As I look back over the events of my life, I am amazed at how God has used both the good and the bad experiences to prepare me for my work in the ministry. In many ways, my childhood is very similar to most kids. But there are some unusual circumstances that I encountered as well. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of spending my summers with my grandparents and taking care of my bedridden grandfather so my grandmother could go to work. I had days that were filled with typical make-believe battles and wars, but I also had some very real battles in life as well.

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When a friend asked me to describe the experience of raising a child with disabilities, I thought of an article I read recently. It compared the anticipation of the birth of a child to planning a trip to an exotic destination, like Italy, only to find when the plane lands that you are in Holland. It’s not that Holland is a bad place—it has its own charms—it’s just a different place. The language is different. The sights are different. You meet different people who speak a different language. That’s my life raising Leah.

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I first got involved with Hope Pregnancy Resource Center when it was still Boone Crisis Pregnancy Center.  I was a student at App State and was touched by what I read in their newsletter.  I knew Ann Cook, the director of the center at that time, so I offered my services as a volunteer.  Originally, I helped with office and clerical work, but it wasn’t long before I was trained to do peer counseling with clients.  That developed into an offer of a part-time job in abstinence education encouraging teens to make good choices.  As my involvement with the center increased I became more and more interested in counseling clients.  I love being a caring ear, taking the time to listen, and helping women make informed choices about their pregnancy or their lifestyle.  

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“Buzz, there is a question you need to answer.  Where do the kids and I fit into your life?”

I was in my second year as head coach at Appalachian State University when my wife, Jan, laid that question on me.  It was a question that changed my life.  Nine years earlier as an assistant coach at App, I set a goal for myself of becoming an NCAA head basketball coach by the age of 32.  I had made it.  Now my goal was to coach a major college team that could contend for an NCAA championship.  The only way I knew to get there was to outwork the competition.  I was in my office or on the court from 7:00 in the morning till 11:00 every night.  My wife and kids were seeing very little of me.

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I came into this world with a double portion of “adventure genes”. When other little girls were playing with Barbie dolls I would put on a fishing vest, grab my dad’s bullwhip, and for hours I was “Indiana Jones”…

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I was only 6 years old, living in a rough part of Detroit when my mama stopped to get gas for our car.  As she went to pay her bill, a man got into our car with a gun and asked me where my mama’s purse was…

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Everyone needs a father. Unfortunately, men don’t become fathers just because they impregnate. Fatherhood is a heart issue consisting of love, commitment and sacrifice. Fortunate are those whose birth parent also becomes their father. I was raised in an unchurched, dysfunctional home. My father was in the armed services and left for Okinawa when I was only 5 years old. He said he would come back for us, but when he did return it wasn’t to his family. I felt rejected and abandoned.

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God changed my image of Himself as we walked through death.  As I encountered a relationship with Him, I realized that I needed to see what God said about Himself rather than take my old “religious" view of Him.  What a difference I saw as I searched the Bible to see what He is really like. The Bible says that if “we have seen what Jesus is like, we have seen Father God.” Religion says that God is mean-spirited, hard to please and hard to understand, and we must be perfect in ourselves to cause Him to love us. But God says that He is good, and easy to know and understand.  He says that everything about Him is love and mercy. He says that He deals with us in kindness. He says that He takes the darkness and turns it into light! He says that His plans for us are not to harm us, but to give us hope and a future. Even when I fail Him, fail myself or others, I have a Father that loves me and forgives every transgression as I look to Him. He took our failures and hurt so that we could be free.  

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It sounds so simple and it is exactly how I want to live. I’m forty-eight years old and taking stock of my life. As a Lutheran pastor, I want to lead my congregation to a simplicity of faith. I want to inspire them to love God and their neighbors. I want to lead them away from the business and circumstances that distract and keep us from doing the things we’re commanded to do in the scriptures. But how do we eliminate the necessary, functional, time-consuming problems of ordinary daily life?

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“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40 (ESV)

In March 2017 we met a little brown-eyed boy with a huge smile and an infectious laugh. Our church youth were helping with an event, and I felt a tug on my heart that I had never experienced before. I played with this child whom I knew nothing about, other than he was visiting with a local family. When we left the event I looked at my husband and said, “I know this sounds crazy, but he is supposed to be with us. I feel like we are leaving him.”  

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Far away from home and from my parents, I found the freedom to search for God. Though I attended many different churches, it wasn't until the end of my junior year at a Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) meeting that I finally heard that Jesus Christ was calling me, and I responded. Unlike Buddhist teaching where one is bound to karmic debt, I learned that God provided a Savior to save me from my debt of sin, declared me righteous, and personally loves me."

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We moved to High Point in 1973. But after my father died unexpectedly in September 1977,  we started feeling the Lord was calling us back to Buffalo, to be closer to my mom and Lamon’s parents. In 1978, we moved back to Ashe County with our five-year-old son, unsure what we were going to do.  We started building a home and both had jobs, but I was not happy. I missed my friends and church in High Point.  

Then one day, I was driving down Buffalo Road. As we were passing Buffalo Baptist Church, Kelly Joe looked over at me and said, “Mommy, we don’t have to go to church anymore, do we?”

 God just hit me hard.  It took the words of a five-year-old to make me see I’d been running from everything that was important — the most important thing, God.  Kelly Joe had been in church since he was born,  and now when he really needed the understanding of God and church, I was throwing it away.  I was throwing Hope out the window.  

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When Coach Clark was interviewed on national TV after our victory at Texas A&M, he gave glory to God and talked about the foundation that was laid dating all the way back to when he played for the Mountaineers from 1994-1997. This foundation began being laid in Spring 1989 when App State’s athletic director, Jim Gardner, hired Coach Moore to lead the Mountaineers. Here’s how Coach Moore describes that time in his own words:

“At the time Jim called me to offer me the job at Appalachian State University, I didn’t even know where Boone was. Plus, after I got the job, they put me in a little room with some media people to teach me the correct way to pronounce Appalachian.

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This reminder has been extremely personal for Clark as he coaches through the unprecedented seasons of COVID-19. He became the head football coach in December 2019 — right before the entire world changed.

“I had been coaching for 20 years. I had a plan of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to run my program. And then this thing called COVID came and shut the whole world down,” he said. “This was not in the playbook I had written for the last 20 years.”
How do you have a football practice where the players don’t touch each other?

What do you do when your players are getting quarantined?

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I heard it said once that “God came down to our level because we could never get up to His.” That encapsulates the beauty of the Chistian faith, while also highlighting what differentiates Christianity from every other world religion. Christianity is not about the good things we have done or can do to qualify for entrance to heaven. No! It’s about the great, unfathomable thing God did for us by sending His only Son “that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

That last quote was from John 3:16 and it was actually Jesus who said that when He came to Earth. And He also said this in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” I’ve included that Scripture along with mentioning John 3:16 to accentuate that Jesus didn’t just come to Earth to open up a way for humans to spend eternity with God, He also came that we might experience abundant life eternally!

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Again in June of 2005, my missionary friends asked me to come to Boone and help their daughter. I was here for two months helping her and she told me about the Hispanic people. The last week of my trip I met a family from Mt. Vernon Baptist Church and they also told me about the Hispanic people living in Bradford Park. They said, “These people need to hear the gospel in their own language.” Once again, I had to return to Mexico since I was here on vacation. Once again, God asked me to come to Boone.

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During my schooling at App State, I was privileged to play football for Coach Jerry Moore. I consider him to be one of the people who greatly influenced my life at that time. His consistent Christian walk both challenged and inspired me to be bold for the Lord on campus and contributed to the building of my character.

“Leave family, friends and all that is familiar and follow Me.” My uncle, Andy, heard this call and served in Nigeria, Africa, for 15 years. My cousin, Sara Beth, heard this call and went to China. My dad, Dan, heard this call and went on short-term mission trips for a couple of weeks each year. I didn’t fully understand how they could just pack up and leave their lives behind until I heard this call.

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We were only there a year when a position opened at App State. Jim Garner, the Athletic Director, called to ask if Jerry would be interested. We prayed and with our faith rebuilt, we stepped out in faith. We didn’t hear God say yes or no. The afternoon before Jerry was to be introduced as the new coach at App. Ken called and offered him the position of Offensive Coordinator at Arkansas. It would have meant total security and was hard to pass up. Once again, Jerry was on his knees. The Lord gave us the option. We could stay or launch out. We came to Boone in 1989.

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God gave me remarkable peace while I was there. I had received lots of support and encouragement from mothers I respected before I left. The Lord confirmed I was in His will and doing exactly what He wanted for me. It was right for my family and the timing was perfect. I was amazed by the African Christians. In the villages they began their long day by rising before the sun and singing praises to their Savior. I awoke to the sound of these praises each morning. Their lives are hard. They have lost a whole generation to AIDS. You see babies and old people, but there is no population in between! There is no electricity, no modern conveniences; everything is accomplished through manual labor. Yet we noticed boldly painted on one of their huts these words “JESUS IS OUR PROVIDER.”

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On April 16, at 4:15 p.m., overlooking “Horn in the West” grounds, I gave up and submitted control to Him. At that point, He gave me a vision. I saw a huge red balloon growing bigger and bigger and I knew it was going to burst. Then I saw a hand reach down with a pin and it pricked the balloon. Instead of it bursting, it imploded and awful, yucky, green, vile smelling stuff began oozing out of it. I had never felt such an incredible peace while feeling an indescribable joy. I drove home and told Pat. Her response was, “Do you have to keep crying so much? Can’t you stop saying ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Praise God’ over and over?” After this, the Lord sent me to grad school in Chapel Hill and during that time Pat came to Christ. Together, He began using us and brought our children to know Him.

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