The Testimony of Paul A. Hyder I was born in 1970, in Dallas Texas and I grew up in Lewisville, a suburb about 30 miles north of there. My childhood was a fairly happy one but my parents divorced when I was ten years old. I believe Satan used this event to put my life into a tailspin because I soon began getting into trouble. By the time I was 13 years old, I began drinking. My parents sent me to a camp for troubled youth called Salesmanship Club Camp For Boys, where I spent over two years working through some of the emotional problems I was experiencing. After I left this camp life was better for a little while but I soon fell back into a pattern of rebellion. When I was 17 years old, I was drinking heavily and experimenting with drugs. I was living with my mother and she would not allow me to live there and continue behaving in that manner, so she asked me to leave. I moved into an apartment with three friends of mine but after a month we were evicted because of excessive noise and trouble with the police. My friends moved back home but I could not. Eventually I moved into an apartment with an older friend who had his own apartment. I continued to drink and use drugs. As my high school days went by, I barely graduated due to poor attendance and marginal grades. My life was pitiful but I acted as if I had everything together. As time went by I began to feel the great emptiness in my heart that my immoral behavior could not fill. After high school, I knew my life was empty and needed direction. I decided to join the Marine Corps and in the fall of 1988 I left for boot camp. I had begun to read the Bible and as I look back now I know God was working in my heart and drawing me towards Him. After I was in the Marines for about a year and a half, a friend invited me to church with him. I had gone to a Lutheran church as a child on occasion but never really benefited spiritually from it. Now, however, it seemed everything I heard the pastor was saying made sense. I could compare the things he was preaching about to what I had read in the Bible and it seemed to all be falling into place in my heart. For the first time in my life, God's word was ALIVE to me. In May of 1990, at the age of twenty I said to God: "I have tried living life my way and I am miserable. Now I am ready to try your way!" I gave my life to Christ! I began to fellowship with Christians and study my Bible very diligently. The LORD was really doing a miracle in my life from the inside out. While stationed in Okinawa, Japan I attended a small church that was lead by a man from Mexico and his wife. It was there that I was baptized and continued to grow in my relationship with God. An American man and his family took me under their wing and although I didn’t recognize it at the time, he was discipling me and showing me what it meant to be a godly husband and father. I see now that I have children of my own what a blessing that time was. I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1993 and moved back to the Dallas area where I attended a Bible church in Carrollton Texas. Eventually, I began attending the college Bible study there. Because I was older than most of the others in the group and I had a good knowledge of the Bible, the group leader asked if I would help him prepare the weekly lessons. Not long afterwards I also began to take turns with him leading the study. This was a great time for me. I was helping young people see the truth of God’s word and apply it to their lives. This was what I knew God had saved me for! Since I was teaching the college Bible study, I began to attend the adult singles Bible study to receive teaching of my own. These people were more in my age group and I fit in well. It was here that I met my wife, Aprile. We became friends and eventually began dating. After about two years, we got engaged and were married in 1996. She grew up in Kenya, Africa where her parents were missionaries. We both have hearts that yearn to do God’s work wherever and however He wants to use us. I went on staff with the Navigators in 1998 and felt the Lord calling me to discipleship ministry. Training with the Navigators showed me there are three key elements to the Great Commission: 1. Evangelizing the lost (based on relationships) 2. Establishing new Christians in the faith (make Disciples of fellow believers) 3. Equipping disciples to be "disciple-makers" I am committed to this vision as a full time vocation. Therefore, Aprile and I established our own ministry called Toladoth Discipleship Ministries and pray that God will use it and us as a vehicle to accomplish His will. After completing my Sociology degree at Dallas Baptist University, I began to pray about how the LORD could bring His will for me to fruition and what my next steps should be. After much prayer and godly counsel, I quit my job after seven years as a Federal prison guard. My family and I moved to North Carolina to pursue seminary training at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Now that I have graduated,we plan to go into full time Christian ministry. Both Aprile and I have a heart for disciplemaking and a heart for ministering to others. We know that whatever we do, full time discipleship ministry will be the foundation of our lives. Please pray that we will be receptive and obedient to God's guidence as we press on toward the goal of following Christ and making disciples. Home |
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