God created the heavens and the earth six thousand years ago in six days, and on the seventh day, he said that everything he had created was very good.

Adam and Eve, chose to reject God, trusting instead the word of a crafty serpent in the garden. As a result, all mankind has turned from God which brings with it all the suffering and death in our present lives.

As a sixteen-year-old wandering sheep, the Holy Spirit showed me that I could never be good enough to have a relationship with a Holy God.

I felt the despair of my own inadequacy and was without hope until my Pastor Damon shared with me the words of the true shepherd: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)

I was elated to get healed by my shepherd who loved me and loves you enough to shed his blood to wash away our sins. I trusted that I could be baptized along with my high school sweetheart Ellesha and the Lord joined us together in marriage at the age of eighteen.

The Lord has gifted us with five children: Jonathan, Lael, Samual, Elliana, and Molly. The Lord kept our third child, Samuel, for himself. We are looking forward to going to see Samuel in heaven someday.

Ellesha and I went on a missions trip to Haiti where the Lord convinced me that we should pursue a life of missions in spite of my concerns about providing for our family. As a result, we have been serving in Alaska for the past six years, being predominately involved in missionary aviation, flying native youth and staff to Bible camps, and flying missionaries into villages. In addition, we have had opportunities to serve in aviation maintenance, local outreach, village outreach, Bible camps, and sharing the gospel in our local public schools.

We have learned to not know what to expect, but just follow the Lord’s leading. We have faced raging forest fires, terrible earthquakes, and health emergencies, but the most difficult problems faced on the mission field are interpersonal problems.

How could this happen in a broken world? I wish my shepherd had warned me… oh wait, he might have said something about facing troubles. I just remember the part about us overcoming the world through Him.

My shepherd is teaching me that dedicated service to the Lord is hard work and more than that it is a battle for the very souls of men. The good shepherd led this little flock to Alaska and He is teaching us to stick close to him as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, also known as planet earth.