As a boy of ten, I decided science could disprove the story of Creation and the miracles found in the Bible. Although my family attended church, a life of faith was not the life for me. One day, when I was about 15, my life took an unexpected turn…

My mom asked me if I wanted to go to a yard sale with her. Not a typical activity for a teenager who could typically be found skateboarding, listening to Boston, and playing Atari.

From a table of dusty paperback books, I picked up a well-worn copy of Hal Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth for a quarter, and God used that book to open my eyes to fact-based evidence that the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a trust-worthy, historical document.

My thinking was changing...if the Bible was a historically accurate text and all these prophecies were true, then there must be an all-knowing Creator God who knows everything that ever has or will happen.

My intellectual questions faded into knowledge that God loved me and wanted me to live for Him.

I was born again!

I dug out an old Gideon Bible I’d been gifted in the fifth grade and began to read it. The Word of God opened up a whole new world to me—a world of absolute truth.

One of those truths is found in Mark 16:15. It’s a verse that has shaped my life:

“He told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.’”
—Mark 16:15

In college, I majored in business and minored in partying. I knew God was with me and in me, but I wasn’t living my life for Him, or relying on my faith to guide my choices.

My enthusiasm for school (and my grades) fizzled, and at age 20 I dropped out of college and into business, opening the Fit for Life Fitness and Racquet Club alongside my wife Melody with savings from summer jobs over the years.

A few years later, the fitness biz went bust without enough support in a small town, and eventually I settled into work as a carpenter. I enjoyed the work, but felt God calling me to pursue something else.

One day, as I was on my hands and knees scraping up old tile during a public restroom renovation, I saw a tourist wearing a T-shirt with a Christian message on it.

I don’t remember what it said, but I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s really cool—that’s what I want to do!”

Later, I looked again to that verse in Mark and learned that the Greek word for preach is kerusso: Jesus said unto them, “Go into all the world and ‘kerusso’ the Good News to everyone.”

Kerusso is the Greek word meaning "to herald (as a public crier), especially the Divine Truth (the Gospel); preach, proclaim, publish."