Background
Conversion
I was raised Catholic and attended church regularly as a child. I had already drifted away from regular church attendance, before I met my wife. Since I had checked all the Catholic boxes, lived in a way I thought was good enough and felt I was right with God. Shortly after my wife and I got married, we desired to attend church again. She was raised at Bell Shoals Baptist Church and didn't feel comfortable in a Catholic Church. We started attending Bell Shoals on a regular basis. While attending I started to hear truth from God's Word. I still felt like I had all the boxes checked and was good enough to get to heaven. I was asked one day, by the children’s minister, why I thought I was going to heaven. I told her my reasoning of being good and always trying to do the right thing. She shared the gospel with me. She shared how I was a sinner and unable to do anything on my own to get into heaven. Jesus had died on the cross to forgive my sin and rose again three days later in victory over sin. Within that conversation, the gospel became clear as it was spoken directly to me. We prayed together and I confessed Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Before knowing Christ, I was unaware of the depth of my sin. I had very little concept of grace. From that day forward, I’m a follower of Jesus Christ and thankful for the sacrifice he made to save me from my sin. I live life every day to glorify God for the grace he's provided through Jesus.
Calling
Before starting into seminary in 2018 I felt the Lord changing my heart into some sort of ministry work. Through prayer I felt it could be into missions or a pastors role. Knowing formal education would be helpful for either path I started my seminary training. My employment in the truck dealership industry was successful and rewarding. I had good prospects for a long and successful career. A couple years of school and gaining more valuable experience in lay leadership I felt the Lord calling me into ministry sooner rather than later. After prayer and searching I found a role within Amazima Ministries in 2021. God made it clear that it was time for me to go so we moved to Uganda. While in Uganda, the Lord did a lot of work in me, to drive a passion for shepherding and leading within an American church context. This led me to my first pastoral role as Executive Pastor at Grace Community Church. This role has fully affirmed me calling. My call is to support a Lead/Senior Pastor in a role where I have the opportunity to thrive with my administrative and leadership talents, while he is able to focus attention to preaching, teaching and vision of the church.