I Am Wilshire – Mike Meripolski.
Hometown: Dallas
Education: BA, Stephen F. Austin State University; Law degree, Texas Tech School of Law
Profession: Attorney for Legal Aid of Northwest Texas
Present city: Dallas
Tell us about your family.
I have been married to Debbie for 33 years. Our daughter is Ann Meripolski.
How about your work or volunteer life?
I work in the family section of Legal Aid of Northwest Texas handling divorce, custody, adoption, protective orders and other family law cases for low-income people (under 200% of U.S. poverty guidelines).
What are your favorite hobbies?
Reading history and popular fiction, traveling with Debbie.
What is your favorite place to travel?
We seek new places, especially history, science or nature museums. We loved our Rhine River cruise visiting 800-year-old churches. We are currently trying to visit all 254 Texas counties, especially the courthouses.
What brought you to Wilshire and when?
Debbie’s parents brought us in 2004. We stayed after hearing George preach and seeing the other youth reach out to welcome Ann.
Where are you engaged at Wilshire?
I’m a deacon and serve on the Hospitality Team and the Building and Grounds Committee. Debbie and I attend Epiphany Class.
What has surprised you most about Wilshire?
Wilshire surprised me on my first visit and continues to do so. Our church truly lives out that truth that God loves everyone, and so should we.
Tell us about your faith journey.
I was raised in the Methodist church and was baptized in a Baptist church in 10th grade. After Debbie and I married, we attended a Methodist church until coming to Wilshire. My views on faith were strongly influenced by my Jewish father and Methodist mother. My mother (born a Baptist) and father respected each other’s faith beliefs and encouraged my siblings and me to think about — and make — our own faith decisions.
What do you think God is up to in your life right now?
God put in me in places to help the marginalized through both my job and my church.
What’s something interesting most people wouldn’t know about you?
I was born with the name Meripol and changed it back to Meripolski to honor my immigrant grandparents, who fled Tsarist Russia (near Kyiv) in the 1880s due to violent pogroms against Jews. My mother was born a Baptist, was a Methodist as an adult, and in her 80s returned to her Baptist heritage — at Wilshire.
What adjectives describe you?
Resilient, passionate about God’s justice on earth and our role in achieving it.
If you are interested in being featured in an upcoming I Am Wilshire article, contact Carolyn Murray