About Don

As a 6-year-old boy, I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior in a small Baptist church in Decatur, Ala., where my dad served as a deacon and volunteered as music director. Any time the doors were open, you could find us there. I was blessed to have parents who were active in church and who readily lived their faith in front of me. Even though I experienced a time of rebellion against my upbringing, I never got away from their consistent example of Christian living.

When I was a sophomore in high school, the Lord showed me through a number of dynamic circumstances that I should give over my life fully to Him or face undesirable consequences. Thankfully, I heeded that message and spent the next two years trying to grow in my faith. It was a very defining time in my life.

I attended a Christian university where I majored in music. I married my high school sweetheart and spent the next 34 years in a wonderful relationship, raising two daughters along the way. During those years, we served in the music ministry and various other roles at four different churches. The last 20 of those years were served on a part-time staff basis as I worked full time in the health care industry.

God called my wife home in 2007 after an eight-year bout with breast cancer. The two years following her death were very difficult for me. Our daughters had moved away from home, and I was unsure whether I would attempt to marry again. Then I met Brenda Bailey. She wanted to reminisce about her late husband, Tom, while I wanted to do the same regarding my late wife, Corinne. We became grief counselors for each other and developed a long-distance relationship. Finally, after 12 months and a "final test" (she asked me to accompany her on a mission trip in Brazil), we decided that God wanted us together. And the rest is history!

We now live in Plano. Brenda works for Amazon Outreach, an organization that takes church groups to minister to the Indian population along the Amazon River in Brazil. I work for a national healthcare costs containment organization.

My Hope for Citizens Church

My hope for The Village is for our body to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. As we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, I pray we are fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.