My Call

God saved me at the age of nineteen from a horrific past filled with selfish desires and vain conceits. Shortly, after God saved me the man who explained the Gospel to me came to me and told me now that I was a Christian I should share my faith with others. He gave me two books on the subject of witnessing, ten tracts and told me he would follow up in a few weeks to see if I had handed out the tracts. I was scared to death! I didn’t want to talk with anyone. What if they said no? What if they asked a question I couldn’t answer? What if they punched me in the face? These and other questions raced through my mind. One morning at 5:30 I was up early doing my devotions and God began to convict me over not handing out any tracts, I flippantly told God that if He wanted me to hand out tracts than someone had to be out in the hall when I opened the door. Remember its 5:30am! I opened the door and at the far end of the hall sat a young man named Sundip, a Buddhist from Nepal. I was blown away. I forced myself to walk down the hallway in order to give him a tract, and when I got close, I nervously with hand shaking asked, “If he had ever received a Gospel tract.” He said no, and thanked me for giving him one. I ran out the door into the early morning air. I was ecstatic! I had actually done it! I had handed out a tract and lived to tell about it! I was filled with excitement at being used by God to share His name. This feeling of excitement led me to go out witnessing with the man who was teaching me. Week after week I would hit the streets and share my faith. These times strengthened and encouraged me in my walk with the Lord. I grew closer to God through these times of witnessing than most people do in a lifetime.

After I had been witnessing on the streets for a number of months, a young man came and spoke at church and talked about missions. He shared that there were 1.6 billion people who had never heard the name of Christ. He said that every week in South Asia, alone, 220 million people die without ever hearing the name of Christ. This sentenced haunted me. I went to lunch afterwards, sitting in a cafeteria which holds 6,000 students and I couldn’t help but think that we weren’t even proportionate to the number of people dying every week who had never heard the story of Christ. God placed a burden on my heart that day. This God placed burden propelled me to travel to the Amazon region of Brazil. I slept in in a hammock, lived on a boat, bathed in the Amazon River in order to share the Gospel message with those lost in Brazil. This God placed burden propelled me to work with the International population at Liberty University. I taught English, basketball and the Bible to Asian students who had never heard the name of Christ. This God placed burden propelled me to Varanasi, India in the middle of the summer where the average temperature was 115 degrees in the shade, in order to share Jesus with others. This God placed burden is what sends my wife and I to Ghana, Africa. We desire to train an army of national pastors and church planters who will raise up the name of Christ around the country of Africa!  A burden for the lost and a passion for God’s glory is what sends my wife and I to the nations!