Playing frisby instead of writing his bio.

Tim joined the staff of Desoto Hills as Minister to College and Career in September of 2007, but has been a member of the church since 2003. He is married to Amanda and has a 2 year old son named Micah. In addition to his responsibilities here, he is also employed full time as a missionary with the Network of International Christian Schools (NICS). Tim has lived in DeSoto County since 1991.

Attending college in Hattiesburg, Marc obtained his bachelors degree in music education with an emphasis in percussion, drumming and a minor in piano performance. Marc is currently teaching high school at Olive Branch and instructs students in oral communications, high tech video, and broadcast journalism. Olive Branch has a state of the art studio located on the school grounds and students produce a nine minute news program that airs daily over local cable. At Desoto Hills Marc is an assistant with the Student Ministries and leads the Wednesday evening H2O services as well as our Sunday Evening worship services.

Jennifer has played keyboard for the DeSoto Hills family since 1994 and now also serves as music associate. She teaches private piano lessons and also plays for Desoto Family Theatre and other area productions. She is married to Lee and has two sons, Jason and Caleb.

Erin joined our church staff January 2008. Erin attended Mississippi State University where she earned a Masters degree in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in community counseling. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor. Erin and her husband Tim have two children, Bragg and McKaye. She is a native of Philadelphia, MS.

It was way past my bedtime. For years now, I have lived by the motto “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. I don’t know if that is true, but still I head to bed pretty early. However, on this particular night, I was up late and proud of it. Why? I was headed home. Our trip to Peru had been great, but it was now time to come back to these United States of America. The flight out of Peru does not leave until a little after midnight, so we got to the airport around 8 pm, made our way through customs, and was at our gate with time to spare. The departure time neared, one more security check, and before long we were boarding the plane and getting settled. I sighed, one step closer to home. It was then that the glitch occurred. We were instructed to watch the overhead monitors for the customary FAA spill about seatbelts, exit rows, oxygen masks, and floatation devices. However, all we saw was some wavy lines on the screens. I was reading, so I really wasn’t paying close attention to the proceedings. My seatbelt was buckled and I knew the spill. I did notice someone was trying to reboot the thing, but nothing happened. Then it hit me. What if there is some rule that this plane can’t take off if it has a faulty video player? What if they cancel the flight? What if we don’t make it to Atlanta? What if we have to spend another night in Peru? I was ready to stand up and recite the whole “in the case of emergency” routine myself complete with hand motions, but then to my relief we started backing away from the gate. The flight attendants started positioning themselves to give us the spill the old fashioned way. All was well. Come to think of it, how foolish it would have been to disrupt our travel plans over a faulty video machine. Now an engine would have been a different story, but a video player you can live without. Thankfully, the airline knew the difference between a major and minor problem. Sadly enough, often the church does not. We become grounded by issues that are non-critical or non-essential to our main purpose which, by the way, is like the airlines, to get people safely home.

Buckled Up,

Bro. James

I waited expectantly for the tally, although, in my heart, our “Black Tithe Affair” had already been a success. A great spirit permeated this place last Sunday as we gathered to emphasize stewardship on a less than perfect weather day. It was raining so hard during the first service that I could hardly hear myself speak. Borrowing an accounting term, I had asked our folks to wear black as a testimony to our commitment to tithing as they brought something extra to the plate on the 30th. My heart was moved as I saw so many rush inside from the rain, wearing black and carrying white envelopes with a smile on their face. The first sign of a banner day came after the first service when I got word that the envelope with the offering was unusually thick and got stuck in the slot where it normally goes.Sounds good to me! When I walked in the door Monday morning, I was greeted with the words “You are going to be happy.” The truth is offerings have been up ever since I sent the letter, but I was expecting a rather large offering this day. I was not disappointed. Our total offering last Sunday was $66,123.82! Thank you, DeSoto Hills Family, for stepping up to the plate and putting something in it. May we continue to be a useful vessel for the Master.

Grateful,

Bro. James