I love First Free, and have since the first time I came in 1972.

I love to study and teach.

I love to tell jokes about geezers and blondes.

I love to work with my hands–framing, plumbing, electrical, and especially demolition.

I love to travel, having been to 30 countries on five continents and 45 states.

I love to jeep, snowmobile, and jet-ski.

I love Charles Krauthamer on Fox News.

I have one wife, two boys, two daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren.

My wife Jan and I met in college and have been happily married for almost 45 years.

My mother is still living at age 90 (at a Christian retirement center in Tahlequah, OK), as is my wife’s stepmother at 88 (here in Andover).

I have two brothers and two sisters. Four of the five kids in my family have been in ministry virtually all of our adult lives. Dad was a pastor and educator for over 50 years and made it attractive!

My 38-year-old son Eddie is an executive with Wal-Mart and lives with his wife Cindy and children Michael, Brittany, Ashley, and David in Bentonville, AR.  Cindy is a homemaker.

My 25-year-old son lives with his wife Brooke here in Wichita.  He is an engineer with Hawker Beechcraft and serves as one of the drummers at our church, while Brooke is a 1st grade teacher at Benton.

After college (Calvary Bible College), seminary (Dallas Theological) and graduate school (Southern Methodist University), I taught philosophy and theology for five years. 

I also worked as a grocery checker and “cheese head” at A & P in Kansas City, and as Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the John E. Mitchell Co. in Dallas. 

I served here at First Free from 1975 through 1984, then went to St. Louis to plant a church.  While in St. Louis I returned to school, earning a D.Min.at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

After serving the church in St. Louis for almost 20 years, I returned to First Free in Wichita in 2004. 

My favorite book, other than the Bible, is Knowing God, by J. I. Packer.  I have read it at least a half dozen times and have taught it several times.

A close second would be C. S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain. 

Another one I like better the older I get is Randy Alcorn’s Heaven. 

Home Depot

Or at my son’s house helping him with a home improvement project.

Or in Eureka Springs, AR, where my folks lived for many years.

What’s an Ipod?

I was in a  Hollywood movie, the award-winning documentary Spellbound.  In fact, Jan and I appeared together twice in the movie while we were in Washington, D.C., and then I am shown preaching from my pulpit in St. Louis. It’s available at Blockbuster!

I once spent a week among the Yanomao Indians in southern Venezuela and northern Brazil. The Yanomao are the most primitive tribe in the western hemisphere.

I have snorkeled in the Red Sea and climbed to the top of Mt. Sinai. 

I love to explore caves and old silver mines in Colorado. I once coaxed Dan Wilson 600 feet back into a mine. We only turned around when we found fresh bear tracks in the mud!

My grandfather was a water witch (a douser). He could find water anywhere and tell you exactly how deep it was without ever breaking ground. It was a good thing, too, because he drilled wells for a living for 65 years and could price a well exactly before breaking ground! 

I want to feed God’s people with a tasty, nutritious meal every time I stand before them. And I want the truths that I share to be reflected in my own life.