Before FMV officially was founded in 2014, our founder, Josh Bechtel, had already been developing as a “wordsmith” for at least twenty years. He began writing admittedly silly stories in first grade. He dabbled in poetry as a high schooler. His strict Mennonite upbringing discouraged considering anything other than traditional poetry as “acceptable poetry.” For a time, he was a somewhat prolific contributor in the Sunday School papers of the Conservative Mennonite constituency.

Throughout this time, Josh attended several conservative Mennonite Bible Schools and served at a children’s home in Virginia for three and a half years, and also at a Men’s Rehab in Indiana for a combined total of five years.

In the course of this time, he contacted and eventually reunited with his biological parents. His biological mom passed away two years after their “God directed” reconnection. His adoptive grandma, two adoptive sisters and his adoptive dad passed away within the same timeframe.

He eventually wrote a memoir detailing his experiences as a foster and adopted child that also included his spiritual journey into and out of the conservative Mennonite church. This was self -published in 2012 under the title Finding My Voice: A Journey into Faith.

The title of the memoir became the inspiration for a fledging business called Finding My Voice.

Josh recently opened a small studio space at White Rabbit Galleries in Barberton, OH, where he experiments with various mediums of abstract art.