After my father's graduation and a brief deputation, our family moved to Chesterfield County, SC., to found the Countryside Baptist Church.  Some years later we moved to Pickens County, SC., and founded the Morning Star Independent Baptist Church.  Although I was a young boy at the time, this would be the beginning of my exposure to church planting.

            At the age of five I made my first profession of salvation. I say "first profession," because there would be several more professions before I came to the knowledge of Christ as Saviour.

            One Sunday in February of 1997, I found myself sitting in church with a good friend of mine. I could not begin to tell you what the message was about that day. I believe that the text was out of the epistle of I Corinthians. The preacher mentioned the imminent return of Christ to rapture His church. I knew enough to know that if one was not saved, he would not be taken in the rapture. Finally, I decided that all I would need to do would be to get saved after I realized the rapture had happened, and it would all be okay. 

            Shortly after devising this brilliant plan, my mind returned to the message. The pastor then began to read II Thessalonians 2:8-12: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

            So much for my foolish plan! I realized that I was gambling my soul’s eternal future for my selfish pride.  I fought the convicting power of the Holy Spirit until the very next morning. It was then that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour.

             During my senior year of high school, I felt the Lord leading me to attend the Maryland Baptist Bible College in Elkton, MD.  I graduated in 2004 with a degree in Pastoral Studies and Christian Education.  After conferring with my Pastor, Dr. Allen Dickerson, I accepted the call as Assistant to the Pastor at Middletown Area Bible Church (Dr. Joseph P. Pagano, Jr.).

           After nearly three years of fruitful service, my wife and I began to feel a call into the Pastorate.  In November of 2006, I was ordained into the gospel ministry, and we began to search for a pastorate.  In February of 2007 I was contacted by Pastor Lee Henise of the Heritage Baptist Church in Manheim, PA.  Pastor Henise planted this work in 2001 with the help of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Denver (Pastor Swietzer) and Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Brogue (Pastor Starr) as well as many other fundamental churches.

             Pastor Henise extended an invitation for us to come on staff and help his church for a time.  It was the desire of all that in God’s timing and plan, another church would be planted someday.  As the ministry at Heritage grew, so did my burden for the Harrisburg area, the place where I had lived and worked for the past five years.  After much prayer and months of waiting, the Lord has allowed us the great honor of planting a church in this growing city.  After a season of deputation, we plan, by God’s grace, to open the doors of Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church in Harrisburg by the fall of 2010 or 2011.