I first heard about the Wade Center when my Dad visited it as part of a presbytery meeting with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  He told me that it sounded like a really cool place, and that it was something I should look in to…but I ignored him.  Wade resurfaced in my life when my friend Bethany showed me the support letter her sister and brother-in-law (ironically, they were also my youth leaders my senior year of high school) had sent her when they came to Wade as full time missionaries.  Again…Wade didn’t make it to the front burner of my mind.

The following spring however, Wade finally made an impact on my life.  Brian Checchio, the Wade Center’s Executive Director, came and spoke in a chapel service at Montreat College, where I was a student.  Brian talked about Wade’s need for interns to staff their summer camp and missions program, and I picked up an application that day.

I first walked through the doors of the Wade Center about a month later on a spring break missions trip with Montreat College.  While serving that week, I realized that the ministry at Wade was something I was deeply interested in and that I wanted to partner with their efforts. I returned that summer as the fourth and fifth grade summer camp intern, and truly felt in my heart that I was called to this place.

Throughout the next year of my life, I returned to Wade twice to see the work that God was continuing to do in this place, and  to bring other Montreat students with me to see as well.

In March of that year, with graduation right around the corner I was feeling restless about the plans I had made for the future, and felt a tug at my heart to return to West Virginia.  Around the middle of that month, I had three separate dreams, which I believe to be prophetic, that led me to inquire about job openings at the Wade Center.  I was told when I first called that there were no openings at the time, but that they would love to have me return and once again be a part of their ministry.  About two weeks later I received a call from Executive Director Brian Checchio telling me of their need for a full time Athletic Director.  This opening was an answer to prayer that combined my love of sports and kids, and would utilize my experience from coaching youth basketball leagues over the past three years of my life.

During the summer of 2009 I began my ministry at Wade full time.  It has been a challenge, and though things haven’t always gone the way I’ve drawn them up, I know that God is in control and that He will continue to bless mine and Megan’s ministry here as long as we follow His plans and not our own. (…and GO COWBOYS!)