GOD'S CALL UPON MY LIFE

Call to Salvation

I joined the First Baptist Church in Hampton, Georgia as a second grader, was
baptized and became a faithful member. For the next six years (1963-1969) I heard
the Word of God preached on a regular basis, and it did not return void. In the summer
of 1969 Holy Ghost conviction began to take it’s toll upon my life. I had trouble
sleeping at night, because I was convinced that if I should die, at any moment, I would
lift up my eyes in the torments of Hell. On a Monday morning, one week before
entering the ninth grade, I received Jesus as my Saviour, and He made me into a new
creature; old things passed away; all things became new. On that day the Lord gave
me a love for His Word, an intimacy in prayer that I had not previously experienced,
and a desire to share my faith with others.

Call to Service

In 1975, at the age of 20, I began working with the youth of the Calvary Baptist Church
in Hampton, Georgia, under the leadership of Dr. Marlon Thomas.
In 1982 the Lord led me to work as a coach and teacher at the Calvary Baptist School,
and it was there that I first gained a burden for missions in Brazil. That first year at
Calvary, during one of our school chapels, a missionary came and shared that there
were many people along the Amazon who had yet to hear the gospel. God gave me a
real burden and I began to pray that he would call a young person from our church to
take the gospel to people in Brazil. In the summer of 1984 the Lord impressed on my
heart that if I was going to pray for someone to go, then I would have to be willing to go
myself. I then began to pray in the following way: “Lord, call someone from our church,
and if it be thy will, send me.” Three months later the Lord called me to preach and
take the gospel to those who had never heard along the Amazon.