My Testimony

   My salvation experience. I received Christ at the age of six years old while attending Good News Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, VA. I distinctly remember that it was a Wednesday night service and the pastor had preached a salvation message. The Holy Spirit brought me under conviction convincing me of my sinful condition, and the fact that I was headed for Hell. I turned to my dad and told him that I wanted to be saved. My dad took me to the prayer room on the right side of the altar and showed me from the Bible how I could be saved. He made it very clear that all I had to do was confess my sin and ask Jesus to save me. There at that moment I told God that I was a sinner and didn’t want to go to Hell. I asked Jesus to save me and He did. I have never gotten over that experience. It is just as fresh now as it was then.

   My call to Missions.  The Lord called me to preach when I was fifteen, under the ministry of Al Day at the Bible Baptist Church of Chesapeake, VA. I have an Associates degree from Macedonia Baptist Bible College Midland, NC.  The Lord started dealing with my heart concerning missions in October of 2013. I had been running my own business as a contractor and fulfilling a dream of hog farming at the same time when God began to speak to me. I am ashamed to say it but I hesitated and disobeyed God when He began to deal with me about missions and taking my first foreign Mission trip. For 1 year I disobeyed God and was more interested in fulfilling my own dreams and ambitions. Because of my disobedience God chastened me and took away what was keeping me from obeying Him mainly my hog farm. At the time of God's chastening I couldn't understand why things happened the way they did, but by May of 2015 God began to bring me to a place of understanding.
   On the 24th of June 2015 I was on the job working when God spoke to me. As at other times when I work the Holy Spirit puts a song in my heart to sing. It was just a piece of the song Whatever it Takes . As I was singing the last line “ whatever it takes for my will to break that’s what I’ll be willing to do, “  the Holy Spirit called me a liar he then asked me if I knew what I was singing. I realized then that my real problem was, I wasn't truly submitted to the will of God, and I had not been willing to give up my own ambitions and desires so that I could fulfill the will of God for my life.  I told the Lord my hearts desire is to serve him with everything that I have. I submitted to God everything. I accepted the blame for my failures. I realized that what had happened to me had been chastisement, the result of my disobedience. Within just a matter of a few days, God revealed to me that he wanted me to take a mission trip. He began to open doors directing me to the country of Ghana. As I took steps to set the time to go, the Holy Spirit put an overwhelming peace in my heart.
   I took my first mission trip to the country of Ghana in November of 2015. I wasn’t sure if God was calling me to this country or not, but God had clearly showed me His call to full time missions. When I was there God laid upon my heart the verse Lamentations 3:51 “Mine eye affecteth mine heart.”    
   I began to fast and pray seeking God’s direction concerning Ghana. I wanted God to give me some Scripture to direct me and God showed me Hosea 6:3 “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”
   In January of 2016 God laid on my heart to take another mission trip to Ghana, but this time to see a specific city, Tarkwa, Western Region, Ghana. I went the first week of July and I surrendered to go to Ghana as a full time missionary July 17 2016. God has placed a burden upon my heart for the people of Tarkwa and the Western Region of Ghana. This burden is growing and has become the dominant focus of my thinking.