Hey my name is Thomas… (First Fact)
I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina at the age of 0.. Grew up in a small town right outside of Charlotte called Harrisburg, North Carolina until I was 8. I was blessed with great Christian parents and an awesome childhood. I remember we had a long dirt road behind our house and decent sized backyard growing up, so the inside of that house is more of a blur. I always tried to hang out with my brother, Tim and his friends growing up so I quickly became their guinea pig in attempt to be cool! My zeal for adventure and Evil Kneivel status and tastes for fine cuisine such as cat food, leaves and whatever grows on the back of a box turtle shell were well worth the price of running around with the 8 year-olds. I also developed a love for music and sports at this time, I took piano lessons from since before I can remember and started growing to love the sound of any instrument and we were always throwing and catching pop flies, kicking soccer balls at each other or shooting hoops with our oldest brother, Steve.
One of the funnier memories I can think of is when we got in trouble, which was probably every other day, sometimes dad would pull out the belt and take us into the back, hit the side of the bed with the belt and then carry us out as we pretended to cry in order to strike fear into the whoever was on deck. Needless to say, I never really perfected the fake cry, for those who know me best I laugh at anything and pretty much all the time. Anyways that’s the brief version of the 1-8 saga, here’s the old house and a littler version of me…
Turn Head to the LEFT = Sideways Picture |^|
So then mom got the call to become a preacher and we were off to the Bluegrass State. Mom went to Asbury Theological Seminary to get her pastor degree and we lived in Wilmore, Kentucky for a year before we moved an hour away to Chaplin, Kentucky… You have probably never heard of it! Great place, but the tiniest town in the history of geography. Here’s the reasoning, you know how your grandparents talk about how school was uphill both ways and the entire grade consisted of 10-15 people? Well, my entire class/grade consisted of 13 students. Anyways the synopsis is going to go on fast forward a little bit, crazy things start to happen, girls began to look beautiful and I started to begin to start this whole questioning, yearning for something Greater in my life quest. So stop and insert a Jesus Party right here. Things are looking up… Anyways things continue to do this whole roller coaster questioning, the kind of I do what I want because I am the man kind of mentality.
But sappy, cool story, Tim falls in love with Lydia, one of the 13 students I told you about, when we were in the fourth grade. To put it shortly, some Nicholas Sparks story later, they are married now expecting their first kid. Here is a picture of the two of them… Insert some Aww’s.. Can you say Corey and Topanga?
So four years later, we are back packed up in the Uhaul moving back to where we currently reside now in good ol Catawba, North Carolina. Not an easy move. When you come from a tiny place to another slightly bigger tiny place, disaster happens. So I hit this small spell of depression. Twelve years old and still in the mentality of everything is about ME. Anyways started making some friends, things get back on track. During this time you can insert another Jesus Party… Things click! That was it, no longer ME, I am HIS. Not saying things didn’t get bumpy, but the conscience was definitely at work and I had a purpose. So I make it through Bandys High School, playing basketball with the best friend Timmy all day every day non stop, even meet and date the first puppy dog love girlfriend and somewhere along the way I became some completely outgoing, sarcastic,probably annoying at some times nice guy.. I somehow graduate Saludatorian and got to give some speech about eBay, toilets and high school. Not sure what the point was anymore but it had a moral. So then with a Naval ROTC scholarship I was off to the home of the Wolfpack, North Carolina State University. GO PACK!!
So College, lasted a year in ROTC, remember I said I laugh at everything? Well the whole yelling thing, had me laughing a lot! My dreams of breaking the sound barrier and taking off of an aircraft carrier began to fade a little. Flying; however, did not. My passion for soaring skyward kept going and I got to the point I soloed in a Cessna 152 ->
I met some of my best friends and closest relationships in college. However, I also fell into some worldly ways and would slide back from time to time, I have learned that life is a windy road and truly living out life as Christ did is a huge journey and I am still guilty of slipping from time to time, but the thing I have found is that I can keep Jesus as my focus and things always come back around. Not saying that I’m on a wrecking ball mission, but I had to find out that with help I can become the person I want to represent. During college, I found an AWESOME small group and an AMAZING church in Vintage 21 and continued to find ways to make friends and have fun, got to go on a inner city mission trip to Chicago that would leave me with life-long friends… And back in Raleigh we had slurpee races and would go to the Waffle House every Monday at 12 after fasting and praying for the NC Universities…. Crazy times
True story, we invented a Waffle House game didn’t really have rules or a scoring system but it did allow me the opportunity to race our waitress around the outside of the Waffle House and have a dance off inside.. video included so you will believe me! and I think my dance skills have became better since then.. haha (You can see below)
During the summers I got hooked up with Quaker Lake Camp in Climax, North Carolina. This place completely turned my life upside down! It grew me spiritually and I learned a lot about myself with some of the best people I could have asked for… A few pictures to show you what I mean…
So I found out, I love kids and making a fool out of myself and somehow I learned that big things were in store. So, going into my last semester of college, I applied for the January 2011 World Race, got accepted but then had to decline due to first of all school and then some so called “appetites” that I allowed to get in the way. But I graduated college in December of 2010 with a major in Marketing and a minor in Ancient Greek, really taking me places =]
I set out to find something to occupy my time but kept coming back to the World Race. I signed up to go to Passion 2011 in Atlanta with some of the people through my bible study and camp and the event just straight up WrEcKed me.. After hearing Andy Stanley’s talk on “appetites”, see what I did there it’s up top? I felt reassured in the leap of faith I would be taking and knew I was coming back to the beginning of the mission field with purpose and peace. So here I am now, I have a job leading a small Bible study in Charlotte where God is showing me big things and instilling in me huge dreams of impact. I have committed to one more summer as Adventure Challenge Supervisor at Quaker Lake Camp and I am raising support and looking forward to taking the GOSPEL out into the world and finding out more about myself and the plans that God has in store for me in OCTOBER, 2011… I truly could NOT be more excited about this opportunity and pray daily for the team and all that is in store in the time between now and the time we will be gone… GOD IS WORKING!!!
JESUS PARTY
