has done and how He has changed me!
Brian, please share with us your experience serving WOLBI students?
I love serving students because Jesus loved serving students. In Luke 6:40, Jesus says, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.” I just want to be as much like Jesus as possible!
If you could speak to a younger you today – what would you say?
God has something planned for your life that you cannot even imagine, trust Him when you cannot see what’s next.