My salvation experience is when I was a Junior my parents started attending Bible Study Fellowship classes at FBCA. They would come home and share what they learned with me and my brother. I was very interested and eager to learn more and there were other evenings in my life and the life of my family at the same time when it was obvious God was working to get our attention. The information and stories my parents would share that they retaught to us made a huge impact in my life and I decided at 13 years old to give my life to Christ.
My family is something that, without God, would never have been. I’ve seen God work in many ways in my life and the life of my family, and for me, He very often chooses medical science (acting in and above what the doctors are able to do) to show his grace, his mercy, and his power. I was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at 3 years old and the doctors told my parents I would be lucky to live to 13 or 14 years old. God had bigger and better plans, bringing Erica and I together in high school, allowing us to marry, and then blessing us with 2 sets of twins. We are a very close-knit family and we like to spend as much time as possible together, doing activities, church activities, watching movies (we even grocery shopped as a family for the first 8-10 years of the kids’ lives.
We have been at Concord church since 2016 when the older kids were close to entering the youth, which was something that our previous church was lacking. With respect to the preaching and teaching, I enjoy getting a deeper understanding of the Word, getting taught the historical contexts and the original meaning in the Greek texts was something our previous church would cover in going through God’s word and it was something I felt we still needed. I enjoy the Concord Community as a whole; from the moment we started going to the church we felt it was a warm and inviting place to be. Everyone treated us like family like we had been going there for years. Prior to attending Concord, our kids also attended the preschool and Erica was an assistant teacher at the preschool.
I feel like God has been pushing me a little outside my comfort zone the last few years. Teaching me to trust him more and follow him more closely, while also asking more from a leadership perspective. Certainly, as a father, I’ve been helping to lead my home and my children, but God has also been calling me to be a leader in my job. And with this opportunity, I feel he’s asking me to dig deeper into a leadership role in the church.
An important Bible verse for me is Psalm 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God”. It’s such a simple verse, a simple command, but how often do we struggle to do just that. In our modern-day lives it is difficult to find a quiet time or a quiet space, but also in the middle of trials and tribulations, it is difficult to just be still. We (read I) want to do something to fix it, something within my power to resolve the situation, even though I need to just let go and let God. When I let go and let God, it may not always make it easier at the moment, but when God controls those situations, it’s not going to end up messy like when we try to control them.
Each of us is unique and God has given us different life experiences, trials, gifts, talents, struggles. In my life, God has placed me on a path that not many walk. I’ve suffered from Cystic Fibrosis since birth, was brought almost to the point of death and God stepped in with a Lung Transplant at just the right time and has sustained me for the last 13+ years. God is certainly still working in my life to mold me and shape me, but the experiences that he has brought me through give me a very unique perspective to draw from.