Avoiding Evil

I have survived a whole 26 years of life. Impressive huh? A special thanks to Christopher for pointing out to the whole world that I am another year older. *smirk* Since it is my birthday I will share with you my all time favorite birthday song:

You say it’s your birthday. It’s my birthday too–yeah. They say it’s your birthday. We’re gonna have a good time. I’m glad it’s your birthday. Happy birthday to you. -The Beatles Happy Birthday

Alright, go grab some popcorn, a large coke, and some chocolate covered peanuts, kick off your shoes, air out your socks, sit back and relax as you get to know me just a little better. And without further ado, here is a recap on the 26 years of my life:

0 to 6 months: I was born in St. Louis, Mo at St. Johns Mercy medical center on January 25, 1979. It was a cold, wintery day and I seem to remember my dad always talking about how he had to drive around with the windows open when it was 2 below outside because she got so hot. I came into the world with thick, dark black hair and dark skin. Mom says that I was such a pretty baby… I wonder what happened. I did have colic as a small child and cried constantly, in fact, I think I drove my mother crazy which would explain a lot at this point in life.

7 months to 5 years: We lived in Sullivan, MO at a house on 1001 Roscoe St. right here in town. I remember the big snow we had when I was about 3 or 4 years old. It was so deep that it was over my head! My mom wouldn’t let me go outside and play in the huge forts and tunnels my brother and his friends had built. I am still bitter about that. I started kindergarten when I was 5 years old in what is now the Sullivan School District Administration building. I remember my brother dropping me off for Kindergarten one morning on his way to high school. I walked up to the door and it was locked because he had dropped me off too early. I was completely devastated because I thought I was stranded at school and so I cried until a teacher came out a got me.

6 years to 8 years “The Dark Ages” I went to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade in Sullivan. These were some interesting years for me. My parents got a divorce during this period of my life which was really hard on me. I wanted to live with both and ended up going back and forth for long periods of time. The last time, when I finally moved in with my mom for good, my dad dropped all of my stuff off in a huge pile in the front yard of her house. It was not an easy time for me especially amidst the deep hostility going on between my parents. Interestingly enough I experienced a lot of life when I was in 2nd and 3rd grade. My mom was very lenient and let me go where I wanted, whenever. I walked all over Sullivan, back and forth to school, road my bike around town, hung out with the neighbor kids, and got into lots of trouble. By the end of third grade I managed to try cigarettes, steal from Wal-Mart and gas stations (I had a fine collection of stolen GI-Joes), I vandalize a CAT Backhoe loader doing several thousand dollars worth of damage, I got thrown into a police car and dragged to the police station, kicked the wall in at my house, I had a fowl mouth and I ended up doing a large amount of other terrible things that are just as bad, if not worse, than what I have already mentioned and I don’t think I will divulge that information. Just know that by the time I finished 3rd grade I had experienced a lot. To think about this now really blows my mind. What were my parents thinking?

9 years to 14 years It was at this point in my life that a lot of things changed. My mom and her new husband decided to get out of Sullivan. We moved to Bourbon and I went to school there from 4th grade until I graduated. This was probably one of the best things that happened to me. It got me away from the kids I went to school with in Sullivan and put me into a new environment. I stayed with my dad on the weekends, which the majority of time was spent either by myself at the house or at the horse races with my dad. I have spent many years going to the horse races at Fairmont Park in Illinois. By the time I was 10 years old I new how to gamble at the race track and loved to go just to spend time with my dad. While I was not a perfect angel, I think that by this time I had calmed down a lot. The major battles between my parents were over and I was getting settled in life. These were some good years for me. I spend my time playing and having fun. I road my bike and walked all over town, I played and explored just about everywhere in Sullivan and Bourbon but I didn’t get involved in anything bad and I stayed out of trouble, so it seemed that the “dark” period of life was over. I went to church a couple times with my sister and liked it, but never went back just because my parents didn’t go. I got involved in band when I was in 5th grade and from that point school stuff began to consume my life. I went to school, went home to play, watched TV, went to bed, and that was my life! I had lots of friends and lots of fun.

15 years to 17 years And then came High School… Honestly, I did pretty good in High School. I stayed out of trouble for the most part. I spent the majority of my time working and going to school. The day I turned 16 I got a job to pay for car insurance and whatever else I wanted to do. I was involved in band, but never got into any sports. Oddly enough I never got into drinking, drugs, and partying even though the opportunity was there. I did plenty of stupid things. I had a filthy mouth and a dirty mind for sure. I was one of those guys you see hanging around town in large groups of people with their cars all lined up in an empty parking lot. We would sit around and talk in the middle of town for hours, then we would go out and race cars and do all kinds of dangerous things that we really should not have been doing. It was also at this point in my life that I met some friends who eventually started what I consider one of the biggest changes to happen in my lifetime. When I was 17 years old, in 1996, these friends invited me to come to church with them, and I did. I started going to Sunday School. I would go to Sunday School class, I would say nothing, I wouldn’t answer any questions, and I wouldn’t go to any other church services. For the longest time it was Sunday School only, but the important thing was that I went.

18 years to 20 years When I was 17 years old I went to an event at my girlfriend’s church called “Heaven’s Gates And Hell’s Flames”. It was there that I went forward and called on the name of Jesus to save me. I remember sitting there during the invitation sweating, shaking, and crying. I had to go forward, I was compelled, and though I tried to fight it, I couldn’t. After I accepted Christ, I went on my first mission trip to Colorado with the youth group of Temple Baptist Church when I was 18 years old in 1997. I had no clue what being a Christian was all about, but I went anyway. This trip is where I experienced God through powerful worship for the first time in my life. I discovered what our Youth group was all about, I discovered what worship was all about, and it put life in perspective for me. Unfortunately I had just graduated High School and technically I was not in Youth anymore.

After this mission trip I went to church non-stop. Every time the doors were open, I went. This was my first year of college, I was 19 years old and this was the first year that I actually got really involved in the Youth Group of our church. The youth pastor let me help with the youth group as a college student. It made up for all of those years I had missed the opportunity to actually be in the Youth Group. I went to East Central College in Union, MO where I received an Associate of Applied Science degree in Electronics. It was during this period of my life that God began to lead me to the next step. About a year after I was saved it hit me that I had never publicly shared my testimony of Christ’s work in my life through baptism. I was praying, asking God to work in my life and show me what he wanted me to do and he revealed the next step. So on April 26, 1998 I was baptized at Temple Baptist Church during the 10:45 service. I remember walking up to the front of the empty sanctuary that morning and sitting on the front pew where I suddenly found myself in deep anguish and pain. My heard was broken. I sat there and cried because I couldn’t believe that my parents would not come to church to see me get baptized. It was one of the most significant moments of my life and they were not there for it.

That summer I went on another mission trip with the youth group, this time to New York. It was on this trip that I learned what service was all about. It was a tough trip, it wasn’t all that fun and exciting, we worked, it was hard, and yet we accomplished so much. God did some pretty awesome things in my life and began to develop character in me that had not existed before. I was the shy kid who never talked, kept to himself, and always just blended in with the crowd, fading into the background. That was all changing. My goal in life was to make a lot of money doing computer tech work and electronic repair. That was it. I had that goal from the time I was in JR High until I began to fulfill it in College. God had a different plan. Exactly one month after I came back home from my second mission trip I went forward one Sunday morning to accept a call into ministry on August 30, 1998.

During my second year of college I was finishing up my Electronics degree (once I start something I have to finish it). It was during this time that I was working diligently with the youth group. It was at this point that there was some talk about an internship. The pastor and youth pastor thought it would be great to start an internship in our church for students who were being called into ministry. On June 7, 1999 I became the first paid youth intern of Temple Baptist Church at the age of 20. Four months later I preached my first sermon on October 10, 1999 during the 6:00 p.m. service.

21 years to 23 years I worked as the youth intern for three years where I received experience preaching, making hospital visits, organizing and leading the youth group, leading worship, working with the sound system, working with the video & media system, and many other things involved in church life. I graduated from ECC in 1999 and then went another year for more basic classes. In the Fall of ’99 I transferred to Missouri Baptist College where I worked on my BA in Religion. During my last semester and MoBap I became the interim youth minister at our church after our Youth Minister left. I was interim for 5 months and then in May 2002 I graduated Missouri Baptist College at the age of 23 and became the full time Youth Minister of Temple Baptist Church. In the Fall of ’02 I began working on my Masters degree as an extension student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

24 years to 25 years Over the next two years I just started to get my feet wet as a newly hired youth pastor. I really had no clue what I was in for and didn’t know whether or not I would survive. The first year as a full time youth minister I was just keeping my head above water. The second year I was trying to rebuild everything and the third year I finally had enough relationships and enough trust built that we have started to see some real growth. I continued to go to school full time and work full time as well.

26 years I got up this morning, came to church, sat down and started writing this post, answered the phone a couple times, and now I am going to lunch… I am preparing to go on two mission trips this summer which will equal 12 M-trips that I have attended since I graduated high school. I am working on youth material and activities for year number 4 of full time youth ministry and I am still going to seminary.

That is my life in a nutshell; if you made it this far I am impressed!