Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior's hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates. (NLT) -Psalm 127:3-5
Matt
Matt grew up in central Mississippi and graduated from Mississippi State in 2001 with a degree in Business Administration. During his summers at MSU Matt started working at Kanakuk Kamps in Branson, Missouri where God started growing his heart for ministry, specifically discipleship. After college he attended the Kanakuk Institute, a one year Bible training program and afterwards was hired as the area director of St. Petersburg K-Life, a non-denominational para-church youth ministry focused on discipleship.
Matt met his wife, Crystal in Branson while attending the Kanakuk Institute and the two were married in May 2004. Matt spent 5 years leading St. Pete K-Life and also served as a team chaplain in the Tampa Bay Rays organization for 4 years while in St. Petersburg. Matt and his family moved back to Starkville in February 2009 and started their own discipleship ministry called Phase 2. Under the Phase 2 ministry he served as the chaplain of the MSU baseball team, lead a year long discipleship program called Project 2:2, and
Crystal
Crystal grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and graduated from Pascagoula High School in 1998 and Mississippi College in 2002 with a degree in Social Work. Crystal also worked at Kanakuk Kamps in college and after college attended a 1 year ministry training program called Doulos, also in Branson, Missouri. Crystal served 1 year as the girl's staff for Columbia K-Life before getting married to Matt and moving to St. Petersburg, Florida to join him.
Crystal works at home keeping up with the children - our main ministry - and our home - our main area of ministry, both with the family and Phase 2. She's excited to begin the homeschooling journey this year!
When time allows, she does a little blogging and photography on the side at www.blossomsandvintage.com
Our Arrows!
As you can imagine there is NEVER a dull moment at our house! We are so blessed to have these beautiful children and to have the responsibility to train them up in the way they should go! Anna Jaymes, Adolyn, Cole, Lucy, Libby, and Cately (yes 5 girls and 1 boy!) are our little arrows we are humbly and prayerfully shaping to, Lord Willing, send out into this world to make an impact for Christ!
