Some stories don’t start in comfort—they start in the dirt.
This one begins in the red clay of North Alabama, where a barefoot boy learned what it meant to grow up poor, hungry, and unseen. A boy who didn’t know his life was already being written by a God who specializes in rebuilding broken things.
Before he ever set foot in a church or prayed a “real” prayer, God was already chasing him down dirt roads and creek beds.
This is the story of how God found him there—mud on his feet, questions in his heart, and purpose waiting just ahead.
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Brokenness at Birth
If there was one word that could sum up his childhood
, it would be brokenness.Life wasn’t unbearable per se, and he wouldn’t have it any other way - but
it’s the word that gives God the most glory for piecing together someone who started out shattered.
He was born in rural North Alabama in 1973—the year of Roe v. Wade—into poverty so deep it left fingerprints on every memory. The product of a teenage unplanned pregnancy, he entered life already against the odds.
Some of his earliest memories weren’t of toys or TV shows but of government food lines at the local National Guard armory and walks through the woods collecting poke salat—a bitter, half-poisonous weed that somehow kept his family fed.
His dad, a tough man with calloused hands and a eighth-grade education, worked as a heavy equipment operator. He was kicked out of school for punching the principal and never went back. There wasn’t much money, but there was always grit.
The Boy Who Felt Out of Place
Life back then was small-town and tight-knit. Family was everything—the only thing you really had. People got close, drifted apart, then found their way back again because, in a place like that, you didn’t just walk away for good. Arguments came quick, forgiveness took its time, but somehow everyone always circled back because all you had were your relationships.
As a kid, he tried to be good—quiet, obedient, the kind of boy who didn’t cause trouble. But inside, he felt lost in the chaos. His dad left before dawn and came home long after dark, worn out and angry at the world.
The cousins became his world—wild, rough-edged kids figuring out life without much guidance, all just trying to survive together.
Eventually, his dad found steady work, and they bought a small house—a miracle for the family. But just as things began to settle, the divorce came, and with it, the loss of that home. Yet, it was in that season of loss that God began to show up.
God Found Him First
At 10 he started feeling something holy stirring in his heart. In the woods with his black lab, Bear, they wandered dirt roads and creek banks where he began to sense a presence—a whisper that he was seen, known, and wanted.
He didn’t find God. God found him.
One day, trudging barefoot down a dusty road, he passed a small church that sounded like nothing he’d ever heard before—drums, guitars, voices rising. It was strange, alive, real.
A man in a suit saw the muddy kid standing there in cutoff shorts and invited him inside.
That moment changed everything.
It wasn’t just an invitation to church—it was an invitation into love.
For the first time in his life, he felt wanted.
Not tolerated. Not pitied.
Wanted.
A Prayer That Finally Landed
When his mom finally left his dad, the two of them moved into a small mobile home park. She started going to church, trying to find some peace. He tagged along, still unsure what faith meant. A pastor came by sometimes, prayed with them, and told him he could know Jesus personally. He tried to pray, but it felt empty.
Until he was fifteen.
Some friends invited him to Vacation Bible School. He went nervously, only to discover that he was the only student in class. The teacher, a woman named Janet Nunnelley, smiled and carried on as if fifty kids were sitting there. That kind of love disarmed him.
He went home, still unsure why it mattered so much.
The next night, lying in bed at 9:00, he prayed again—the same prayer he’d whispered a dozen times before. But this time… it landed.
Peace flooded him.
Colors seemed brighter the next morning.
The world looked new.
And he never forgot that moment.
Called to the Outcasts
Life after that wasn’t a smooth road.
He bounced from church to church, always feeling “out of place.”
Even when he went to Bible college, became a pastor, and served full-time on staff, that ache of not fitting in followed him.
For years, he thought something was wrong with him.
But in truth, God was using that ache to shape his calling.
One Monday morning, sitting in a church staff meeting, he imagined his deathbed. The thought hit him like a wave:
If this is how I spend my life, I’ll die miserable.
That moment broke him again—but in a good way.
Later that week, lying in a hammock, he picked up George Barna’s book “Revolution.” Page after page, something inside him burned.
Men were leaving the church. They weren’t rejecting God—they just couldn’t find Him in the pews.
They longed for brotherhood, for vulnerability, for purpose.
And that was the spark.
He left the system—gently, prayerfully—and began launching small discipling communities long before “micro-church” was a term anyone used.
People called it strange or dangerous. But he knew in his bones it was what he was made for.
Full Circle: From Broken to Belonging
Today, he helps others do the same—leading, mentoring, and walking alongside believers who want something deeper than Sunday routines.
It’s not easy. It doesn’t always make sense.
But it’s home.
And when he looks back on that barefoot boy on the dirt road, he smiles.
Because God didn’t just fix what was broken—
He built something entirely new from the pieces.
“God never wastes a hurt.” — Rick Warren
“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” — Corrie Ten Boom
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Call to Repentance
If you’ve been trying to earn your way into heaven, it’s time to stop striving and start surrendering.
Today can be the day everything changes.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Don’t wait for a better moment. Turn from your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and receive the gift of eternal life.
He is calling—respond to Him today.
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Your story matters. Someone out there needs to hear what God has done in you!
I love Kevin’s testimony here and his heart to introduce others to Jesus! We serve a faithful God!
What a truly powerful testimony from Kevin. 😊