Life Story

I was born in San Antonio, Texas. My mother and father divorced when I was 1. To this day I have never met my real father. My mother remarried when I was around 3, and her new husband adopted me, so by law he is my real father. When I was 4, my mother gave birth to my sister, and that was my family until I was 12, when my parents divorced. During those years, I grew up going to church a lot. The life my family lived out at church, though, differed greatly from the life lived at home. Church was a lot of religious practices, and home was nowhere near anything godly.

At age 31, through a series of events, I found myself in Tucson, Ariz. I had alienated myself from all friends, family and God. In a taxi, on my way to a room for rent, I passed in front of the First Baptist Church of Tucson. As I stared at the front of that church, it was as if Christ was standing there with His arms open wide, asking me how long I was going to run from Him. That following Sunday morning, I walked into that church and gave my life back to Christ. Soon after that, I started attending Calvary Chapel Tucson where my faith began to grow. I served in the singles and deacon ministries and developed a deep passion for missions. It was a special time in my life. I had never before heard phrases like, “God died for you because He loves you.” And, “He wants a personal relationship with you.”

I also met my wife at church. We married in June 1994 and now have three lovely children, two sons (Trevor and Jordan) and one daughter (Brookah). In 1996, we left Arizona for Mesquite, Texas. We were founding members of Calvary Chapel Garland and attended there until the beginning of 2008. At that point, God began to stir up inside of me that it was time to move on. I did not know where, but I know that He had already put a plan in motion during the summer of 2007. While on a mission trip to Romania, a friend there introduced me to a video of John Piper, and once home, I started listening to him daily. We left our church and began the process of looking for a new church. More or less, they all seemed the same. During this time period, I was on the Desiring God website, though, and there was a blog about a young pastor in the Dallas area named Matt Chandler. I saw a few interviews he did for Resurgence and knew we had to visit his church, and little did I realize it was just 50 miles from where we lived. So we visited one Sunday and immediately knew this was where God was leading us.

My growth and the growth of my family in the knowledge of Christ and His love for us exceeds any growth that we experienced our entire life. In 2009 we uprooted from Mesquite and relocated to north Carrollton to be closer to the church. This church (pastors, staff, members and attendees) has meant so much to us as we have truly experienced Christian community and most importantly the true gospel.

Hope for The Village Church

My hope is that we would stay authentic to the gospel of Jesus Christ.