I am a Christ-follower, banjo-picker, coffee lover, fell-walker, fly fishermen, emerging poet, and an old soul. If life is anything, it is this Story in which we walk. May my life be a page, where the Author’s words are written ever so deeply, ever so clearly, and ever so true to the theme of His redeeming and steadfast love. I live thus keeping Eternity before my eyes, the earth below my feet, and home within my heart. I am the beloved son of a loving Heavenly Father reconciled through Christ Jesus and I live to love Him and seek His kingdom first.
I grew up the oldest of 12 siblings in a loving Christian family in Opelika, Alabama. I knew Christ as my Saviour at the age of 5, but only truly began following Him when I was 14. He proved His faithfulness to me through trial and adversity, instilled in me a love for His word, gifted me a soul that longed to walk intimately with Him, and a grew in me a heart for the lost. Before first coming to Teeside for a week in 2023, I was not open to doing ministry. I was just going to follow the “normal track” —go to college, get a good job, raise a family, read the Bible a few minutes a day, perhaps teach a Bible study, go to church, drink coffee, and then stack chairs— and live a comfortable Christian life, however the Lord had better plans. What I thought was just going to be a fun one-week mission trip to the UK with my youth group turned into the beginning of a new story.
“It was if my soul had come home” were the only words I had to describe it. I know now that God was then stirring in my heart two very simple yet profound things: a burden for the lost and a love for Northern England. I already knew the call of the Great Commission, yet here in Teeside was the place where the burden, the love, and the call met. Long story short, after graduating high school in 2024, here I am in Stockton-on-Tees doing a ministry gap year with Tees Valley Youth for Christ. Such is the story that is unfolding day by day, mercy by mercy, and coffee by coffee, God’s work of redemption here in the Tees Valley. I do not count myself as one who is to be considered especially “great” or “effective” in ministry, only as one who found hope in the Lord’s calling to step out in faith and love where they are. This is the way of the Kingdom.
One of these days I would quite enjoy a cabin on some rural land, far out in the hills, beyond the hustle and bustle and noise of the city, but here and now I delight, for the Lord’s heart is beating in Teeside, His Spirit is stirring, and there is not just good work, but great things to be done here in Jesus name. I am blessed because the Lord found it fitting that I should walk with Him, not just over Alabama red clay, but over the Yorkshire moors and down the council estate streets of Stockton, a glorious path and one that leads homeward. May the Tees Valley someday mean “such the place where God moves mightily, mercifully, and with love beyond translation”. There are yet many who need to hear the Gospel, many mountains to be climbed, many hearts to be restored, many souls to be awakened, many songs to be sung, many paths to be walked, many coffees to be made, and many mercies to be seen. So step out, trust the Lord is leading you along an ever increasingly glorious Way, and remember you are His beloved And this I know, if heaven is a home, someone left the porchlight on.
