I was born during the depression and raised in a two bedroom frame home along with four brothers and a sister. I learned the lessons of making do with what you had during my cramped but adventurous childhood. We were poor, by today’s standards and probably by the standards then, but we didn’t notice. Growing up on Florida’s central west coast was an adventure that would have made Huck Finn envy.

We were not a church going family but we were not atheists. My father was a hard working fruit picker in my early years but later on became a carpenter and learned the trade so well he became a foreman, then general superintendent for a building contractor. My mother was a housewife who worked harder than anyone I have ever known under conditions that were very austere.

I didn’t learn much about spiritual things as a youth, except by accident through preachers on the radio, which was not much. A friend and I ran away from home at the age of fourteen on our motorcycles and got as far as North Carolina seven days later before being caught. It was quite an adventure since we left Florida in November with just the clothes on or backs. By the time we got to Charlotte, NC we were freezing to death and were glad to be caught.

Quitting high school in the tenth grade, much to the chagrin of my parents who couldn’t do anything with me it seems, I rambled around the south east by hitch hiking for a while then by auto with a couple of friends. We managed to keep from killing ourselves or landing in jail, which in itself was a small miracle, and returned home safely only to discover we had to get jobs as "grown ups."

My father put me to work on his construction crew for a while during the last summer, but not near enough to take it up for a trade, so after learning of my older brother joining the Air Force and getting placed in electronics school, I decided I would try that too. Since I was only 17, I had to get my parents permission to join and they signed the papers making it possible. I put in for electronics and I must have passed the aptitude test, for that is where I landed. This training served me well in the years following the four year enlistment. I also completed my High School education and received a GED diploma.

A beautiful home town girl, Valerie Neale, consented to marry me the last year of my enlistment (only heaven knows why) and after my discharge in Rapid City South Dakota in 1959, we headed back home to Florida where I managed to begin a civilian career in electronics as an Electronic Technician. These were very good jobs for that day and over the ensuing years, being trained by the companies for various and sundry jobs, I eventually became a field engineer. All these jobs helped me to raise my growing family but for some reason, I was not fulfilled. There was a gnawing sense that I was in danger and needed something only God could provide, but being so spiritually ignorant I didn’t have a clue what it could be.

While serving in remote Greenland on the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) I began to try to read the Bible but with no guidance from anyone. Try as I might, I could not understand it nor grasp its message. After completing that contract and taking jobs in the states for a year or so, I again contracted to return to Greenland on the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line project. It was there, on the ice cap of Greenland on a remote, lonely RADAR station that I began to think in earnest about what my life meant. We were official weather observers as well as RADAR and Radio technicians and observing the weather on those long winter nights and gaping in awe at the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) as it painted the blackened sky with its almost hypnotic motion and strange but beautiful colors, (It was directly overhead in this area of the world) I would cry out to God to let me know Him and would ask Him what I was to do with my life, besides just raising my family.

I returned home briefly, for the birth of my second son. Then shortly after returning to Greenland after his birth, I got word that my father had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He was terminal, but fortunately for him and the rest of the family his brother was a Christian and brought his pastor to visit with my father and led him to Christ, about one year before he died. When my contract ended I returned home from Greenland to find him very close to death. But he shared with me how he was saved. I didn't understand how it happened and he was too sick to attempt a detailed explanation. But after his funeral, officiated by the pastor who led him to Christ, I was saved by my Lord too, as was my wife. This was in April of 1965.

The Lord transformed my life. We had a third son born to us while I was employed at Cape Canaveral (Kennedy), Florida working on the Apollo Program. I was called to preach with a very clear call in 1967. Upon the advice of my pastor, I began my preparation for the ministry by enrolling in Houston Baptist University to get a BA degree. Since the Manned Space Center was located near Houston, I was able to transfer my employment to that location and continue working to put myself through college. So I worked full time and went to school full time, even summers, completing the requirements for a BA degree in three years. During this time, I was blessed to be able to serve as Associate to the Pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston, TX. This brief two years was some of the best training I ever had while serving under my Pastor, Dr. Don R. Carroll, who still remains one of my dearest friends to this day.

Quitting my job, I moved to Jacksonville, FL for my Seminary training at Luther Rice Seminary in 1971. I was immediately called to be pastor of the First Baptist Church of Baldwin, FL. The Lord permitted me to serve Him in this church while continuing my education. I earned my Th.M degree in two years. During this ministry we baptized over 100 souls and I learned the practical aspects of being a pastor. Also during this time, three people answered the call to full time Christian service.

In 1974 I was called to Central Baptist Church of Brandon, FL. We baptized on average 50 souls each of the six and one half years I was there and of those converts, 22 men answered the call to full time Christian service. I continued my studies at Luther Rice Seminary and completed my Doctor of Ministry degree. Also, it was during this period of ministry that I was elected Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention, in Houston, TX at the 1979 convention. I served with Dr. Adrian Rogers who was elected as the President of the SBC that year. My ministry at Central Baptist Church was very fruitful indeed.

In 1981, Whitehall Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio called me as senior pastor. This ministry got off to a very good start, but quickly turned into the saddest chapter of my life. My precious wife took ill with pancreatic cancer and died on the day before Mother's Day in 1983. I was devastated. We were deeply in love and had a wonderful life and ministry together. Our three sons were nearly all grown, one had already married, one was graduating from High School that year, and one was freshman in High School. I could not function adequately as pastor so I resigned the church in July 1983.

Since that time I have been remarried and inherited two lovely adopted daughters in the process. I have been active as an Evangelist, Revivalist, Conference Speaker and Teacher since 1983. However, I was blessed to be used by my Lord to assist in starting two churches, serve as interim pastor on several occasions and do mission work in Korea, Indonesia, Haiti and Jamaica and India. We are beginning a Pastor Training Institute for untrained but hard working pastors of India Gospel Ministries.

We moved to our current location in 2002. I call my itinerant ministry Good Word Ministries. I am currently writing, supply preaching, teaching and doing Revivals to continue my ministry. However, I am earnestly praying that the Lord will allow me to expand this ministry so I will be running full tilt when He calls me home.

My Lord has gifted me with the ability and desire to teach and proclaim His Word and I want to spend my days doing that using every opportunity at my disposal. I covet your prayers for this ministry and stand ready to assist any and all in understanding our Lord’s everlasting Gospel.