The summer that I turned 12 was one of the worst. By then, my dad had returned home for a few months but was still drinking heavily. Our car had been repossessed and we were living in a rented, run-down mobile home in Charlotte, N.C. My parents discovered that my mom was pregnant. Dad was not happy.  On August 3rd, he came home and with slurred, drunken speech, announced that he wasn’t going to have another baby. He stated that he was going to take my mother into the bedroom and kill her. He began beating her and throwing her around the small trailer’s living room. When she was on the floor, he kicked her so forcefully that each kick thrust her body forward on the floor and then into the narrow hallway leading to the bedroom at the end of the hall. Afraid, I ran to my bedroom and grabbed a .410 gauge shotgun, a gift from the previous Christmas since I loved to hunt.  As my dad passed the doorway, I told him to stop. Mom was still crumpled in the floor. Dad was holding her wrists, still kicking her with each step.  I was in the corner of the room with the gun pointed at my dad. He dropped my mother’s wrists and walked toward me. The next thing I remember is seeing smoke roll from the end of the barrel of the gun, blood splatter everywhere, my dad grab his face and then fall forward on my feet.  I ran from the room. In minutes many neighbors, the police, an ambulance and TV crews arrived.

My mom and I were taken to the Juvenile Division of the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) Police Department. We sat in a room with two detectives for hours telling of past events with my dad and everything that led up to the incident that day. I was then asked to sign a statement saying that I understood that I was being charged with 1^st degree murder. Until that moment I didn’t realize that my dad was dead. That night I was released into my mom’s custody.

A couple of weeks later I returned and was introduced to a man named Rick Hulse. He asked about every detail of the day that dad died. I answered every question. After the meeting I was told that he was the prosecuting attorney and that he had determined that my actions were in self defense. He decided not to try the case in court and would drop the charge against me. It was a huge relief to hear the news, but this was the point where my life began to spiral out of control. Within months I had become an extremely rebellious teen. I began smoking and dabbling into drugs. My friends encouraged all the wrong things and I was headed in a deadly direction.

By the time I was 16, we had moved to Concord, N.C.  The Youth Pastor from a local church began to visit me. He became like a big brother. One day he asked me to come to camp with the church youth group. This event changed my life. On the second night at camp, I responded to an altar call to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I felt I had nothing to offer. I was a rebellious, hard-headed 16 year old who had quit school in the 10^th grade. I remember the minister saying that God had a plan for my life - but how could He? I was a mess.

As the week at camp wore on, I felt the call of God very strongly on my life. I told God that I was His and that if He wanted to use me, do it. Through a series of what I know to be God’s amazing hand at work, I finished high school, then applied and was accepted at a Bible College. While I was in college, my youth pastor took a position as pastor at a church in Macon, Georgia. He asked me to come work with him. While there, I learned from him and his wife what a Godly marriage is and how a man should love and treat his bride. 

Jumping forward to now, I know that God has been so faithful to me. He has allowed me to build and manage a network of Christian radio stations throughout the southeast. I have been married to a wonderful, Godly woman for nearly 25 years. We serve in ministry together. We have one child, Kellan. He is a junior at a Christian university.   For the last five years He has allowed me to serve as one of the staff ministers at First Baptist North Spartanburg.

 While I know that God has brought me a long way, I know that I am nothing without Him. I am so blessed and undeserving of the goodness that He has shown me.

I would spend the night at my grandmother’s a lot on the weekend. I started going to church with her and became active in the youth there. On one Sunday in June of 1970 at my Grandmothers church, I felt it was time for me to turn over my being stubborn and independent and ask the Lord into my heart to guide me. I asked God to forgive me of my sins and to come into my heart. After I prayed I felt calmness and a peace in my life that I had been searching for in all the wrong places. I was not as adventurous in the next couple of years until I moved out on my own. I started being independent and relying on myself with out God’s guidance. I did a lot of thing in my youth, experimenting with drinking alcohol and running with a crowd of people that were not Christians. It became easier to stay out late on Saturday night at a party than going to church on Sundays. I met my husband and two years later we were married. We started going back to church occasionally.

We moved to Texas where we had no family and we had to depend on each other and God. My daughter was born there. We went through a lot with her because she was 5 weeks premature. She was truly a blessing from God. Her birth made me realize that I was blessed and I needed to return that blessing through my actions to others and serving God more. We moved to Mississippi, then back to home. We started attending (New Pisgah) FBNS in 1985. My husband developed cancer twice during his life before he died. God was faithful through everything we went through. My husband passed away when my daughter was 13. She attended church here and was saved as a youth. She joined the orchestra when she was in Jr. High and played several different instruments. She was at the Twin Trees performance singing when her father died. I had the comfort of the Lord and fellow Christians here to get us through all the years of loss, trials and heartache. God has been faithful to me through the hard times and has blessed me though being a volunteer for Guardian Ad Litem. This has changed how I feel about serving others and has filled up the void in my life of missing my daughter because she moved to New York this past January. I do find comfort and strength from the Lord, and I have made friends that help throughout the singles ministry here.

While I was in college my mother was diagnosed with cancer. At first I was in denial, but as the reality started to set in for me, I became very angry and upset. On the other hand, my mother was always optimistic and showed a supernatural strength that I did not understand. Through her sickness, we started going to church. As I started watching my mother and seeing her strength, I began to understand where that strength was coming from. My mother had given complete control of her life over to Jesus. After making this realization, I began to realize that the only thing that could give me that strength and fill the void in my life was Jesus Christ. So, one Sunday morning in 1995, I gave my life completely to Jesus Christ and made Him Lord and Savior of my life.

By inviting Jesus into my life I was given a strength like no other. I can tell you that when my mother passed away in 1996, I don’t know how I could have made it through if not by the power of Christ. Jesus has given me more self confidence because I know that Jesus created me and He doesn’t make mistakes. I understand that everything that I am given is a gift. He has given me a beautiful, loving wife and 2 beautiful children. The gifts that He has given me are far greater than anything that the world can give. My priorities are far different than they used to be. My personal relationship with Christ and my family are the top priorities in my life. I can’t imagine how I would get through life without Christ in my heart.

But God had a plan for me because when I was pregnant with my 2nd child He moved us right beside a Baptist preacher. He and his wife started inviting us to their church. We did start visiting and I realized that if I were to die I wouldn’t go to Heaven because the only way to get to Heaven is by asking Jesus to come into my heart and live for Him, and I had never done that. I heard of God’s forgiveness and love and I knew that I needed a Savior! I probably said the sinner’s prayer 3 or 4 times just to make sure I was saved. I remember asking God to show me who Jesus is because I didn’t know Him. I only knew of Him. I realized that if I had died when I had cancer I would not have gone to Heaven. Even though I had faith in God and thought I would have - I didn’t know Jesus. My life started changing and God changed my desires. I had a very strong desire to study God’s word and pray. But…as I mentioned a life without Jesus and bad choices has consequences.

I went through a divorce 12 years later due my husband’s addictions. This was the hardest thing that I had ever been through…the emotional pain was much harder than even the physical pain I had experienced from cancer. But God gave me many promises and was so very faithful to me and carried me through this. And He has used my pain and tears to minister to many others. God gave me a verse many years ago - Jer. 29:11: “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. ” He just wants us to seek Him first with all of our heart! I am now married again to a wonderful, godly, humble, selfless man. I have great kids and loving godly friends. My life is full of joy and peace! God is faithfuil!! Do YOU trust Him? I do!!!

By God’s grace I learned to walk again, play sports and do most anything I wanted, but I still did not know what would happen if I died. One Thursday evening in September 1975 I attended a revival service at a local church. I had been to this church several times that week; God’s Holy Spirit led me to go forward and pray and ask forgiveness for my sin. I had prayed before, but this time it was different. I knew that God was real. I had peace for the first time ever.

As a Christian I have a new vision of life and who God is. It has now been 35 years since the accident and there have been many challenges. God is faithful to do what the Bible says He will do. He has used my artificial leg as an open door to share His love. Many people ask “How did you lose your leg?” Each time it is an opportunity to tell of His love. Sometime I think what if I had two good legs, then I remember that everything happens for a reason. We must not dwell on things that we cannot change, but trust God daily for His will for our life. I have much to be thankful for. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife; her name is Kathy. She loves God and He uses her to share His love with others. She has the ability to communicate with anyone in any situation. God places us where we should be at the right time, His time. Miracles happen. Tell your story…someone needs to hear.