My testimony is simply a story of a great God. Mark 16:15 says Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation; all I did was to say “Yes” to His word. Everything from that point on was God gently pointing and guiding as His Holy Spirit orchestrated relationships, places to go and provision.
I moved to Columbus, Ohio from Springfield, Illinois in 1984 in order to attend Christ the King Church. I believe God called me there to serve and grow, and I began to work in the youth group almost immediately after arriving in Columbus. I enjoyed working with the youth and helping them grow in Christ. I loved to talk to people about Jesus, so I got involved in evangelism explosion, became a trainer in both adult and youth E. E. I did evangelism at places like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Ohio University’s Halloween weekend and inner city Columbus. For my day job I worked for the city of Columbus, and the rest of the time I was involved in this evangelistic lifestyle until I left for Guatemala. In the late 80’s I believed God was guiding me in another direction, I began to prepare my life so that I would be able to respond to anything He might ask of me. I believed that I would be ministering to an indigenous people. I thought it would be somewhere out west or up north on an Indian Reservation or something like that. Little did I know what God had in store!
In June of 1990, Pastor Bob Swanger went to Guatemala, and the following Sunday at Christ the King he was sharing about how he climbed a mountain to reach a group of people. While he was speaking I heard the Lord speak to me and say, “Go to Guatemala”. Immediately after the service I told Pastor Bob what had happened and asked him what I had to do to go to Guatemala. The following November I left for Mexico and Guatemala. When we got to Guatemala, we went to the area of Zacapa, and we built a church in the village that Pastor Bob had hiked to. As we built that church I began to feel a tug inside of me for the people of the mountains. Over the next two years I took five more, short mission trips to Guatemala and in November of 1992 I left friends and family, a good job, and a stable future to go live and minister in Guatemala.
In February 2006, my wife Sarita, my three daughters, Zoe, Sophy and Faith and I returned to the United States for a time to learn English and get Saritas citizenship. Though quite a challenging period for us, that time has come to an end, we met our goals, made a lot of new friends, had some good family times, and are now going back in Guatemala to resume the ministry there, ministering to the people in the mountainous areas around Zacapa and Chiquimula.