Welcome Aboard
Who Am I?
Have you ever had to tell people who you are? It’s a lot harder than I thought.
I am a simple man. I live a simple life. I love Jesus, I love my wife, my children, their children and their children’s children. I love my country.
A microcosm of my history is that I flew combat helicopters in Vietnam. When I got back, I struggled with my identity as a man and a patriot. I went back to the university to find the answers.
I was taught that science had the answer to everything. I came to believe I was too intelligent to be a Christian. But eight years later, Linda, the woman who had become my wife, encouraged me to examine the Bible with an open mind. I agreed to, with the intention of proving how contradictory, nonsensical, and condemning it was.
Imagine my shock and dismay when I discovered just the opposite. I had been misled, lied to, and deceived. The main character, the person I couldn’t dismiss was Jesus. The Bible held answers to many of the enigmas I had carried. It revealed deep truths I had searched for. I surrendered my life to Jesus and I’ve never been the same since.
I’ve been a Reserve Army chaplain, a teacher, a social worker, a principal, a pastor, an adjunct professor, an American Red Cross station manager, a counselor, probation officer, a chaplain with Billy Graham’s Rapid Response Team, a singer, a song writer and an author.
After our last child left home, Linda and I moved to Germany. We lived in Europe for about ten years. Working for the American Red Cross, I was sent to Saudi Arabia for one very long year without her. Then they sent us to California, Missouri, and Washington D.C. We were there on September 11, 2001. For the last 20 years, Linda and I have lived in Maryville, Tennessee, the foothills of the Smokies, where I wrote and published my first novel Papaw’s Journals-The Other Side of Hope, at the ripe old age of 72. A year later, I wrote a devotional book, Spirit War-the Call to Arms Devotions. And now, Book Two of the trilogy, Papaw’s Journals-the Interrupted Journey is available to be purchased.
Who am I? I’ve been accused of being cynical, an undying optimist, a dreamer, down to earth, a lover who loves Jesus first, then my wife, family, and everyone.
There are books I haven’t written, songs I haven’t composed, and adventures I haven’t lived yet. My prayer is that I’ll learn from my failures, overcome my inadequacies, and stay ready, willing, and able to be used. I’m fully counting on my Heavenly Father to keep pouring His extravagant love into my life and exceed my wildest imagination with what’s coming next.
Papaw's Journals the Interrupted Journey
This is the story of people held together by a powerful bond of love but separated by vastly different past and present battles. While on their different journeys, their reactions to the interruptions in their lives reveal the variety of rewards or consequences that result.
Hostile spiritual forces, betrayals, loss of family members, persistent pain, and their own conflicting emotions, leave some feeling broken, empty, estranged, with joy and faith appearing hopelessly out of reach.
Where will their desperate search for escape, wholeness, or restoration take them? Will they lose their love of life or triumph over adversity and reach their journey’s goal?
Things that may help you in your recovery from symptoms of PTSD
Questions and activities to explore and discover.
Download the free Study Guide below.
Papaw's Journals the Other Side of Hope
When Josh is finally granted parole after fifteen years behind bars in a Texas prison, he is desperate to start a family. When he arrives in Tennessee to spend parole with his Papaw and Oma, he is made aware that his Papaw is dealing with the early signs of Alzheimer’s. Papaw’s increasing slide into Alzheimer’s drives him to do everything he can to get the journals he wrote in the sixties and seventies into the computer for his child and his grandchild.
The journals tell of Papaw’s search for a “Cause” that will define him and make his life relevant. His quest for faith and belief in something larger than himself takes him through combat in South Vietnam. His desperate attempts to survive in “the real world” of life after combat are compounded by struggles with alcoholism and painfully complex family dynamics.
This is a story about people of faith being tested with addiction to prescription pain killers, aging, family breakups and the betrayal of friends while making every effort to keep faith through it all.
You may find within these pages characters similar to people you know and situations you may be facing. It is my most sincere prayer that in them you will find your way to the Other Side of Hope found only in Jesus.
Spirit War the Call to Arms Devotions
If you are a new recruit in the Army of Christ or a battle-hardened saint recovering from unseen wounds, you can discover pearls of Scriptural wisdom and commentary too. Fresh revelations and gentle reminders offer insight and comfort to the one seeking truth.
You may be in the middle of a war, facing an enemy gathering forces like a dark, foreboding storm, or celebrating a mighty victory you and the Lord just won. Within the pages of this book, you may find exactly what you or someone you love needs. It could be a congratulations, a gentle nudge, a lesson of correction, a warning or a warm, comforting hug.
The Lord has used these devotions to minister to people in different places, at different times. You will find Biblical nourishment to give you the strength to follow our King Jesus as He leads. There is training in tactics for battle that comes from His Word. There is comfort and restoration for the broken, wounded, and for those in pain.
I’m your fellow warrior, who has learned from friends and family, little children and total strangers. Those who swore they were my enemy taught me things that no one else could. What I learned from Jesus and His Word puts it all into perspective.
This book is intended to motivate and encourage all believers who are Warriors in the army of G*D. He calls us to join ranks and stand shoulder to shoulder so we can help rescue the perishing, and be the conquerors He wants us to be!
The Path of Blessing
Have you ever felt like you’re in the middle of a minefield with no idea which way to go? Have you been frustrated because you don’t know who to believe? Does it seem like everyone has an axe to grind, or an ulterior motive? It’s easy to understand why so many people walk around with what I call, short fuses.
I am a seeker after truth. I have been my whole life. In my travels around the world, I thought I had found it several times. But every time I thought I did upon closer examination, I found, at best, only a portion of the truth watered down. I was willing to go anywhere or do anything to find truth. Imagine my surprise when I found it in the Bible, that had been right under my nose the whole time. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to change. I wasn’t ready to quit having fun. I liked my life just the way it was. But the more I examined it, the more excited I got. I tried to disprove it but I couldn’t. It solved all my enigmas, answered questions I didn’t know I had. The inconsistencies I thought I found were nothing more than a cover for my own pride and rebellion. It really is the truth. But don’t believe me. Come check it out.
The theme for this channel comes from John 13:15-17 in The Living Bible. “I have given you an example to follow, do as I have done to you. How true it is that a servant is not greater than his master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends him. You know these things- now do them! That is the path of blessing.”
You may be discouraged, confused, trying to understand why everything you’ve tried isn’t worked out. Or you could be in a good place right now and thinking life couldn’t be better. But no matter what your present situation, you know it’s going to change. I would like to encourage you to join me on this journey on the path of blessing. I plan to do what I see Jesus do, and that’s love GOD and one another.
Jesus is the best example of that. He’s living proof that GOD is love. And the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead lives in each one of us who believe.
You may be a seeker seeking answers or a saint who knows it all. You may have lots of questions, doubts or fears. You may overflow with His Love and minister around the world. But whoever you are, you’re invited. There will be something for everyone and plenty to go around. You’ll get an encouraging word, godly counsel, wise advice and abiding comfort before you knew you needed any of it and that’s only because the source and inspiration will be supplied by our Creator who wants to give it all. So, join me on this journey, it should be fun.
If you’re ready to check it out, click the button below and join me on… the Path of Blessing.
For the joy You set in me, all Your Grace and Glory
How You’ve come to set me free…from me.
For the music in the silence, for Your sweet abiding Presence
my heart is full to over-….flowing with praise.
The path of blessing is following Jesus, serving GOD and others
Just like He did
He is my Master, I am His slave, I can give no more
than the life HE gave.
Please fill me with Your Spirit, speak to me so I can hear it
Help me be who all I need to be for You.
In this moment, here with You, help me be and help me do.
Everything You’ve shown me with all You have in store
I’m on the Path of Blessing and I desire nothing more.
Next Year:
Adventures, Tales, and a Story or Two
Writing short stories is something I’ve done for years. Seems like I’ve always had a journal going. Recently it felt like the Holy Spirit encouraged me to gather several of them and put them in a book. This is the result.
There’s no central theme, no guiding principle. It’s a collection of a wide variety of different types of stories. One story is set in the future, some are set in ancient times. Some of these were in the original manuscript of “Papaw’s Journals the Other Side of Hope”. But when my editor advised me, “That’s a really good story but it takes attention away from this story.” I had to take them out. I didn’t know it then, but I saved them for this.
Some are ideas I thought might be developed into a book. Some are “adventures” that actually happened to me. Some are tales that came to me while reading the Bible and wondering what the people in the stories actually felt.
It has been a blast writing these and getting them out so others can read them. Hopefully you’ll be blessed and enjoy.
A couple of agents and publishers have told me that nobody reads short stories anymore. I hope they’re wrong or if they aren’t, maybe someday short stories will come back in style.