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I was born in Atlanta, Georgia 9 September 1955. My father was a career Infantry officer in the United States Army and my mother stayed at home doing her best to raise 4 boys and a girl during my father’s frequent absences during times of war and peace! They were loving parents. I grew up believing that God existed but that was the extent of my religious beliefs. I otherwise had no need for God. I was raised though with a strong sense of right from wrong and duty to one’s country. Thus, I like my father, decided on a career in the military. I was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York with the intent of becoming an airborne, ranger infantryman and fight our country’s wars! I graduated in 1977 but my plans, as I was to find out, were not God’s plans! His plans were far greater and exciting! But first I had to come to know Him as my Lord and Savior.
God brought my wife, Cathy Pickett, into my life and used her to bring me to Him! Cathy and I met early in our sophomore years in college and after a 3 year long distance courtship (she was in North Carolina and I was at West Point!) we were married after our graduations on 25 June 1977. Cathy had accepted Christ while in high school and through her I began to attend church though initially very infrequent as I was busy pursuing all my “goals” in life. Again, I believed God existed but I had no need for Him as my upbringing and West Point training had taught me that I could do anything on my own. After 3 years on active duty serving in Germany, I was accepted to medical school (a change in heart that I now recognized was from God!) and I attended the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama on an Army scholarship. I graduated in 1984 and subsequently completed my residency in Internal Medicine in Augusta, Georgia at Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center in 1987.
The next many years were very busy starting and raising a family of 3 boys – Chris, Vaughan and David while serving at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. It was here that for the first time I began to attend church regularly with the initial encouragement of Cathy of course! I now know that God was planting seeds in my heart but the harvest did not occur for many more years!
Once I completed my military obligation I chose to leave the Army so that we could raise our family in one place and not move year after year as I had done growing up. We moved to Burlington, NC (how we got here is another God story!) in 1992 and I joined a large multi-specialty group called Kernodle Clinic and have been there ever since. We started attending a large local church and in 1993 at the urging of my wife I started a year long Bible study through the church with her called Disciple Bible Study. I was willing to do this as I was beginning to recognize that despite all my success in life thus far that there was still something missing. Plus, the pressures of life were unraveling my sense of being able to do everything myself. This was the first time I had ever done a Bible study of any kind! God used this study to finally open my eyes and heart to Him! He began an incredible work in me and during that study I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior.
In 2004, Andy Sanders, to my surprise, asked me to consider becoming a GHO team leader. I lead my first mission to El Salvador in 2005 and God through GHO has given me the honor and privilege of now leading 3 teams a year! Through these missions I have been so blessed and God has grown me so much spiritually that I have a passion to reach the least and lost of the world with the incomparable love, joy and hope that is Christ Jesus. As a team leader, God has also given me a passion for the team itself! My desire as the leader is to create an environment for the team that is conducive to rapid team bonding and individual spiritual growth. In this way I feel each person can go out each day and love and serve our neighbor even better with the love of Christ. As a team, there is much emphasis on team praise and worship, devotions, testimonies and sharing each day. These are wonderful times for the team itself and I believe make GHO missions unique.
I thank God for the opportunity to serve with GHO but especially to be used by Him for the most exciting work of all – His redemptive Kingdom work!
As a team leader, my foremost desire is to create an atmosphere for the team members during our time together that will foster team bonding and spiritual growth. I emphasize specific times each morning and evening for praise and worship, testimonies and devotions and finally opportunities for sharing how God is touching the team during the week. I believe that God will use this time to prepare each member's heart so that the team can better go out every day and serve others with the love of Christ. God has taught me many things but one of the most important, I believe, is that though He wants us to reach out to our neighbor to meet their medical needs as best possible, He wants most of all that we reach out with the love of Christ so each and every person can see that love in us and feel that love from us. What a wonderful way to spread the Good News! I look forward with great anticipation and excitement to leading more GHO missions and I invite you to join me or any team. Please know you do not have to have any medical background. You only need a servant heart and a love for others! I promise you will be joyfully busy!
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