I was raised on a farm 5 miles west of Bison and graduated Hennessey High School. I continued my education at Oklahoma State University where I graduated with a Health and Physical Education degree. I moved to California to pursue a passion of playing In the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professional). As a pro volleyball player the adventures truly never ended until everything changed. I blew out my ankle and my career and dreams were over. My father was a carpenter so that is the path I took. I got my contractor’s license and started a business. In between large jobs we would take off for several months and surf in various parts of the world. The journey was full of adventure and excitement but as we all know, a life of perpetual partying tends to lead down a path of unhappiness and destruction. I was living in Puerto Rico at the time and decided to come back home to California to straighten out my life and attempt to reevaluate my choices.
‍
I was asked to go on a mission trip to Mexico (where there was good surfing of course) and met a group of Christians that truly blew my mind. They were so different than any of the Christians I had encountered before, and quickly became friends with them. One happened to be Sarah, my future wife.
I was invited to go to a place called Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. Skid Row consists of 10,000 homeless in a four block radius filled with gangs, drive-by’s, stabbings, sex trafficking, and prostitutes selling their bodies for 50 cents in the neighborhood porta-potty. I had never seen anything like this, especially in the United States. This single initial visit truly changed everything for me. As I stood, frozen from shock, two of the friends that I was with (one being Sarah) were walking down the street and approached a man named Henry who was infested with maggots and covered in feces. Instead of walking right past him, which is really what I wanted to do, they got on their hands and knees and hugged this dying man. They showed him love and told him about a man named Jesus who loved him and cared about him, who doesn’t care about what he has done in his life, and that that He loved him anyway. At that moment, I saw something in Henry’s eyes that was so life changing for me. I saw a man with a glimmer of hope. I had grown up in the Church basically my whole life, but I had just encountered something so real, and so different.

That night, I surrendered everything, my life, my own desires, and my own agenda. Sarah and I later got married and we opened a mission on Skid Row six days after our honeymoon. I wasn’t equipped, nor an ordained pastor, I didn’t go to seminary, or really even read most of the Bible. We took it one day at a time and the Lord taught me every day when we opened those doors, that although I may not know what to say to these people, Jesus did.
As time went on, we worked with endless Churches and community organizations, encouraging them to serve with us as we fed the homeless, gave out clothes, mentored, counseled, taught, and loved on the broken.
‍
When everything seemed to be going well, the Lord threw us a curve ball. We came to Enid, Oklahoma to visit family and as soon as we got off the plane we caught the swine flu! We missed our flights back to LA and as soon as the meds kicked in we decided to check out some of the areas in Enid. I started to knock on doors (because what better way to meet the neighborhood) and I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. The very things that were so obvious on Skid Row; the drugs, alcohol, addictions, sexual abuse, kids hungry and not having efficient clothing, people living under bridges, bushes, behind churches, was all right here in a town that I had grown up so close to. Needless to say, God told us to stay, so we did. We started Forgotten Ministries as a humble outlet for the Church to step out of the four walls and physically love on our community.
‍
We are now a little over 9 years in. We love it! We have seen lives changed, churches getting more involved with the poor, and a community passionate for change. There is no better place to be than in the exact spot Jesus has told you to be.