Testimony

 I was born in Atlanta, Ga. as an only child to an "Old Atlanta" family (my Great Grandfather was governor of Ga. during the civil war). There was quite a generation gap between my parents and me as they were in their 40s when I was born. Therefore, much of the time I was bored and lonely. I was sent to nursery school to give me something to do and help me meet other kids. I then started in kindergarten at one of the finest prep school in Atlanta. In the 3rd grade, I had an appendectomy that caused me to miss all of the basics of cursive writing and I never quite caught up with the class. By the 7th grade, I was more interested in having a good time than making good grades.   And yet, there was one area in which I succeeded and that was track. This was because I had put numerous miles on my bicycle as I rode around the hilly terrain of home. As a result, throughout grade school and even most of high school, hardly anybody could beat me in the 100-yard dash. I even set a school record in the running broad jump. 

There was one time of day that I often dreaded – supper. This was because my poor grades or getting in trouble and my dad's perfectionism could cause this meal to be a time of confrontation and lectures.

 After failing out of that school, I then went to another private school then a public school. During the year of my 10th grade I dropped out of school. By that time I had been drinking for a few years and had also started taking drugs. I started to hang out on the streets of Atlanta and became a hippie. Things got worse at home and I ran away but I came back after a while. My dream was to go to San Francisco and be part of the Hippie scene.  I enjoyed the drugs, camaraderie, and much of the hippie philosophy.

 I didn’t make it to San Francisco but at the court’s suggestion, my parents then sent me to a boarding school in PA. While there, I got interested in working with the audio-visuals.  I started learning about photography, worked in the video studio and was the school's first disc jockey. The school also had a camp in Maine and my last summer there, I taught sailing to 12-14 yr. olds.

 After high school, my dream came true and I moved to San Francisco and attended the San Francisco Art Inst. majoring in photography. San Francisco was the home of the hippie movement, drug scene and much of the alternative music. Music had been a big part of my life for years. While there, I got into astrology, tarot cards, transcendental meditation and continued my yoga.  However, I got really disillusioned because it seemed that rather than being creative, many of the students seemed more interested in seeing how far they  - how bizarre, how gross, how perverted. So I hit the road and hitch hiked around this country and Canada. Relationships on the road are not very deep, and are therefore not very threatening. Nor are they very meaningful.

 In August of 1972, I was invited to my cousin’s house in Corpus Christi, TX. I had heard she was involved in the Jesus Movement and I was curious what it was about.  When I got there at 2:30 AM there were kids sleeping all over the house!? I asked my "straight" cousin about the kids and she said that she and her husband worked with a ministry called Teen Challenge. Each weekend, they would open their house up and let kids have a place to crash (sleep). While staying there, they shared the Gospel with me. I had always believed in God and would sometimes lie in bed and tell Him some of my thoughts but never realized I could have a personal relationship with Him.  At this point, I was trying to find where I fit in this world and to find out what this life is all about. After about a week of questioning them, I was introduced to Jesus Christ! I had finally found what I was looking for and had the peace I had been trying so hard to find. I got a pocket size Bible and carried it everywhere I went. Whenever I found a new verse that spoke to me I highlighted it. I continued hitch hiking but used it as an opportunity to share my faith.

 During my teens, music was extremely important to me. But after I was saved, I destroyed numerous albums in an effort to make a break from my past. Yet I still loved music and was always trying to find some Christian music that was contemporary in sound. I loved Larry Norman and Love Song. I heard that there was to be a "Jesus Festival” in PA. called Jesus 73. Since I had missed Woodstock, I thought I would give it a try. There I learned that there were other bands that loved the Lord and sounded good. As I learned about more of the Christian music scene I thought I would incorporate my photography into it. I shot photos of some fo the Christian bands such as Andrae Crouch, Barry McGuire, Love Song and Phil Kaege. I even got some of my photos published in the Love Song song book.

 In the fall of 1973, I enrolled at Christ For the Nations Bible college in Dallas TX. While there, I met Belinda and we got married the following year.

 Since then, I have gone back to college and gotten a degree in horticulture. I have also started a landscape maintenance business, hosted a gardening radio program, was in charge of the grounds at Ga., State Univ., opened a garden center, founded the Georgia Perennial Plant Assoc. and worked as assistant dir. of horticulture for Park Seed/Wayside Gardens in Greenwood, SC. During my travels, I photographed plants to use in our catalog and to use in the slide programs I give.

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