Executive Director

Oliver’s Testimony:

I was raised in a church going home and grew up learning scripture. I did not however truly understand the gospel or my need for a savior even though I understood quite easily that going to hell didn’t sound very fun. I figured golden streets and a big fat mansion would fit my desires a lot better. Looking back now… I had a superficial, flannelgraph understanding of God’s character and the reason for my being created. At a young age I struggled with major identity issues. My biological father left before I was born and was not interested in being a part of my life. This caused feelings of insecurity and abandonment. I became very resentful and angry. At age fourteen I ran away from home and the next 12 years were filled with immorality, drugs, and rage.  By God’s grace at age 26 the Lord opened my eyes to His rescuing hand and my need for being saved. All my life I had developed a victim state of mind but through God’s word and hearing the gospel I became aware that my worst enemy resided within myself. It wasn’t my dad, my mother, or even my high school principal who expelled me in my junior year. I needed saving from me. My flesh needed to die and I had to be reborn as a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). By God’s grace and the opening of the eyes of my heart I learned that Jesus came to save that which was lost (which I was). Jesus came to pay the penalty through His death which was the penalty required for my sin (which was too costly for me to ever pay). Jesus raised from the dead proving that sin and death had no dominion over Him and He has full authority over them (of which I was only a slave to). Jesus gave me His spirit to seal me as His own, to give me fruits reflecting His character, and He will return to gather those He’s sealed as His own and to judge the world according to their own deeds which will measure according to His standards of whom all will fall short who don’t have the blood of the lamb on their mantle.

Director

Ryan’s Testimony:

I grew up in southeast Georgia in the Bible belt. My parents are solid believers, and I was raised in the church. We were there pretty much any time the doors were open. I made a profession of faith as a young kid and was a “decent” kid growing up. Looking back now though on my understanding of salvation and the gospel message, I thought of it more as fire insurance or a get out of hell free card. I didn’t understand the necessity of surrender to Jesus as Lord over all of my life and the need for repentance from my sins.

We moved to a bigger area the summer before my freshman year of high school, and I began experimenting with drugs and alcohol. By the time I went to college, I was enslaved to drugs and sexual immorality; I was living for whatever would bring me pleasure. This lifestyle led to me being arrested several times and even living out of my car for a period. For 10 years of my life, I was enslaved to these things. After going through several discipleship programs and much Biblical Counseling, I found myself at yet another program: The Mission House in Port Orchard, Washington. It was here that the Lord genuinely saved me. Through His Word He showed me that I couldn’t add Him on as an accessory to my life, but that I had to surrender to Him as Lord of my life. I finally truly saw the sinfulness of my sin and the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).” I finally “repented and believed the gospel (Mark 1:15).” From this point on while it wasn’t a cake walk, the Lord began to radically transform my mind, emotions, and will.

Since that point, God gave me a ravenous desire and love for His Word and Biblical Counseling. I began wanting to be able to use God’s Word to be able to comfort others with the same comfort that I had received (2 Corinthians 1:4). Over the course of the next several years I got to work at three different discipleship programs and grow in learning to counsel biblically with two of those programs being ones that I went through. The Lord also has given me an amazing wife, Abi, one daughter who’s with the Lord, Aria, another daughter who is 2 years old, Leandra, and a baby boy on the way.