1. What is your favorite food?
Anything with chocolate and peanut butter, love spicy (Cajun Food), but honestly will eat just about anything. Especially on a road trip!

2. Tell us about your family?
I am the first born in my family in America. My entire family is from South Africa and they moved here in 1979. I was born in New Orleans and grew up in the city. In middle school, my family moved to Spartanburg, SC. There I met my future wife, Annabeth, in youth group. Both of us played college sports and were married in SC. In our first year of marriage, we moved to New Orleans and over the last 13 years have been involved in rebuilding ministry, speaking ministry, sports ministry, and planted a church called Vintage. We also welcomed four kids into this world. Bolt (10), Mack and Birk (8), and McCall (5). Over the last year, the Lord has called us to plant a new church in Pittsburgh and we are excited about this excited new work.

3. What is your favorite hobby? What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love to travel (anywhere), read, play basketball, golf, and workout. I am starting to really love outdoor adventure like hiking.

4. Tell us a funny story about yourself?
 am a Cajun, African-American, Redneck that will soon become a Yinzer (Pittsburgh).

5. When did you come to faith in Christ?
I came to faith at the age of 7. It was the fall of 1988 and my dad was preaching in a revival in our hometown of New Orleans. That night, he preached a sermon that I had heard a million times but the Spirit of God called me to repentance. When the invitation started, I walked down to pray with my dad and receive salvation. Jesus changed my life!

1. What is your favorite food?
All of it! Kidding. My favorite food is a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

2. Tell us about your family?
My wife, Elizabeth, and I were married in June 2011 on the beach in Topsail, North Carolina. We have two daughters. Sophia Grace is 5 years old and entering into her first year of Kindergarten. Colbie Rae is 7 weeks old.

3. What is your favorite hobby? What do you like to do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I enjoy working out. Every morning at 6:30am, you can find me at the local YMCA.

4. Tell us a funny story about yourself?
This may be hard to understand in writing form, but I’ll give it a shot! When my daughter, Sophia, was a few weeks old, I woke up in the middle of the night to a green, glowing figure on my bedroom wall. Being half asleep, I was CONVINCED it was a demon. I began to whisper (didn’t want to wake my wife to see the demon, of course) Jesus’ name… hoping it would flee. It didn’t. So, I began to say my wife’s name: “Elizabeth… Elizabeth!” She’s a hard sleeper… didn’t wake up. At this point, I’m out of luck… and began to cry (judge me). 60 minutes of this encounter and I rolled over. Wouldn’t you know… the demon was gone! What happened? The green light from our new baby monitor was casting a glow on my bedroom wall and my shoulder produced the shadow figure on the wall. True story.

5. When did you come to faith in Christ?
I started following Jesus on July 3, 2003. I was on a youth group trip to Philadelphia, PA when I was confronted with this statement: “Following Jesus doesn’t mean your life will be perfect, but it will be better because you’ll always have someone to lean on.” The Holy Spirit echoed that statement in my heart for a whole week until I surrendered my life to Jesus.

1. What is your favorite food?
I love tacos more than you can imagine.

2. Tell us about your family?
My wife, Allie, and I have been married for 6 years. We grew up in Northwest Arkansas and are high school sweethearts (it’s really sweet). On May 26th, 2017 we met our little girl, Merit Alexandra. We love her so much! We also have a golden doodle named Scout that feels neglected since Merit came home!

3. What is your favorite hobby? What do you like to do in your spare time?
I will give you two. First, I love to sit on my back patio and admire my grass right after I mow. This is one of my favorite things in the world (some of you men might understand.) Allie and I also love to snow ski. We have the pleasure of living in Denver so we try to be in the mountains skiing a couple times a month during the Winter.

4. Tell us a funny story about yourself?
I’ll give you a recent one. About three months ago, I got stuck on my roof while trying to take down an antenna. My wife had gone to the grocery store, and I decided that I had a little time to try to take this thing down. I used a mixture of a ladder, a tree, and some ninja moves to get onto my roof which were all impressive. The second I got up there I realized that I couldn’t get back down. I had to wait about 45 minutes for my wife to get home (who was 8 months pregnant) so that she could wrestle the ladder to a better place. I’m dumb.

5. When did you come to faith in Christ?
God saved me when I was twelve years old through the faithful witness of my parents. I began asking a lot of questions about hope and life after death. They shared the good news of Jesus with me that God had pursued me through Jesus and done all of the work to secure my life with Him both now and forever. I turned and believed in Jesus on my parents couch. I’m so thankful for my parents.

1. What is your favorite food?
I love just about any kind of pizza. The pizza has to be pretty bad for me not to enjoy it. My favorite pizza hails from the “original” Rays in Manhattan, NY. Unbelievably good!

2. Tell us about your family?
Megan and I have been married for 11 years and have three children: Olivia (7), Ella (5), and Nolan (1). We are excited to share that Megan will be having another baby in Winter 2018. Also, my widowed mother (Gayle Thompson) lives with us as well.

3. What is your favorite hobby? What do you like to do in your spare time?
Megan and I both love football, especially college. I’m fan of Michigan and Megan follows Notre Dame. The college football season can be the best and worst part of the year, just depending on how our teams fare. Also, our kids love to swim! They spend some part of every day in our pool at home. Almost every day, I find myself in the middle of some pretty epic pool games with my kids. Honestly, being a dad is one of my greatest joys.

4. Tell us a funny story about yourself?
The day before Thanksgiving 2005, I asked Megan to marry me. We were at her home in Indiana and looking forward to celebrating our engagement along with family and friends over the holiday weekend. Megan’s family had a tradition of eating a holiday breakfast and sharing special thank you notes with each other. As a new part of the family, they invited me to join them. I asked Megan what I should wear, and she informed me that they basically just wake up and eat together. So, desiring to blend in, I arrived at her home with my bedhead and winter pajamas on. My future father-in-law greeted me at the door, basically ready for a formal gathering. As I proceeded into the home, everyone had taken time not only to clean up but also to look really put together for a family picture. To this day, we laugh at the classic picture of Megan’s family all dressed up and me, with my pajamas and bed head. ☺

5. When did you come to faith in Christ?
My parents became followers of Jesus while I was in middle school. Prior to their conversion, no one in our family professed faith in God. As a result, their salvation brought significant change into our household. Two years after my dad became a Christian, he died traumatically of a heart attack. God used my dad’s death to bring me to salvation. About a year after his passing, I experienced frequent conviction of sin and possessed many doubts regarding my relationship with God. In February of 1997, under heavy conviction, I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins. God graciously gave me new life filled with desires to follow Him. After I was baptized in 1998, I felt God begin to move my heart towards serving Him vocationally. Ever since late High School, I believed God placed in my heart a desire to serve Him through pastoral ministry. I’m grateful now for the opportunity not only to serve as a pastor but also as a planter of Bay Cities Fellowship.