My name is Joel and I currently live in Germany where I serve as a missionary. I was born in the USA into a family that loved music and God. My family loved music so much that my dad believed in keeping the radio on in the bathroom with Christian music playing every day of every week. I even took up piano as a young student with lessons from the local teacher. It was not until around the age of 12 that I really began to pursue music. I began leading worship at this point and found a new love for singing and playing in church. When it came time for college, I went to community college to study to be a Minister of Music. While studying there, I took choir and there discovered my love for Music Education. I quickly changed gears and began studying to be a choir teacher. I graduated with my Associates in Music with an emphasis in voice and transferred to Mississippi State University where I would study for my Bachelors in Music Education. While serving there, I accepted a position at a local church as the minister of music. The job description of this position included not only leading worship but directing the church choir as well as writing and directing musicals for Christmas. This was such a joy for me. I graduated with a 3.62 and immediately began my music career officially at a local High School where I would serve as the Associate Choral Director and Musical Director. I served in this position for five years and found my passion to grow every year as I not only loved what I did in the classroom but fell in love with the relationships that were built outside of the classroom. When I resigned for my next chapter, I had students tell me that I was the closest thing they ever had to a dad. Why would I resign from such an amazing thing? I had to answer to a calling that was greater than me. It was in 2015 that I accepted a call to become a missionary, but not just any kind of missionary, a Music Missionary. I would then take my wife and son as well as soon to be baby and move halfway across the world to Germany. Here I began serving as a professor for the European Theological Seminary. I would be the only music teacher, but I would lead worship for weekly chapels, work with students on how to lead worship, teach voice lessons, piano lessons, guitar lessons and teach on various subjects within the field of worship leading. This was all volunteer but a dream for me to be at the next level. While here I was offered a degree in Marriage and Family Studies. So I decided to take up the opportunity for a Master's. I thought I was set for life but soon found more was to come. After completing this program, I decided there was still more to do. I did not just want to teach, but I desired to create a program that could function without me even there and train future music majors for the entirety of the school. So I designed a curriculum for a bachelor program for a School of Worship. In this program, I began teaching more than before. I took on roles such as teaching Music Theory and even started a choir and traveling worship band. I was able to find another volunteer who would join my team teaching choir and voice. My goal is to build a team of locals here so the program can thrive with experts, but a team who pours their heart and soul into this ministry. It was during my time teaching Music Theory that I quickly saw that there was so much more I could do. To better the future of the school as well as my own future, I was limited with my current degrees. I decided right then that I would go all the way for my P.h.D. in Music. However, in order to start that program, I would need to first have a Master in Music. So I applied and was accepted into a program at Lee University. Being a missionary does not supply funds to pay for extra things, but my faith is big that I have not done everything to this point and traveled this far to stop. Yet, it is now time to soar like never before. I'm excited for what the future holds and know this is just the beginning of what will be many chapters in my book of life. I want to share music with the world and I found through Music Education one of the greatest ways to find healing and share that message with the world. Hans Christian Andersen once said, "When words fail, music speaks". Truer words have never been spoken and I want to be sure that I am prepared to do my part with bringing this message to the world. I want to be a light in a world full of darkness and music is the key to that with my message of hope.

I was sitting around the piano one night with a friend just having some spontaneous worship and we were playing around with some chords. I finally began singing from my heart the words "You are Holy, You are Holy, You are Holy Mighty God". It was purely an intimate moment to my Father of my love for him. I quickly sat down and jotted down the lyrics and. the chord progression of just that chorus, but did nothing else with it. While driving down the road in Germany while serving as a missionary some years later, the rest began flowing randomly. This happened as I was driving through the Black Forest in awe of the creation of God. It was so simple, yet so intimate.

Depression is a mental illness wiping out the lives of many individuals and almost wiped out this guy, but then I was changed for the better. Growing up, I wasn't surrounded by individuals with mental illness until my grandmother had a near-death experience with a stroke. She shortly was diagnosed sometime after this with a form of Alzheimer's. We saw her begin to forget us little by little hoping each day for just a glimpse. For me, this was my first encounter with any type of mental illness. Before the Alzheimer's got too bad, I accepted a calling as a missionary to Germany. This meant moving halfway around the world with my wife and kid as well as baby-to-be. This meant saying goodbye to individuals such as my grandmother who I couldn't see on a regular basis now. This was life-changing, but little did I know I would see much worse. Ministry was my heart and I was passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus with the world. This was done through preaching the Gospel as well as through singing and leading worship from city to city and country to country. Eventually, I took on an additional position of the Recruitment Director for the seminary I was serving at. This was all volunteer and with my original duties of being over the worship team and traveling with them, I found myself traveling every weekend to a different event. This was the case for the next six months. Until this point, I had heard there was such a thing as burnout but did not know what that meant exactly. It was during this time that I learned what this was exactly. I further found that I begin to experience it. I was on a spiral road that was out of control and did not know how to gain control again. I could not see which way was up or which was down. Most burnout in ministry eventually leads to a form of anxiety and/or depression. Until this point, I had always thought and been taught that depression was something not of God, but a spirit of the devil. Before experiencing burnout, I studied for my Master's in Marriage and Family Studies. In these studies, I studied depression and was quite surprised, but still not a big believer that it could be a mental disease. It was at the point of my burnout that I found out that it was so much more than I had ever imagined. I found that many ministers go through burnout and almost all have depression. Even sadder was that many find themselves faced with suicide and allow it to win in the end. The statistics were overwhelming and quite scary. As I experienced burnout, I begin seeing myself experience depression as well. At first, it was quite light, but soon after, it began to grow deeper and deeper. I found things that did not matter at the beginning of my move such as friendships locally now mattered significantly in my life. I saw more depression come as I struggled with the German language. No matter what I did, I found myself falling deeper and deeper into depression. Finally, I was on my way home from a conference. I remember just beginning to cry uncontrollably to the point that I could not even see the road while driving. I begin screaming as I prayed to God asking him where he was and what was happening to me. I found that this depression had taken control of me. I did not want to get up in the mornings, I didn't want to go and serve at the seminary, I wanted to do nothing at all. My wife did not know how to approach me, my kids even would be praying for me, I was a total disaster. It was during this lowest point that I realized I needed help. I remembered my training in Marriage and Family Studies so I began seeking out a counselor. I not only began counseling sessions but found natural herbs sold at the local pharmacy that could help me through depression. This was a turning point for me. I remember specifically with some students how they changed my life in this process. I had tried to be loving towards others but saw that I had begun to push people away. No matter how much they tried to insert themself into my life, I wanted them but did not know how to accept them. I was falling apart. One day, a student approached me and asked if I could come to a specific place at a certain time on a certain day. I tried to make up excuses of why I could not but finally gave in and agreed. That was the best decision I had made in a while. I arrived for the meeting and was surprised to see the room decorated and a group of people waiting in a circle for me with a place for me to sit down. It was similar to an intervention and I did not know what to expect. They went around the circle and began to speak of all I meant to them and had done for them. They called it a blessing party. Through this meeting, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel and for once I was positive that it was not a train coming at me to end life, but it was the beginning of something new. I had found hope again and it came through relationships with others, with people I least expected it from. This changed my perspective on how I viewed the world as well as how I treat others in the world. This was a life-changing moment for me that helped me to set new goals in my life and career. I want to be sure that I'm there for others as these people were for me. The best is yet to come!

I always knew I was called to music, but music education was far from my mind when I began this journey. I grew up with a love and passion for music as well as a calling in the area of worship ministry. I did not know what this would look like or where, so I went to the local community college to begin this journey. Since I came from a family that did not have much money, I was forced to find different ways to pay for school through scholarships. One suggestion was to sign up for choir so I did just that. My first day came and I entered the choir room. That was the day my life changed forever. My choir teacher was Dr. Taylor. He was my first choir teacher so I didn't know what to expect when walking in. What I found was a guy who was quite humorous, had a love and passion for music, and even more importantly, a great love for family and God. Watching him in action as he worked with the choir was amazing for me. I found his methods to be successful and incredible. Not only was Dr. Taylor great in the classroom, but I found the relationships he built with not only myself, but other students to be vital in my college experience. He created a safe place one could open up when things were going bad and one could simply stop to rest. It was watching in these moments in the classroom and out of the classroom that made me want to become a Music Educator. Dr. Taylor encouraged me to try new things, pursue things such as theater, and even introduced me to other opportunities that could help me further my education. Today I am a music teacher in a seminary and serving as a missionary, all because of the influence and pushing of Dr. Taylor. I have had the experience of even teaching in high school and I credit my teaching methods and attitude both in the classroom and out all because of the influence of him. I found my teaching methods to be similar, my use of humor both in the classroom and out to be a vital tool, and especially my love for family and most importantly God to be essential in my life. Dr. Taylor simply led another choir class that day I walked in, but what he and I were not prepared for was how he transformed my life by setting me on the journey to higher education. As a result, I finished not only my Associate's but my Bachelor's as well. I then took on a Master's in Marriage and Family Studies, but I still wanted to finish with my music. My goal is to complete the Master in Music Education and follow this with my Ph.D. in Music. A huge part of this direction is due to Dr. Taylor and just seeing the difference he made not only in my life but the lives of others. I want to make a difference in the lives of people I encounter and I know I can do this from the classroom. I love where life has brought me and I am so thankful that Dr. Taylor played a role in pushing me in the direction that guided me to where I am today.