Personal Testimony
I was born April 28, 1947 in Washington, DC, and lived most of my childhood in the Maryland suburbs. Throughout my youth, I was what you might call a "nominal Christian"; a Methodist. As a child I attended church fairly regularly, but as I entered my mid-teens, my church attendance became very irregular.
I attended the University of Maryland, where I met my wife, Sue. Just a few months younger (born August 30th in Salem, MA) she too, was a Methodist, a "nominal" Christian. We were married on December 30th, 1966 and moved to Wilmington, DE where we both acquired positions with Hercules Incorporated. In 1974, the company transferred us to Terre Haute, IN where we remained until our retirement in 2000.
One Sunday morning in 1980, I tuned in to The Old Time Gospel Hour and heard the Rev. Jerry Falwell preach a salvation message. While listening, I realized that I was a sinner in need of a savior; that the religion of my childhood was ritual and tradition, and that I'd never personally accepted the gift of eternal life offered through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There, in front of my television that Sunday morning, I asked Jesus to save my soul and come into my life. Soon thereafter, I spoke to Sue, shared the Gospel as best I knew, and she also received Christ.
We found a good independent Baptist church near our home, and from that point on, we attended faithfully, grew in the Lord, and began serving Him in its bus ministry, Sunday School, and other capacities as our pastor needed.
A few months after my retirement in 2000, I took a trip to the interior of Mexico. There, the Lord showed me of the great need to assist church planting missionaries in third world nations with their building needs. In the months following my return, God continued to burden me about this, and He directed me to begin The Carpenter's Project.