How did a small-town country boy from North Carolina make it to the beach, overseeing an engineering organization in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and teach part-time at Cape Fear Community College and UNCW? Oh yeah, throw in a loving family and 3-time college graduate. Well, I didn’t do it on my own! God’s hand has been on my life before I even knew it or Him. My grandparents provided a spiritual stability that I did not get at home. Quiet, steady, supportive, but most of all ever-present, they were the embodiment of family. Their faith demonstrated to me what real Christian living was supposed to be. I regularly attended church with them in a small country church in rural western North Carolina and seeing God at work in their lives set me on my path. Like many freshmen in college moving to the “big city,” I searched for my place and where I belonged. Again, God’s faithfulness to me was demonstrated in bringing several godly friends into my life. We were not angels, but we all knew we were solidly founded together in our faith routinely attending church together and exploring what that faith meant. In graduate school, I again found God’s presence through the people He brought into my life ultimately meeting my future wife. Despite many trips and stumbles through those years, I can see God’s guiding hands… man plans his way, but God establishes his steps (Proverbs 16:9). God took a self-centered, arrogant, high school jock who thought primarily only of himself, and allowed him to see what he could do on his own, which was not much. With much grace, He put amazing and God-loving people in my life, from my grandparents to friends in college to my future wife to show me His love and that it’s not all about me. My life continues to be a journey of searching how to put others before self, and I know that I often fail. But I know through God’s love and discipline that I am getting there. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” The greatest example of this love is what Jesus did on the cross, but I also have had friends who have practically demonstrated this love day-by-day, and I have a family that no matter my faults is always there for me. As an engineering manager and part-time college instructor, I want my co-workers and students to know that I am there for them. I tell my students that my goal is not to try to trick them or throw them curves, but to walk alongside them and support them as they navigate classes. I try to let them know that I care and that I will be there to support them. And I try to throw in some engineering history and humor along the way.