Growing up in a Baptist family, my parents taught me the importance of having God in my life. My journey with God began at age nine when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. It was a very hard and difficult period in my life, for my mother had just recently passed away. In the coming months and years, I leaned not only on my family, but also on God, for strength and guidance.

As a teenager, I was involved in the church basketball team and other youth activities. I felt a sense of joy being involved with the church. However, this feeling was short-lived. An inter-church split of the congregation ensued after a feud between the pastor and a very prominent member of the church. Disillusioned, I stopped attending and started visiting other churches.

Over the next three years, I visited various churches only to find that they were focused on all the wrong things, such as money, politics, and being a social club instead of a church of God. This expreience left me discouraged in regards to the church's role in my life and with a fundamental distrust of churches. It was then, at age 18, that I decided that enough was enough, and I was not going to be a part of any church, and I would just go on my journey with God alone. 

Unfortunately, through my twenties, I gradually lost my relationship with God, and, as I did, I encountered some personal battles that hindered my personal growth, such as a lack of self-confidence, stubborn pride, and an obsession with obtaining wealth. All of these choked the life out of my personal relationships with family, friends, and most of all, God. I was lost and just drifting through the motions in life.