In 1994 God radically saved me, and called me into full time ministry. At 23 years old I was given a second chance at life. I traveled with the Charlotte Eagles Professional Soccer Club (Missionary Athletes International) to Russia and the Czech Republic, only six months after I gave my life to Jesus Christ. It was on that trip that God spoke to me about my purpose and mission in life. I had a burning passion to show people that God was alive and still working in the hearts of believers today. It was my goal to not build on someone elses foundation but to take the message of Christ into dangerous areas where kids were not being reached.
I started as a intern at Higher Ground Baptist Church in Kingsport, TN. After serving for three years in Kingsport, God called me to go full time with Missionary Athletes International in Chicago, IL. While in Chicago, I got married to my wife Mary Catherine and God gave both of us a burden for the poor and needy refugee communities that were struggling to adapt to our culture. Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Vietnamese, and African refugee families that we worked with were all extremely poor and fighting to recover from the scars of war in their own countries. Most had fled their countries leaving behind everything they held dear, including loved ones that had been killed or left in prisons. What we found were kids that had learned to hate everyone, loved to fight anyone, and thought that no one would dare be brave enough to get close to them. We saw God do amazing things in the lives of those boy’s and girl’s through the four years we served there.
It was then that God called us to Charlotte, NC (Missionary Athletes International) to work in the inner city with at risk kids and lead youth mission trips. I worked with the Charlotte Eagles Pro Soccer Club for five years, and it is there that I developed a relationship with hundreds of Somali Bantu and Vietnamese Montagnard refugee families along with African American and Hispanic at risk youth on the East Side of Charlotte. I went into the gang culture, going after several key leaders hoping to win them over to Jesus Christ. I spent time with drug dealers, gang bangers, refugees and anyone who was labeled “troubled” , “at risk”, or an outcast. We longed to share with the these kids that there was a better life, and a God who had loved them before they were ever created, who had an incredible plan for their lives.