Dustin’s Story

I was born the youngest of two brothers. I am in many respects a carbon copy of my dad. I was raised in a Christian’s home, rarely missing a Sunday morning church service or Wednesday night church. When I was born my parents were young in their faith and doing everything they could to teach my brother and me who Jesus is. Still to this day one of the most vivid memories of my childhood happened one night after Wednesday night church, as my dad was continuing a project of retiling their bathroom floor, I walked in, sat in his lap, and asked him what it meant to be a Christian and trust in Jesus, because I was ready to follow Him. He stopped his project and led me to Jesus. It wasn’t until years later that I would realize how beautiful that moment was. 

As a preteen my family moved from our small east Texas town to the Dallas area. My parents told us that they felt like God was calling them to move our family and I couldn’t understand why. For the first time in my young life I saw and experienced cultures and lifestyles far different than the Southern Baptist bubble I had grown up in. At 12 years old I didn’t understand what it meant to “step out in faith” like my parents had just done and it took me a few years to begin to understand why we moved from everything I knew in the pine trees of east Texas. Thankfully, the Lord quickly brought my family to a church family that we joined and would be a part of for the rest of my teenage years. It was at that church that I began to grow in my faith for the first time in my life. God brought a few influential youth pastors and mentors into my life that would pour into me and guide me through the roller coaster years of my teens.

At the end of my senior year of high school I had a crisis of faith, for lack of a better phrase, and began to question if my faith was my own or was my parents faith. Looking back now it is easy to see that I was allowing the people and influences around me to impact my faith and the questioning I was doing was caused more from a selfish desire to “do what I want” more than it was from anything else. After graduating, I saw God bring a friend into my life who would become a huge encouragement in my faith and reminding me of who I am in Christ. As I navigated my first semester of college at home and attending community college the Lord made it clear that He wanted me to pursue ministry. Since that semester that calling has never gone away. I have seen the Lord open some incredible doors to do ministry for the sake of His name. 

From a kid sitting on the floor of my parents half renovated bathroom being led to my Heavenly Father by my earthly father all the way to now, as a man with a wife and kids of my own, I have seen the Lord’s faithfulness. Every moment I have had the opportunity to doubt Him, He has reminded me of His goodness, provision, and providence in my life. Everyday He never fails and everyday He makes me more and more like Christ.