I was born in Big Spring, Texas and grew up in Lufkin, Texas. Yes, I have lived in Texas all of my life. I graduated from Hudson High School (Go Hudson Hornets!), attended 2 years at Angelina Junior College, and then completed my undergraduate work in Computer Science at University of North Texas. After graduation, I was actively involved in the singles' department at First Baptist Church, Carrollton. The Lord then called me to begin a music ministry at Harvey Street Baptist Church, Gainesville, Texas. After I made the hour drive the first Sunday morning, the people of Harvey Street couldn't believe that I kept coming back the following Sundays. But when you love something and have a passion for it nothing will stop you.
I served at various other churches around the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex area, including:
Sansom Park Baptist Church,
Midway Baptist Church, Haltom City,
First Baptist Church of Briar, in Azle,
Calvary Baptist Church, Gainesville,
East Meadows Baptist Church, Fort Worth,
and finally Bear Creek Baptist Church, in Glenn Heights.
In 1998, I felt the call to begin work at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. (BTW, I was working full-time at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway helpdesk). During my service at Midway Baptist Church, I graduated from Seminary with a Master of Arts in Lay Ministry degree. Midway also gave me the privilege of being ordained as one of their deacons. I learned much more about church work and even served as interim music minister for about six months. I also began a successful puppet ministry. The Lord gave Midway a vision to be a multi-cultural church, so Midway merged with La Voz de Dios (an Hispanic Apostolic church) that had similar doctrines. Midway's pastor retired and moved to Oklahoma and Pastor Pedro became the pastor of the newly formed church.
After the merger of Midway, I served as organist/keyboardist for Calvary Baptist Church up in Gainesville, Texas. (This was the home church of a girl I was dating at the time.) I remained at Calvary for one year and during that time began another successful puppet ministry.
During this time, I bought my first house south of Dallas in Red Oak, Texas. After moving to Red Oak, I played organ and assisted on the piano at East Meadows Baptist Church, Fort Worth. The church had an internal split and for a short time, I played keyboard for one group and organ for another group. The Lord eventually led me to resign and begin searching for a church closer to home. The first Sunday morning I visited Bear Creek Baptist Church, their pianist had called in sick. I later found out that they had been praying for a pianist and had just about given up when I walked in the door. They tell me I was an answer to prayer. Now it is my responsibility to continue being focused on Christ and do everything I can to honor him while serving at this church.
