I asked Christ into my heart in 1989 at the age of twenty-two. Consciously, I did not really know how to do so, nor did I really understand the implications of my decision to do so at that time. However, I was a college student living a lifestyle that I thought was making me happy, but was leaving me very empty. I can not remember being told how to ask for God’s grace. Nonetheless, I called out to the Lord in faith and asked Him to forgive me of my sins. I turned my life over to Him. The thing that I will never forget is the feeling of the Holy Spirit entering me. I was filled with more joy, more excitement, and more peace than I had ever experienced in my life.

Christ saved me in the living room of my apartment with no one else around. I was not actively seeking Him, and no one was actively evangelizing me. He called me long before I called Him. The experience firmly entrenched the knowledge within me that God sent His son to the cross for the redemption of all people. Furthermore He has called all people to come to Him, even though all will not listen.

God has influenced my spiritual development. My senior year in college, shortly after I had accepted Christ, I met Julia. I did not pursue her at that time. Three years later I returned to college to complete the requirements to teach at the high school level. I met Julia again. She had a strong background as a Christian and a Southern Baptist. We married following her graduation that year. We moved to Iowa and a Southern Baptist Church had just opened in the town in which we lived. It was a small work and provided me with many opportunities to grow as I worked to help a new church grow. It seems as if God has continually put me in positions where I have been able to move toward a closer relationship with Him and what He would have me to do.

I have seen people born again in Christ. It continues to excite me to see the power of the Lord work in the lives of others, as He has worked in my life.

God continually laid upon my heart a desire to learn. I was continually active in every bible study possible so that I could grow in knowledge of the Word. I believe God was preparing me to a call to the ministry. As I learned more, and realized how little I did know, I grew in a desire to be able to help others learn more of God’s word as well. Although I felt the call from God, I argued against it for some time. I had a good job, my family was settled and happy, and we enjoyed working in our local church. However, my wife and I were both restless, feeling the call of the Lord upon our lives.

Being a divine call, it was not something that we could escape and still maintain a relationship with the Lord. Fighting it soon began to separate me from the love of God and the relationship with the Lord that I treasure above all else. When I announced the calling to the church, they were not surprised. Several of them had known of my calling long before I had, giving me further evidence of it being a calling from God.