I'm writing a book!

One of my favorite Mexican food delights is an order of Tacos al Pastor. I first had the delicacy under a shade tree with a couple of co-workers on a jobsite for the construction company I worked for when my wife Brittany and I were first married. We often look back on those days with such fondness. Brittany and I first met during our freshman year at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas. We dated basically the entire time we were in school and as we were finishing up and graduating, we got hitched. At that time, being newly married and seniors in college trying to finish our degrees we were what you might call “broke!” So, we rented a small apartment in a government housing complex right next to campus. I will never forget the first time we walked into that little living room and saw the outdated thick brown shag carpet and we both just started crying. We were two spoiled kids who had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, and in that moment, we were hit with the reality that we were on our own. As I said, we look back now at those days and treasure them, but in the moment, we were terrified, and it all hit at once. 

Brittany’s parents gave us a beautiful wedding and my parents paid for our honeymoon, snow skiing in Colorado. However, when we returned from our trip to the Rockies, we were hit with “real life”. There was a mix up with the power company and our apartment, so while we were gone our power was shut off and we returned to a letter from the electricity provider stating we would have to pay a three hundred and seventy five dollar charge to get the electricity turned back on. I was supposed to start a new job the day after we got back, but when I showed up for work the next morning and I walked through the front door, the owner of the company looked at me with an expression of both confusion and surprise. I knew that it was not the look of someone expecting to see a new employee walk through the doors. He asked me “What are you doing here?”. I told him about our agreement that we had made for me to start the day after we got back from our honeymoon, and apparently, he had written down the wrong date. He thought I was supposed start the day before and when I did not show up for work, he hired someone else for that position. So, in less than twenty-four hours of getting back from a dream honeymoon vacation, we had no power, no money, and no job. And, I remember both of us just sitting in that dark apartment stunned and wondering what we were going to do. And in our young immature minds, thinking “God, why would you allow this?” or perhaps our thoughts were more in line with these words by Lloyd Christmas; “We got no food, we got no jobs, our pets heads are falling off!”1

The next day I walked into our career services center at school. They helped students find part time jobs in the surrounding community along with some other resources. I talked to the director, told him what had happened with my job, and that I needed a new lead, and quick! He thought for a moment and said, “There’s a guy that I play golf with that owns a swimming pool company, let me call him and I will let you know what he says.” I had an interview the next day to help work in the warehouse of Ocean Quest Pools. Ocean Quest had several “irons in the fire” but their claim to fame was new custom pool design and construction. My role in the warehouse, mainly, was to pull equipment and parts that would be going out to new jobs being built, and the all so important job of inventory. I hated doing inventory! I assumed I would work there for several months, maybe a year, until Britt and I got on our feet and then I would begin a career in full time church ministry. However, the Lord had something very different in store. I worked for the pool company for several years, and quickly worked my way up from a warehouse guy to a construction superintendent, running jobs all over Waco and the surrounding areas. It was on my way up, when I got out of the warehouse and began helping on job sites, that I had my first taste of Tacos al Pastor.

We had taken a break for lunch one day on one of our pool sites, and a couple of the guys and I were sitting in the shade eating. One of my favorite co-workers was this little Hispanic man we called “Shorty”. His wife had packed him several tacos that day, and when he unwrapped the foil, and I got a smell of that heavenly mix of seasoned pork, onions, cilantro, and lime; I immediately asked him “What are those?”. Shorty said, “ets pats-door, choo wanna try?”, and I have been hooked ever since. At the writing of this, it has been almost twenty years since that shade tree lunch with Shorty and the guys, and there is no telling how many times I have shared a meal of Tacos al Pastor with friends, family, or co-workers over the years.

I am now in full time ministry and often my go to meeting spot for church members will be a small Mexican food restaurant with some great tacos. In my opinion, the best pastor tacos are found at a little spot in the small town of Valley Mills, Texas located just west of Waco. It was in this little place, at the end of the summer in 2020, that I was sitting with a good friend Dave, once again enjoying good tacos and great fellowship, when my phone rang. I looked and I saw it was my doctor’s office calling. I had recently had some tests done and I figured they were calling with the results. Dave knew about all that had been going on with the doctors and tests so, when I answered the phone, I looked across the table. I said, “It’s the doctor’s office.” And Dave immediately went to praying. As I tried to listen to what the doctor was telling me, I missed a lot. It is hard to comprehend much once you hear the words, “it’s cancer”. 

The pages that follow are a glimpse into what life has been like for my family and I, since that life-altering day, with the help of one of my favorite Old Testament prophets to guide the way. My prayer is that the Lord will use our little story to hopefully make you laugh a little, you might cry a bit, and, most of all, lead you to hope, and encourage a faith in Jesus. And, above all, my hope is that I can convince you, by the Holy Spirit’s power and working through this book, that no matter what life looks like, or what kind of circumstances you find yourself in, Jesus is faithful and good and worthy of our love and worship. He is worth it!