In the midst of my own “Abram” moment of leaving Atlanta and following the Lord to Tulsa, OK, my mother had a dream that I should get my passport. I had never left the country except for an hours-long tip to Juarez, Mexico. And, to the best of my knowledge, I hadn’t met a cross-cultural missionary in my six years of being a believer. Obediently, I got the travel doc and found myself heading on a 2-month-long trip to Uganda just a year later. God used that trip to change my life, shape my approach to ministry, and alter the course of my career aspirations. Four more trips followed with the same Oral Roberts University (ORU) Missions department. After finishing my B.A. in New Testament and M.Div. at ORU, I served for three years as the missions director at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA. My job gave me the opportunity to lead short-term trips, teach missions classes, counsel people sensing a call to missions, and manage the church’s monthly donations to over 40 missionaries and organizations.
From there I joined the staff of TMS Global, a missionary sending and church mobilization agency in Norcoss, GA. I served as the senior director of mobilization and candidacy for nearly 11 years. For a few of those years, I was the only non-white director of mobilization at any traditional sending agency in America. That made me a bit of a unicorn, but it also provided me many opportunities to speak into issues related to mobilizing people of color.
After more than a decade of helping to mobilize others, I mobilized myself and moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with my family. TMS Global is our sending agency, but our primary partner here is EvaSUE , the largest country-specific, campus ministry in the world. We also work with other ministries doing such work as feeding programs, trauma healing training, Bible distribution, and pastoral care. Pretty much any ministry activity is fair game if the Lord is in it. That includes ministry outside of Ethiopia, such as leadership roles within the Lausanne Movement and teaching roles with Perspectives.
My wife, Amanda, and I have five children, the last one of which was born in Ethiopia. As a family we love to travel, play card and board games, and serve together. If you’re ever in our neck of the woods, let us know. We’d love to introduce you to the place we now call “home.”
