Terry spent his professional life as an educator, both as a high school teacher and as a university faculty member. Terry and his wife, Liz, after many years of multiple moves for education and job opportunities, settled down again in his home state of Georgia where he spent many years in one just one location teaching high school and serving as a ruling elder in Georgia. His six children are all adults, serving the Lord faithfully in their local churches and through short-term international and Native American missions.

Terry’s training in education includes a Ph.D. in education from Texas A&M University (with an emphasis in international agricultural development). His experience in teaching includes five years as a graduate assistant instructor or adjunct faculty at three universities, five years as an Agriculture Education faculty member and college level director of Cooperative Education at a fourth university, and 27 years as a high school teacher of agriculture education.

But more important to Terry have been various opportunities of service to the Lord. He has taught Sunday School for various churches where he has lived and worked since his teenaged years, first started service as a ruling elder in 1998, preached on occasion as a ruling elder or layman since his late teens, lead congregational music for 35+ years, and served as his presbytery’s Moderator. He has also taken several courses at a reformed seminary. He values the opportunities he had in two parachurch ministries for many years.

Terry has always had an interest in other lands and peoples. He took some international agricultural development classes and traveled to Mexico during his Ph.D. studies, as well as having several international friends while at Texas A&M. He went with his church’s mission teams to Romania and to the Colville Indian Reservation in the state of Washington.

Terry is grateful for the gifts and talents that his wife, Liz, can bring to ELI. Liz has homeschooled their six children. Terry credits Liz for a lot of the solid Christian walk of their grown children. Before retiring to be home full-time at the age of 30, she had been an instructor at two universities, and an Assistant Professor at a third university. But more important are the places of service she has found in various churches as a Sunday School, VBS, and Women’s Bible Study teacher. Most of all, Terry is grateful that she not only has talked the talk, but has walked the walk of a godly wife to her husband and can model and teach this well to women in developing countries.

Some years ago, an ELI leader observed Terry’s Sunday School teaching on several occasions while visiting family who attended Terry’s church. He challenged Terry to teach for ELI. Terry loves that ELI has as its main thrust to teach pastors in developing countries. After retiring from public education, Terry feels the call to teach Bible to these pastors in developing countries through Equipping Leaders International, thus bringing together his passions for taking the gospel to the nations and teaching the Bible.