Who is me?

At 7 years old, almost 8,  I attended Ninth & O Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky (when it was on Taylor Blvd) I was in the 2nd grade and attended with my cousin, Eugene, who was the same age as me.

After about a year, at age 8, I accepted the Lord into my life. At 12 years old, I was baptized at Ninth & O Baptist Church. I was the first of my immediate family to go to church. My mom and my younger brother, Kevin, soon started to go. Then my father came a few years later.

I attended Ninth & O for the rest of my youth years. I was heavily involved in the Youth group which was called Heir Force (from the verse Galatians 4:7) I was involved with Bible studies and gatherings in my youth group. Although I was involved alot, I was a quiet one when it came to discussions and question/answers time. My cousin, Eugene, who was the well-known one in our classes was always the talkative one.

After graduating high school in May 1993, I volunteered my time to teach 2nd grade elementary class with my cousin and my aunt. I mainly read stories, asked questions, and made sure the 2nd grade kids understood what was being taught. After the summer, I went to Western KY University for college. I didn’t faithfully attend church because I didn’t always have a ride and the walk to church was long and up-hill.  (Why do you think they call it hilltopper country?)  I did a few chances to attend the Baptist Student Union nights. Whenever I got to go home for holidays, I usually went to Ninth & O with family.

After one year at Western KY University, I came home and decided college was not for me. I went back to volunteer my time at Ninth & O for teaching 2nd grade elementary kids. I volunteered alot with Vacation Bible School, festivals for kids, and other activities.

Shortly after I had came home in 1994, I met up with my wife-to-be and she introduced me to the deaf ministry world. While we was dating, we attended Evangel Deaf Church which was led by Pastor Colin Bruner and Assistant Pastor Brian Timberlake. Keep in mind, I had no education of sign language and only knew a few alphabet signs.  So whatever was being preached or music being interpreted, I had no idea what was being said. Sadly, we didn’t stay at that church long because I didn’t really feel comfortable sitting in a church and not benefiting from it.

In 1994, me and my wife got married in December, we attempted to try Ninth & O Baptist again. But hard as it was, I had to let Ninth & O go because my wife was unable to understand anything.  Then we tried my wife’s home church, South Jefferson Baptist Church, but it didn’t work out either. So for the next several months, we stopped going to church because of the frustration of finding the right one.

During those few months, oh my….God must have been upset and many things were going wrong with our finances, our cars, our home, and etc. So we immediately found a church that would be suitable for our needs. Cedar Creek Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky on North Bardstown Rd had a deaf ministry with interpreting and a wonderful children’s program. My wife could depend on the interpreting, I could lip-read what the pastor was saying, and my son had a children’s class to participate in.  It was at Cedar Creek Baptist Church, in our deaf ministry classroom, that a fellow deaf Christian encouraged me to take up teaching. I guess all those years of being quiet in the classrooms at Ninth & O suddenly had the urge to become outspoken. Johnny Miller encouraged me week after week to take it up. I finally took the courage to teach one class and I became automatically in love with it. After staying a few years at Cedar Creek, we felt the Lord wanting us to move back to Evangel Deaf Church.

In 1996, we moved back to Evangel Deaf Church but found out that it had been moved to Good Shepherd Baptist Church near Outer Loop area. This time, God prepared me all those years at Cedar Creek with learning sign language, i was ready to listen to the Gospel from a pastor of a Deaf church. I remember the first illustration I ever learned which was being preached by Brian Timberlake. It was about sins in our lives. He used a paintbrush as an illustration.  If we paint things and one thistle of the brush sticks out among the rest and messes up the paint job, do we leave it there or remove it? Same as our lives, if we have sin in our lives that prevents us from doing the job that God wants us to do, do we leave the sin there or remove it?  That was the first lesson I learned from a Deaf pastor and will remember it forever. (High Five to Brian!)

We stayed at Good Shepherd for a good 3 years. I led Men’s Bible study group for a short time, led some of the worship music, and did several other things as well. So 1996 was actually the first year that I started my Deaf Ministry volunteer work.    But yet again, the Lord moved us to another church with more opportunities.

In 2000, God moved us to Valley View Church as the first attenders of the worship service with one interpreter, Mary Pearsly.  In February 2000, we became the first deaf members of Valley View Church and God was starting a new deaf ministry as well. Over the next few years, more deaf started to come. We added several new interpreters, deaf Sunday school class, deaf social events, and Sunday evening classes as well.  Our Deaf ministry grew over the next few years and we was blessed to have a great staff that supported the Deaf ministry.

In March 2003, I came forward and surrendered my life for serving our Lord fully into ministry. That day, my pastor who was Kevin Hamm, explained to the entire hearing congregation what the sign for “Praise” was. After sharing this, the entire 2000+ congregation was signing the “Praise” sign. It was so touching to see that and I knew God was leading me into a much better path.

2003 became a very eventful year for me. I was already involved in DeafTeen Quest as the Area Coordinator, which was a deaf teen minsitry and was run locally. In January 2003, I was laid off from my job and God began opening a door that I would be changed by forever. Tim Bender of Louisville Baptist Deaf Church contacted me about an opportunity to pastor a new ministry program that was to be led into a church-planting project.  After a week of praying and seeking God’s guidance,  I accepted the role to pastor the new ministry program of Louisville Baptist Deaf Church. Tim Bender, Bob Ayres, and myself thought up and decided the name Deaf Cafe for the program.

Deaf Cafe was probably the most unique of all my ministry experiences. It was different, it was cool, it was fun, and it was a time for churches to come together and work as a team. The denominational walls came down and we agreed to serve one Lord no matter what church we were a part of. The first Deaf Cafe team had a total of 8 people. Four from Valley View Church Deaf ministry, 3 from Louisville Baptist Deaf Church, and one from Southeast Christian Church. That was a main priority of mine to make sure the community knows that Deaf Cafe belonged to the Lord first and it was shared among the churches as far as team leaders went.  I think that was part of the reason why it was so effective and so well done due to the fact that it was not seen as a “another program under any one denomination”

Over the years with Deaf Cafe, Tim Bender helped to expose the Deaf Cafe ministry and my name to other Deaf churches as well as introduce me to many others at the Southern Baptist Conference of the Deaf.  In the 3 years that I worked with Deaf Cafe, I met many new ministers and Deaf Christians who were eager to learn about the new way of ministry through Deaf Cafe. I was asked to lead workshops in Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan, Kentucky, and Indiana for the idea of the Deaf Cafe ministry. I had been asked to lead music for several Deaf conferences, Deaf revivals, Deaf ministry events at colleges, etc. So in the three years that I was the pastor with Deaf Cafe, I was still the Deaf ministry leader at Valley View Church. God was amazing and using me in awesome ways! But yet God was still moving me…

In 2006, after much prayer and meeting with Tim Bender, God moved me out of leading Deaf Cafe and moved me into a evangelist role.  It was a sad moment on my part but it was a mutual agreement that it was the right time to step out and allow God to further use me in other areas.  One door closed and many others opened shortly after. Immediately, I was asked to lead and preach a Deaf revival in St Louis, Missouri. Then i was asked to lead music for the Missouri Baptist Conference of the Deaf. Then I was asked to lead music and preach at the Mississippi Deaf Cafe event. Then I was asked to led music at our local Kentucky Baptist Conference of the Deaf. But strangely, after the Kentucky Baptist Conference of the Deaf weekend, God did something unexpectedly…

Lets roll back to January 2006. I had stepped out of Deaf Cafe Louisville. I had no other job position other than my volunteer Deaf ministry leader role at Valley View Church. I was invited to attend a Men’s Wild Game Dinner at Southeast Christian Church the end of January with a few other deaf men. Kenneth Benzel, a deaf ministry volunteer at Southeast, encouraged and told me about the Deaf Ministry staff position opening at Southeast. I was amazed that Kenneth would ask me to apply for the position. I hadn’t thought of Southeast. I was thinking and praying for God to move me somewhere for a pastor’s position but never expected Southeast to come into the picture. After getting the application for the position, I didn’t apply right away. I really didn’t apply until April later on in the year. I hadn’t heard nothing from Southeast as I was busy serving God doing evangelism work. The weekend of Kentucky Baptist Conference of the Deaf in May….after my work was done with the conference of leading the music…I received an email from Southeast Christian Church as I was driving home from the conference. It was asking me for an interview the following Tuesday. God works in awesome ways!

That Tuesday, I had an interview. The following Thursday, I had an interview. Two weeks later, I was hired and introduced as the new Deaf minister on staff for Southeast Christian Church Deaf Ministry.  May 23, 2006 was my start date.  And to look back, all those years serving God as a volunteer paid off. It goes to show that if we have faith enough in a vision that God gives us….God will provide on His time.

For five years, I was blessed to lead a Deaf ministry at Southeast Christian Church. We grew from a group of 5 people to about 60 in five years. The main reason for the growth is relational ministry. I have always learned that if you invest in the relationship with others, they will see Jesus in you and want to copy that for themselves. I learned many lessons from my experience being on staff at SCC and I cannot thank God enough for the things that I encountered and learned. The interpreters, the Deaf, the socials, the Bible studies, and the Deaf church were all big blessings. I like to think of SCC as a “mile marker” on the path of where God is bringing me along on. Always looking for the next exit to see what God has in store.

So from May 2006 to May 2011, I worked at Southeast Christian Church serving the Deaf ministry. I had been teaching, preaching, counseling, advising, mentoring, training and helping in all areas possible for the Deaf members or non-members that come our way.

What am I doing now? God has been traveling to various places to evangelize to the Deaf in other areas. I also have picked up on my 212jam concerts as well. God has opened many opportunities for me to use my gifts to the best that He sees fit.

So whole story short…..a quiet little boy may soon become a very outspoken minister in ways that we can’t imagine. Volunteering for things especially in church, will reap the rewards when God sees fit.