I grew up in a Christian home.  Godly family, church and friends.  I "walked the aisle" when I was 5, but as the years passed I began to struggle.  I felt the Holy Spirit working on me.  I didn't really know what was going on, but I couldn't stop thinking about hell and where I would spend eternity...did I really know what I was doing as a little kid?  One thing that bothered me was that everyone was always saying that you needed to remember the date that you were saved...well, I couldn't.  One day, while rummaging through my room, I came across my old Bible and in the front was the date that I had gone forward in church and this made me fell better for awhile.  But the Holy Spirit was still working on me.  My feelings of fear (I now know that it was conviction) continued to intensify, but I knew I was saved (I had seen the date in the Bible, after all).  So, with the logic of a 12 year old, I figured that the Lord was dealing with me about something else.  My mind eventually concluded that God wanted me to be a preacher!  Again, after this decision I felt better for awhile, but the uneasiness returned and would not go away this time.  Finally, on a school trip to a Christian camp, The Wilds, I admitted to myself that I would never know for sure if I knew what I was doing as a little 5 year old and that I needed to settle this issue once and for all.  So I bowed my head and accepted Christ into my heart at the age of 16.  I have never doubted my salvation since.

Although I wasn't called to preach, the Lord did have full-time service in store for me.  I went to Tennessee Temple with the intent to study to be an accountant, but by the end of my freshman I knew that God wanted me to work with young people.  By the end of my sophomore year, I knew that God wanted me to be a school teacher.  I have enjoyed teaching and coaching for 20+ years.

During my freshman year of college, I met Donna and we were married after my senior year.  She has been a great blessing and partner in ministry through the years.