In the spring of 1997, I had a sudden epiphany; it came through a sermon by one of his pastors, L.H. Hardwick of Christ Church. I will never forget the moment. It was as if it were yesterday and yet we recently just celebrated 20 years of service”. During the service as the pastor was sharing, I had this sudden moment of realization he was to reach out to children and families within the greater Nashville area.
The epiphany, this sudden realization was based on a promise I had made back in 1992. I had made a promise to a troubled nine-year-old African American child who had serious emotional and psychological issues due to his mother’s severe neglect. In researching about this child, I learned the boys mother had become a prostitute to maintain her drug habit and then in time he and his baby brother were found at some point holding each other starving with nothing but an old bag of cocaine lying next to them when the police found them. Thus began my promise to this child that I would create an army of care givers if necessary to see that children like this special youngster would never have to endure such a tragedy alone, ever again.
Five years later the promise became a reality and with my wife Raye Ann, and the prayerful support of my family, I began one of the first non-profit ‘Faith Based’ Community supportive organizations within the Greater Nashville area for children, youth, and their families.
The kitchen table in our home became the first office location and the only savings we had at the time, $750.00, began what was known initially as, ‘LifeCare for Youth’. Truly one of the biggest decisions made back in those days was the remodeling of our garage to become the primary office. The good news was while we lost the garage, we finally had our kitchen table back. The initial years were so challenging and it took the whole family to get behind the dream for it to become a reality.
Just recently we celebrated 20 years of serving the greater Nashville area and are now expanding into other states. As the CEO Of Family Life Care services, I am honored to say, that people have been so very good to us over the years. We go in thinking we are blessing them and they turn around and bless us. I am so thankful I listened to the epiphany happening in my spirit. If not, today would look a whole lot different I am sure.