My wife, Vinnie, and I started sending our only son, Tim, to church on a church bus when he was six years old. When he was eight years old, he made a profession of faith. Because we later moved to a different area near First Baptist Church of Milford where Dr. Charles Keen served as pastor, we sent Tim to First Baptist on one of their buses. Vinnie and I, however, did not attend. When Tim was in sixth grade in a public school, the school planned to pass him to the next grade even though he had failing grades. As a result, we removed him from the public school system and enrolled him in a Catholic school. Before he started there, my wife heard about a Christian school associated with First Baptist Church of Milford. Milford Christian Academy subsequently accepted Tim, even though we were not saved. Little did we know that the entire church started praying for our salvation and continued to do so for nine years.
In October of 1984, Rev. Ed Bragg, principal of the school, invited us to attend the twentieth anniversary Sunday at First Baptist Church. Since I was a golfer and a drinker, I did not want to go because I played golf and drank all day on Sundays. Vinnie insisted that I could give up my routine for one day. I had no idea she had been wanting to go to church for a long time. The special speaker for the day was Dr. Curtis Hutson. When Vinnie hurt her toe that morning, I did everything I could to convince her to let me take her to see a doctor so I would not have to go to church. But, she was determined to go. As I listened to Dr. Hutson preach about hell, I was scared to death. During the invitation time, we raised our hands to indicate that we needed to be saved and then went forward to the altar with Rev. Bragg and his wife, where they led us to the Lord. I was thirty-seven years old when I accepted Christ.
In 1985, Vinnie and I surrendered to go to the field of Australia as missionaries. In preparation for ministry there, I attended the School of Scriptures, graduating after three years. We immediately started deputation and were on the field by December of 1989. During the first six months in Australia, I worked with Hershel Case. When the Cases returned to the States for their furlough, I took over the Fellowship Baptist Church in Brisbane, Australia. Vinnie and I remained at Fellowship Baptist until 1999 during which time the church was able to purchase a building. When we left Australia for our furlough in the States, I left the church in the hands of a national pastor.
My wife and I returned to Australia in 2000 and settled in a city named Toowoomba. We started a church there with two other families. During our eight years there, we experienced many blessings and saw church growth. One of the families that started with us even surrendered to go to the Philippines as missionaries. They did one term there and then returned to Australia where the husband is now pastoring a church. Another man, Tim Bunch, who was our song leader and active church worker, had always felt God was calling him to be a pastor. I prayed and worked with him for eight years, during which time I saw much spiritual growth in his life. In March of 2009, we of Garden City Baptist Church transfered the leadership over to him and returned to the States for our furlough.
In July of 2010, Vinnie and I returned to Australia once again. We took over a work that had already been started by an American missionary who was leaving the field. It was a small work in the Brisbane area where we had our own building about one hour from the city in a small area called Mt. Crosby, Queensland. We looked forward to what God was going to do there and had the same goal for this church that we had had for the other two—to find an Australian to train in order to turn the church over to him in the future. Unfortunately, our goal did not come to pass. We had to return to America in 2012 because of the dollar exchange and economy. The cost of living was rising, and the American dollar was becoming very weak. It was a hard and sad decision for us to make because Australia was our home. Because of our age, we decided to retire from the mission field but not from the Lord’s work.
We now live in Georgia, where I have been asked to teach in the Bible college at Bible Baptist Church in Brunswick this fall. I have also been working in the prison ministry and have seen many saved. Vinnie is working in a children’s ministry this summer. God is not finished with us. We look forward to what He has planned for our future.
