I am the father of four beautiful daughters and seven grandchildren, and I will be happy to show you any of the hundreds of pictures I have of them. I was married to my wife for thirty-eight years before she passed from pancreatic cancer in 2018. Gail was a nurse practitioner at the Milton Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. She was also the music director at our church for many years. We enjoyed many adventures and experiences while making a difference in other people’s lives. During Gail’s illness, Gail led our family to start a ministry called Gail’s Girls to help develop under-resourced female leaders in southern Asia. To date, we have raised nearly one million dollars towards this endeavor. Ten percent of all sales of Lead Like a Bodyguard will be donated to www.gailsgirls.org. I love to visit my children and grandchildren and banter with them whenever possible. Two daughters and their families live near Baltimore, one daughter and family in Philadelphia, and one in Germany with her military husband.
My wife and I loved to travel, as I still do. I’ve visited forty-seven states and twenty-five countries. While in ministry, I did mission work in Haiti, West Africa, Thailand, and Bolivia. I’ve visited Ireland over a dozen times, serving on a church management team in Limerick.
I have served as president of numerous organizations and conferences throughout my career. I am also presently a board member of the UCP of Central Pennsylvania and Kairos Benevolence Fund, a ministry organization caring for retired pastors and their wives. I have been actively involved with church-planting organizations my entire career, knowing that planting new churches is the most effective way to reach those far from God.
Retired from full-time pastoral work, I love reading, especially leadership and self-development books and biographies of great men and women. I’ve played guitar since college and played in a church band for many years. I enjoy flower gardening, cooking, and trying new restaurants. I enjoy cigars and bourbon with my many close friends across the country. As much as anything, I love to laugh, bless someone every day, and find the beauty all around me.
I am a writer, author, public speaker, blogger, and consultant for churches and non-profits. I own an LLC called DonMarkHamilton.com, where I write a weekly inspirational blog and other inspirational and leadership materials. The theme of www.donmarkhamilton.com is to guide people to live inspired lives, be the hero of their own stories, and help others do the same. I enjoy speaking at churches, leading seminars for non-profits and churches, consulting, and mentoring young leaders. Because of my blog reach, I gladly find myself communicating with dozens of people worldwide who need some wisdom and inspiration.
After starting and serving the same growing healthy church called Vibrant a Christian Church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (Harrisburg area), I retired in 2020. Our large church was located on a fifty-three-acre campus, which we developed into a regional park, including soccer fields, a one-acre special needs accessible playground, pavilions, special needs/senior citizen exercise equipment, a disc-golf course, a snow-tubing hill, a one-mile fitness trail, and a prayer garden. Thousands of people enjoy Adventure Park, every year. Our multi-use facilities were used by over fifty community organizations, including sports teams, non-profits, businesses, families, and other churches. We formed partnerships with numerous community organizations, being well-known in our region as “that church that serves the community.” We desired to bless our community and region as God had blessed us. It brings me great joy to know that this legacy continues growing long after I have been gone from Vibrant.
As the Lead Pastor, I served this church for thirty-eight years, watching it grow from around forty to 1,300 in attendance before the COVID pandemic. My goal was to leave a multi-generational ministry that would long outlast my tenure, and by God’s grace, I believe I achieved that objective.
