God blessed me with a wonderful Christian family growing up. Both my mother and father were faithful members of the Lord's church when I was born in 1946 in Greenville, S.C. In 1952 my father started working at TVA in Western Ky., so we moved to the Paducah area where I lived until age 16. Our entire family(two sisters as well) moved to Gallatin, Tn. in 1963 where I graduated from Gallatin High School. It was here I made the decision to attend David Lipscomb College and study for the ministry.
While at Lipscomb I preached during my junior and senior years at a small congregation called Birdwell''s Chapel in Cottontown, Tennessee. Having met a brother from Malaysia in that time period, I was influenced to go to Malaysia after my B.A. work and spend two years on the mission field in Penang, Malaysia, under the oversight of a church in Calvert City, Ky. from 1968-1970. I then returned to Memphis to audit classes at HGSR for a year and worked as song director/associate minister at E. Frayser Church of Christ on a part-time basis. I also worked with an insurance company which told me of a chance to work in their Honolulu branch. I moved to Honolulu in November of 1971, but instead I found alternative work a with a jewelry store owned by a brother in Christ as I attended the Keeaumoku St. congregation for two years.
It was while living in Hawaii that upon return to Nashville to visit my parents I met Cherry Powers, with whom I corresponded and eventually married in 1974 after moving back to Nashville in 1973 to become youth director for the Una church of Christ. I also went back to school at night to get certified in six social studies areas to teach high school. From 1975 to 2002 I taught continuously in three Christian high schools in the Nashville area. In 1980 an opportunity came open to preach with the Pleasant Hill Church of Christ, where I worked for 22 years part-time while teaching and for the last ten years full time since my retirement from school teaching in 2002.
In 1987 I received my Master's in history at MTSU in Murfreesboro, Tn. and went on to study in the Ed. D. program at Tennessee from 1988 to 1998. In all, I completed 51 graduate hours from TSU while at the time also working with TUA to get a D.Min. degree that was granted in 1998. During the years from 1967 to 2012, God has allowed me to preach the Gospel in some 18 foreign countries while having traveled in 85 nations. I speak fluent French, which I taught in high school for 20 years, and from 2004 to 2008 I recorded 204 sermons in French with Restoration Radio as well as several English programs.
The work here at Pleasant Hill for the past 32 years(total) has been a wonderful minsitry, with kind and caring brethren and wise elders to lead the way . It is our hope one day to be in a new building on 5.49 acres of land which we have bought in a much more visible part of our community.
It has been a distinct pleasure to teach as a teacher with TUA, and I trust God will give me many more opportunities to work in His vineyard.