Dwayne

I was born in Virginia and raised in Fauquier County. I did not grow up in a home where we went to church every Sunday; however, around age 10 we started attending church regularly. My parents expected me to go to church. At this point, I didn’t have a relationship with the Lord. In my young adult years, I stopped going to church because I was more interested in carousing with my friends and staying out late.

I married Julie in 1995. We still had no relationship with Christ, but we attended a local church down the road, basically to check the “I attend church” box. It wasn’t until 1997 that we were both saved. God used an ordinary man that started sharing with me about things in life while I worked on his car at a local garage. I was very curious about him. It wasn’t until later that I found out that he was a pastor. He invited us to his church, and we attended that Sunday and for several Sundays after that. He came to our house every week to have Bible study with us. He was the person that led us to Jesus. I never knew or even thought about a relationship with anyone that I could not see. I had no problem with believing in a Creator or how this world came to be, but that Jesus left Heaven to come and save people from hell like me, was eye opening. So, my wife and I both put our faith in Jesus and were baptized the following week. It was a joyous experience!

As nice as that story may sound, it isn’t the end.

You see, I did not have a growing relationship with Jesus. I had no Christian disciplines or discipleship in my early Christian walk. Everything I was doing prior to being married, I had brought into my marriage. My marriage was crumbling because of it. After struggling through several difficult years, we got on our knees one day and told the Lord that if he would save our marriage, we would do anything he asked of us. We went to a Christian counselor and God healed our brokenness.

We’ve now been married for 28 years. Our marriage vision statement is to love and serve God, love and serve each other, teach others to love and serve God, and to have fun!

We love hosting and leading Life Groups and it has been a real blessing watching people be transformed.