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Born in 1964 to a Baptist woman from Kentucky it didn't take long for me to get some Bible verses in my head. In fact, I learned to read John 3:16 before kindergarten. But knowledge of the Bible wasn't the same thing as having the Living Word in me. It wasn't until Mother's Day, 1972, after a particularily direct sermon on the importance of being saved, that I went forward (walking the middle aisle of the Jordan Baptist Church on the south side of Chicago) to speak to a counselor.
I was led to a quiet Sunday School room (the end of a hallway, really) and Mr. Smith showed me, from the Bible what I needed to know, in order to ask the Lord into my heart. It was so simple, that as we finished, my little eight year-old mouth asked, "Is that all?" "Yes," Mr. Smith laughed, "That's all."
He showed me that we are all sinners. We need a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. The price of our sin is death. The price has already been paid. I asked the Lord into my heart and He saved me. Simple!
The next week I followed the church tradition of being Baptized.
Years later I would dedicate my life to whatever service He had for me. That led me to camp at The Wilds for several summers. During one trip to the mountains of Western North Carolina, our Jordan Baptist Church youth group made a side trip to Bob Jones University. We took a tour and I soon applied. While a student I would go to The Wilds to work weekend camps and retreats.
During my senior year of college, a fellow classmate of mine, Leisa Evans caught my attention. I had been wrongly informed that she had a "serious boyfriend" back home in Atlanta. I enlisted in the Marine Corps just before graduation and entered boot camp at Parris Island after a full three months work during The Wilds summer camp of 1986. After boot camp I asked Leisa to marry me. She said yes!!
We returned to the Greenville, SC area to serve out my duty with Ammo Company and had the privilege to serve The Wilds for 12 years, two weeks, and three days (or as one of my former Jordan youth group friends described it, "You lived your dream."). Leisa and I are graphic artists--she married me for the name.
Now Leisa and I have two children, Ben and Emily to raise (two already in Heaven) and a cute little house on the edge of the woods. We attend Trinity Bible Church where I am known as the "puppet man."
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