About Me

The Call

One of my greatest influences to enter into missions full time is Pastor Larry Gray who was the Missions Pastor at Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg. He and his wife, Jan are now serving as missionaries in Chad, Africa.

Larry had once told me that my gifts and abilities as a graphic and multimedia developer are greatly needed in the mission field and that he could see me working in an industrialized country.

At that time, I didn't know where I wanted to serve, but I knew I wanted to go to a place where my skills could be used the most and where the need to hear the Gospel was great.

In the Spring of 2003, I was looking for a 2-week mission trip opportunity. My first thought was to go to Morrocco with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in the summer. I would go on a team of people from different parts of the U.S. The team never fully developed and the trip was canceled. Most likely due to fears from 911.

Soon after, my church received an invitation to send a missions team. Our pastor, Danny Hodges, decided to send a "scouting team" of a few people to Scotland to see what ministry opportunities were there. My initial feeling was that Scotland was a place that had been "reached" for Christ. My friend, Ross White, who was going to lead this scout team sent me an article about the spiritual condition of Scotland. After I read this article from the Billy Graham organization, I was astonished to learn how dark the nation of Scotland had become. It was then when I decided to ask to be a part of the scout team.

I was on a team of three people and we were sent to learn about the ministry opportunities in Scotland. The church that invited us was Calvary Christian Fellowship Motherwell pastored by David Simpson. We met with Pastor David and with four other churches. We learned that only 1-3% of the population of Scotland is truly born-again, and that Scotland is seeing such times of spiritual darkness that would arguably surpass the times of the Dark Ages.

As I had an opportunity to sit down and talk with Pastor David, he shared with me his vision and desire to bring mulitmedia into his ministry needs at the church to impact the body and community for Christ. As I listened to him, I couldn't ignore the obvious reason why I was there.

As I flew back home to St. Petersburg, Florida, I just pondered all these thoughts in my head and all the things I saw and heard in Scotland.

After a month of much prayer, I decided to see if David would be interested in the possibility of my working there. I emailed him and he responded with much delight. I then spoke with and sought advice and counsel from Pastors Art Dykstra and Vivian Laird from my church. They and Pastor Danny were 100% in support of this decision, and they encouraged and prayed with me. Both Art and Viv were extremely helpful to me and gave me much advice and Pastor Danny's "go for it" encouragement helped me take those steps of faith into the unknown.

Nine months later, after raising finances from my church family, my immediate family, friends, and associates, I was ready to go to Scotland in July of 2004.

I am very grateful and honored to love, and serve Christ Jesus as a missionary, and I am thankful for everyone who has helped me make it possible.