About Joseph

I grew up in a small town in rural Oklahoma, deep in the Ozark wilderness. As far back as I can remember my dad, mom, brother, two sisters, and I were regulars at the local Southern Baptist church. We rarely, if ever, missed a Sunday morning, Sunday evening, or even Wednesday church service and were active in the congregation. I was one of those kids who asked Jesus “into my heart” a thousand times in fear I might not end up in heaven. While I’m not certain I can point to a specific instant in time when I decided to follow Jesus, I continued to grow in faith throughout my childhood and chose to publicly proclaim my faith in Jesus by being baptized while in middle school. 

After graduating from Tahlequah High School I attended Pepperdine University and received a degree in Biology and Religion. It was here that I was able to begin studying the gospel of Jesus in depth and pose some of the challenging questions I was unable to articulate before. During those years I spent considerable effort examining the core beliefs of my childhood and over time saw God’s word stand up to each challenge. It was also here where I met the amazing woman who would eventually become my beautiful wife. 

Two years after graduating college, Monika and I moved to Missouri where I was lucky enough to attend medical school. From there, we moved to Ohio where I completed postdoctoral training in Anesthesiology. More notably, the buckeye state is where both of our incredible children were born; Emma and Camille. After leaving Ohio in 2015 we moved the family to Arizona and shortly afterward, began attending DSBC. 

Although not perfect, I am encouraged to know that Jesus continues to work in my life each day. I am grateful for the opportunities He has placed before me and life so far has definitely been an interesting journey. I have learned through the highs and lows that God cares for us and has shown us countless times that He is trustworthy and merciful. I am excited to see how God uses me in the coming years and thrilled to serve DSBC as a board member.