Personal Testimony

My interest in caring for people started early. When I was a young boy, I mowed lawns for a lot of widows in Wilmore, Kentucky where I was raised. After I had finished, most of them invited me into their home for a glass of water. Little did I know at the time, a few of them were being comforted by my mere presence. Another thing I remember was delivering papers across the tracks during the Civil Rights Movement, a route no one else wanted at that time. When I traveled to India a year later, the poverty I witnessed there was beyond description, but the needs of the poor were firmly planted there in my heart. Another important component in my overall development was working at a local laundromat, interacting with those who couldn’t afford a washer and dryer.

During these years, I also intentionally deepened my relationship with the black community, a community despised and rejected by men whom I still cherish to this day. Coupled with this, I placed myself on the margins of society during my tumultuous adolescence and young adulthood and experienced the gamut of those emotions, but also started to assist those who were broken like myself. And all of this took place before I became a Christian. What a wonderful grace that precedes one's conversion. (read more...)