About Me

I spent my childhood years playing basketball and surfing. We attended church every Sunday, but I
never clearly understood the gospel until my senior year in high school. In that year, my entire
family came to know the Lord. In the spring of that same year, I met the woman who would become
the love of my life, Cindi. We dated for a brief period, but I knew my search was over. I asked her to
marry me and, to my great surprise, she said yes. We were married near the end of 1976.

During a retreat a year later, I experienced a clear call to pastoral ministry. I began studying and
preparing to become a pastor. In 1985, I was ordained as the first pastor of the church where I still
serve near Daytona Beach. In 1984, our daughter Rebekah was born. Six years later, our son Isaac.
Both are now grown. I'll always be their Dad, but now we're also good friends.

And now I get to do something else I love to do...write books.

I was born in Philadelphia in 1957 (guys don't care if you know) to a mostly
blue-collar, hard-working Irish family. My Dad was the first person on either side of
the family to earn a college degree. It took him nine years, working during the day,
going to college at night, using the GI Bill from his war days in Korea. In the
mid-sixties, General Electric hired him as an engineer for the Apollo space
program. We packed up and moved to Florida, which is really where I grew up.