Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. I am in the podcast studio today with a good friend and coworker. It's Mr. West Butler.

Hello, Emma. How are you? I'm doing well. It's good to have you back. You did a takeover, but now I'm here with you, which is much more fun.

It's so much more fun with you.

Wes, I would love to give you the opportunity to share how you came to know the Lord before I was born, which meant that I was introduced

to Jesus at an early age.

I tell people I had never known a day that I didn't know who Jesus was and didn't believe

he was my hero.

And so I came to understand my need for a Savior at an early age, knelt beside my parents' bed,

walked the aisle in a good Southern Baptist church that I grew up in, and really, by God's grace, really have not ever strayed from that faith

and that conviction. And the Lord has allowed me to grow and get to do a lot of fun things in ministry

as a result, and certainly bumps along the way, as we all have. But today, get to lead in ministry here at Watermark have been on staff since 2004,

so coming up on 19 years of being here and just seeing what God has done,

gotten to play a lot of different roles.

But today I get to lead our pastoral care ministry,

which means I oversee all the ministries at Watermark that nobody puts on their 10-year plan.

These are the moments that people really come to a place of crisis and hurt and pain, and we get

to meet them in the midst of the darkness and to point them to the light. And so I love getting

to do what I do. And y'all do it well. Well, thank you, friend. I appreciate that. So, yeah,

so my wife, Brandy and I've been married 26 years almost.

And I've been around here since 2002 and four amazing kiddos that we're just having a blast.

I love it.

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