Our Story

This story begins in Big Sandy, Tennessee, a small town in the western part of the state where there wasn’t much to do, but there was plenty to dream about. As a young boy, I grew up watching old western movies, imagining myself riding the range, working cattle, and living the life of a cowboy. It was a dream that seemed far away, but one that never left me.

I graduated from high school and like many young men at that time, I dreamed of heading West, but life had other plans first. I was called to preach at the age of 15, and by the time I was 19, I had stepped into full-time evangelistic ministry. It was during those early years on the road that I met my wife, Pam. We were married in 1980, and from that point on, we were in it together.

In 1984, while traveling through the rural community of Presho, South Dakota, we accepted a pastoral position at a local church. Pam and I and our oldest daughter, Kristen, stayed there for almost two years, during which time our youngest daughter, Brittney, was born. As a family of four, we went back to full-time itinerate ministry for a short time, but South Dakota was in our hearts, and we returned there in 1988, this time settling in Pierre, where we would remain until 2001.

Those years became some of the most formative of my life.

While pastoring, both in Presho and in Pierre, I also worked as a day-working cowboy—breaking horses, working on ranches, and doing whatever work I could find to support my family. I took in horses for $10 a day. Many of these colts were unbroken, but some were “green broke.” In other words, they were already carrying bad habits that had to be undone before anything new could be built. It didn’t take long for me to realize something important: Training isn’t about control, it’s about leadership.

The supreme test of leadership is really very simple: is someone following you?

I didn’t fully understand it at the time, but what I was learning in those round pens and on those ranches was shaping the way I would see people, ministry, and discipleship for the rest of my life.

Because whether you’re working with a horse or working with people, the goal isn’t to force submission… it’s to inspire a willingness to surrender. It’s that willingness to surrender that forms the bedrock of everything that comes after. This truth would later become one of the clearest pictures of discipleship in my life.

Life in South Dakota settled into a rhythm. Between pastoring, training horses, working on ranches, and raising our girls, the days stayed full. In many ways, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of ministry and felt content in the life God had called me to lead. I had no idea He was about to challenge nearly everything I thought I knew.

Everything changed in May of 2000.

I traveled to Cuba on a mission trip, expecting to bring the Gospel to them, but instead I encountered something I didn’t even know I was missing. I quickly realized the gospel was already there; I was the one who needed to be changed. Night after night, I watched people pack into trucks, stand in the heat without complaint, and fill churches beyond capacity. I saw true desperation for God. They had far less than I had ever known, yet they lived with a joy, passion, and commitment that exposed something missing in me.

Was I starving from a lack of hunger?

I was about to discover that God had brought me there, not for what I could give, but for what I would find.

Sitting alone in a hotel room, overwhelmed by what I had seen, I felt the Lord speak to me: “Do you remember the word spoken over you, that you would one day preach in Spanish?” In 1980, shortly after Pam and I were married, we were attending a prayer meeting at our pastor’s home when his mother (a very respected woman in the church) spoke a word over my life. She said that one day I would travel throughout Latin America and preach in Spanish. I didn’t reject it; I simply didn’t fully understand it. So, I tucked it away and went on with life and ministry.

Now sitting in that hotel room in Cuba nearly 20 years later God brought it all back to me. It had been long enough to be forgotten or buried under the demands of ministry. But in that moment, everything came rushing back. God wasn’t asking me to consider it, He was calling me to step into it.

At 41 years old, I said yes, unsure of what it would mean, but certain it would change everything.

And it did.

I went home and immediately began learning Spanish. What started with simple words and phrases became a deeper preparation for ministry. Within two years, God had done what once seemed impossible; I was not only speaking conversational Spanish, but preaching the Gospel in Spanish — the very thing that had been spoken over my life years prior.

It was in that season that Latin American Ministry was born. What followed was a journey marked by faith, obedience, and stepping into things far bigger than ourselves. I earned my pilot’s license, purchased a plane, and began making trips into Mexico. One of those trips led me to Saltillo, where, with nothing more than a name, I met people who would become lifelong partners in our ministry.

In December of 2005, we opened our first feeding center in Saltillo, serving 40 children. That single step of obedience became the beginning of something much larger.

Over time, the ministry expanded into multiple countries, impacting lives across Latin America, the United States, and beyond. But the heart of it never changed. It is about getting real people to a real God, over and over again.

It was in those early years of Latin American Ministry that God began to show me something deeper. What I had learned during my years of training horses started to take on a new meaning. I began to see a picture in scripture, Luke 19:30, that I had somehow overlooked for years — the story of a colt tied and waiting to be used. Jesus tells His disciples:

“Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here… because the Lord has need of it.”  

To most, it’s just part of a story. But to a horseman… it speaks volumes. Before a colt can ever be ridden, it must first learn to be led. Before it can be led, it must be tied. Before it can carry purpose, it must first surrender control. That is where everything begins.

It was no longer just something I had seen play out in a round pen, it was something God was working out in my own life. This truth eventually became a message I would later come to call “Fit to Be Tied.”

Years later, in 2013, when I returned to Cuba and stood before hundreds of pastors, I told them about “an arrogant preacher” who once came thinking he would save Cuba, only to discover that God had sent him there to change his own heart.

Then I smiled and said, “I’m that preacher.”

Through every season—cowboy, pastor, pilot, missionary—there has been one consistent thread woven through my life: God has repeatedly led me into seasons that required trust, humility, and obedience.

Sometimes those seasons didn’t make sense. Sometimes they stretched me beyond what felt possible. But every time, they prepared me for what was next. It took years for me to fully see it, but the picture had been there all along.

And that is the story Pam and I have walked out together for over four decades. It is not a story of having it all figured out. Instead, it is a story of surrender and a willingness to follow where God leads. That same spirit of surrender continues to shape the direction of this ministry today.

From our founding in 2000 through 2026, this work has been known as Latin American Ministry. It’s a name that carries deep history, cherished memories, and the testimony of everything God has done along the way. However, over time, the mission began to outgrow the name. After much prayer, we realized it was time for our identity to reflect the full scope of what the ministry has become.

Today, we are 1930 Ministries. This is a name rooted in Luke 19:30. It represents the message God has been writing through our lives for decades and the story He continues to write.