About Me
History and Testimony (Histimony?)
My story starts in San Diego, California where I was born into a loving but non-christian home. When I was 3, a friend invited me to AWANA and apparently, I came home one evening and told my dad he needed Jesus. After my parents got saved, we started regularly attending Horizon Christian Fellowship. At age 5, I understood the Gospel for the first time and I trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior. In my adolescent years, my family attended Horizon and The Rock where I served in infant, toddler, 1st-4th grade, music, and video ministry. When I was 15, our family moved to The Chapel at Grossmont, where I played on the worship team and grew to lead worship after high school. Even though I grew up homeschooled, in AWANA, and serving the local church, it wasn’t until I reached high school, and going through an incredible hardship, I was challenged at AWANA camp to truly follow Christ by giving my all to Him, and engage in the beautiful work of sanctification God desired in my life. I started experiencing significant spiritual growth. Looking back, God’s work was evident in my life as He used experiences like being the only caucasian athlete at my school, living in culturally diverse neighborhoods of San Diego, and serving in various areas of the local church body to develop my heart to reach all people, churched or unchurched, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I graduated high school in 2006 as a top recruit in the state for both football and academics while also receiving an AWANA Citation Award. Despite being accepted to the top schools in the nation, I decided to stay close to home and my family - I am the oldest of 12 children - and attend San Diego State University. My freshman and sophomore years of college saw the end of my football career and I was left seeking God with what to do with my life. In the spring of 2008 I was called to a 12 week summer mission trip to Vietnam that changed my life. While sitting on the rooftop of our hotel playing guitar and spending time with God, I felt Him impressing on my heart a life of ministry. I didn’t know what that meant, but when I returned to the States, I ended up switching majors and looking for ways to impact SDSU for Christ. By God’s providence, that fall I joined the Christian fraternity, Alpha Gamma Omega, and spent my remaining college years doing cross cultural campus ministry and reaching the lost at SDSU.
After graduating SDSU in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Communication and minor in Religious Studies, I started working full time corporate jobs, dancing West Coast Swing, and seeking ways to explore this heart for ministry. I was still leading worship at The Chapel at Grossmont when in 2012 God opened the door to serve Him as a lay-youth pastor there. On the two year anniversary of our weekly high school ministry meetings, God answered my prayers in unexpected ways as I was laid off from my corporate job and was able to devote my attention to ministry.
While travelling and competing in West Coast Swing, I met my future wife, Samantha, who I eventually married in November of 2015. She grew up in small towns throughout Northern California, spending the most time in Chico, CA. She came to know Christ when she was 6 years old, and grew up in the church. She eventually attended Azusa Pacific University and graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts and a minor in Ceramics.
By the grace of God, in July 2015, I started work on a Masters of Arts in Christian Ministry from Southern California Seminary, and graduated in 2017. God has blessed us with 3 children: Lincoln (4), Liberty (2), and Amelia (0). By God’s will, Liberty’s birth ushered our family into the disabled community as she was born with spinal dysplasia, more specifically a condition called Achondroplasia, commonly known as dwarfism. Her disability has opened doors of ministry previously unimagined. While at The Chapel at Grossmont I had the opportunity to work with the mentally disabled and it is exciting to see how the Lord has grown my heart for cross-cultural and cross-demographic ministry to include both the physically and mentally disabled. Through the education and experience the Lord has given me, He has graciously knit together my life to lead and disciple our local church to reach out to our diverse community with the Gospel.
We are grateful to the Lord for His merciful gift of salvation and His continued work in our lives. He has prepared me, brought Samantha and I together in marriage, blessed us with 3 beautiful children, and has continued to affirm my call to pastoral ministry in service to His kingdom. I have been blessed to be used by God to encourage His people in loving Him, loving others, and making disciples to do the same. We rest in Him, knowing He has sustained us in every season and will continue to guide our future. We are thankful to the Lord for the work He has done in our lives and are excited to serve him together in the future!