Ryders to Ecuador – Biography
About Us
My wife Anna accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior when she was thirteen years old at New York Avenue Baptist Church in Arlington, Tx under Pastor Alvis Edmondson. Her family is originally from the Syracuse, New York area and they moved to Texas when she was three. After moving to Texas, she grew up in Arlington. I was born in Knoxville, Tn and grew up in a small town in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. I was saved when I was fifteen at Gists Creek Baptist church in Sevierville, Tn under Pastor Jim Baumgartner. My mom, dad, and two younger sisters moved to Texas due to my dad’s job. Eventually my older brother and sister and myself moved to Texas also. I joined New York Avenue Baptist Church where my wife was a member and not long after that our church combined with Arlington Baptist Temple. In 1987 we started dating and in August of that year we were married. At the time of this biography we have raised our three children and have been married thirty-seven years, God has truly blessed our home. I have been filling pulpits for close to twenty years now whenever the opportunity arose as well as serving in our local church. This included soul-winning/door knocking, nursing home ministries, teaching Sunday School, teaching children’s church, and I had the opportunity to preach at the Baptist Rescue Mission almost every weekend until it closed in 2013. I received my Master of Theology through Gethsemane Bible Institute under Dr. Derek Collins at Gethsemane Baptist Church in Walnut Ridge, Ark.