Wayne? Teach?? Africa???

And now, a little about Wayne.


I remember being in high school and thinking, why would I ever leave North Carolina? I mean, it's the home of Andy Griffith, Bojangles, and the promised land of college basketball (Go Wolfpack!). I have always loved the scenery of North Carolina and all my family and friends were there also. So why leave?

I grew up in an awesome family that loved the Lord and placed a strong emphasis on worshiping Him. Every Sunday, we celebrated the Lord's Supper and took time to reflect on the greatness of our Saviour and proclaim to Him how great He is. However, the passion for worshiping God did not hit me until my sophomore year of college. It was then that my faith became my own and not just my parents.

At that point, I realized how exciting studying God's Word could be and developed a love for teaching. Even though I was a civil engineering major at N.C. State, I was much more interested in reading theology. I loved to read books by G.K. Chesterton, Phillip Yancey, Ravi Zacharias, and many others. That love for studying and teaching led me to do the unthinkable; LEAVE NORTH CAROLINA!

After graduation from N.C. State in 2000, I began at Dallas Theological Seminary (still no intention of going anywhere overseas). In my first year of seminary though, I began to think about missions in a new way. For the first time, I viewed missions as an extension of worship. I noticed that the Psalmists not only praised God; but called on all nations to praise God (Ps 67, 96). True worship should automatically lead to a desire not just to praise God, but see the entire world praising God.

That insight and the recognition that not just evangelists go overseas led me to want to learn about missions. That's why after my second year of seminary, I chose to go on a missions trip to France. That's the trip where I met Hilary. From the beginning of our friendship, we both had an interest in missions and have always known God wanted us to pursue ministry overseas, we just didn't know where until last year.

I feel that God has been preparing me in that I have grown up in a home and church that empasized worship of God and studying His Word, I've had the privilege of sitting under incredible teaching at Dallas Theological Seminary where my focus was New Testament and Intercultural Studies, I've had a chance to teach overseas (6 month internship teaching at a Bible College in Australia) while being discipled by a excellent teacher (and fellow Monty Python fan). All of this along with Hilary's background has both of us eagerly anticipating serving the Lord overseas.