I was born in California in the spring of 1962. My father was in the Navy so we traveled a lot. It seems that we would move every two or three years, and we always seemed to move all the way across the country. We moved from California to Florida, then to Hawaii, then to California, from there to New York, then my dad retired and we moved to Washington State.

I graduated from a small high school where it seemed as though everyone knew each other from grade school (which was a foreign concept for me). I developed a friendship with another kid who was kind of an “outsider” he introduced me to drinking and drugs. In my senior year one of the guys in my welding class got saved and he couldn’t stop talking about God and Jesus.

I was pretty open and he led me to the Lord in his pickup truck in the school parking lot. I remember I had a “glow” in my chest that wouldn’t go away, but there soon came a choice.

I had paid $100 to go on the senior class trip to Canada where we were going to PARTY. I knew that if I went I would lose that feeling. I went to Canada and left God behind.

In 1987 I FINALLY accepted God’s power to quit drugs. HE Saved me.

I started attending church, where three years later, I met an awesome woman who agreed to be my wife. We have been married for over 15 years, and I have two wonderful sons.

I learned to play drums in the late 80’s on my Mom’s drum set, but I remember when I was a kid I would set boxes on my bed and beat them with sticks. It was fun. Mom played semi-professionally in country western bands around the Portland area for many years. Following her legacy, I have played on church worship teams for many years. My mom passed away in 2006, but I had the privilege to introduce her to Jesus before the cancer took her.

My testimony is this: God never stops pursuing our hearts. He doesn’t just want to save us, He wants to take the mess that we have made of our lives and turn it around. He wants to turn our Despair into Hope, our Weakness into Strength, and our Pain into Peace.