MY STORY
I grew up in the small town of Leonard, TX (population: 2,039). I am an only child and am so blessed to have been raised by two loving, hard-working, God-fearing parents. I was raised in the First Baptist Church where my dad was and is a deacon, and both of my parents were and still are high school Sunday School teachers. I was brought up under faithful preaching and in the fellowship of sweet, godly people, and it was under that ministry that the Lord gripped my heart at the age of 10 and saved me. I knew then that I was a sinner and that I needed Jesus to be my savior. I accepted Christ in my bedroom, with my mom and dad, and then made my profession public and followed the Lord in baptism a couple of Sundays later.
Church has, by God’s grace, always been an integral part of my life. It was there at Wednesday night youth group over the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of high school that I met a very smart and attractive new girl who had just moved to town named Elizabeth Robinson. Elizabeth’s mom was my dad’s classmate at Leonard High School many years prior (Class of ’78), and both our families had deep roots and many family members in town. It was a homecoming of sorts for my eventual mother-in-law (spoiler alert!) and an exciting new development for me.
I went in guns blazing to try and win her over before school even started. It took me a little longer than I’d hoped, but by the Valentine’s dance later that year, we were an item and have been ever since. Elizabeth and I both graduated from Leonard High School as sweethearts, attended Texas A&M together (WHOOP!), and were married in January 2009. We have two girls—Lily (12) and Felicity (9).
While I talk of being saved at 10, I actually think of my whole life as a salvation story and a testament to God’s unfailing faithfulness in His promise to see the good work that He began in me as a boy through to completion. His kindness and grace have been present in my life at every turn and never cease to amaze me.
By God’s grace and through the labors of many faithful saints, I have been in and around the Word of God my whole life. As a young man, I led Bible Studies in our Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter; I have sung in several choirs; as an adult, I have served as some combination of Bible Study leader, home/life group leader, and deacon for the last 7 years. In 2017, I went on a mission trip to Chiapas, Mexico to help build a church there and to spread the gospel of Christ.
In no particular order, I love to hang out with friends and family, read all sorts of books, go to the movies (good movies on the biggest screens possible), watch sports, eat Mexican food, drink good coffee, and do the work of the church.
MY HOPE FOR THE TRAILS
My hope for the Trails is that we would be a church that proclaims and lives under the Word of God faithfully; that lives out a genuine and healthy gospel culture like the one that Paul describes in Colossians 3—putting to death what is earthly in us and putting on instead compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another in love, forgiving one another, and above all else putting on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony; that is ruled by the peace of Christ and the unity of the spirit; that is committed to presenting everyone that God places in our care mature in Christ; and that is salt and light in our community—the gospel made visible to a dying world.