Ben Wardlaw's Page

Gender

Male

City

Hilton Head Island

State/Province

SC

Country (not County)

United States

Occupation:

Web 2.0 Entrepreneur

I'm here to...

Glorify God.

Interests:

I love to walk on the beach at sunrise or sunset with my wife Bunny. I also like to travel and collect fine art.

I'm passionate about...

Men's discipleship and helping people achieve their financial, relational, and spiritual objectives.

My story with God

I grew up in Miami, Florida. My parents were not followers of Jesus. My mom did drop me off at the Baptist Church on Sunday morning. I professed my faith in Jesus at about the age of 10. When we got married my wife and I attended a small Presbyterian Church in our neighborhood. We moved many times and we usually attended a church in our area. In retrospect, there was not much spiritual fruit in my life. When my mother died in 1998, my true spiritual identity became very evident. My two adult children contested the distribution of my mother's estate. They threatened to sue my wife and I over this matter. This incident shook my "faith" to its very foundation. I could not believe that my children would turn on us like they did. I questioned God's very existence. I felt hatred and bitterness toward my children for what they had done to us. As a result of this incident I adopted an agnostic world view. This continued until January of 2005. I did not attend church, pray, read the Bible, or have any spiritual life during this period in my life. In late January or early February of 2005 my wife and I had lunch with one of the couples in our subdivision. During lunch Doug asked me if we would like to go to church with them on Sunday. For some inexplicable reason I said yes. I think I was just trying to be polite or maybe I wanted to see what the "big deal" was at their mega church (Northpoint Community Church ). Our lunch was on Monday. On Friday of that same week I received an email from Doug's wife Judy saying they were both sick as dogs and they would have to take a raincheck on taking us to church with them. On Saturday I went to watch my wife play in a mixed doubles tennis match. For some unknown reason while watching the couples play tennis I asked one of their children, "What church does Rick and Nancy attend?" Rick and Nancy were known by everyone to be very active in their church. The child told me they attended Perimeter Church. I said, "You mean that big old church on Old Alabama Road?" She said yes. When Rick came off the tennis court I asked him if he could recommend someone to give me some golf lessons. He gave me the name of a great golf pro that helps professional golfers tune up their swings. I thanked him and went home with my wife after the tennis match. It was Saturday afternoon about 2:00pm and I was sitting in our great room relaxing on the sofa. For some unknown reason this thought came into my mind. DOUG AND JUDY WILL GET WELL BY NEXT WEEK AND THEY WILL BE TAKING US WITH THEM TO NORTHPOINT COMMUNITY CHURCH. WHY DON'T I GO AND CHECK OUT THAT OTHER MEGA CHURCH ( Perimeter Church ) IN OUR AREA. So I got up by myself on Sunday morning and drove to a church that I had never attended. I didn't even tell my wife where I was going. The church auditorium seated 2500 and I went down and sat in the front row. The music was pleasant and contemporary. When the speaker began his presentation I immediately recognized his voice. It was Steve Brown. WOW! I used to listen to Steve Brown on the radio ( KEY LIFE ) when we lived in Florida 30 years ago. I only remember one thing Steve said that Sunday morning. He said, "Sometimes God has to chase people down from behind." When I got home I told my wife about hearing Steve Brown at the church I had attended. I also noticed in their church bulletin that they were having a pot luck supper for people interested in learning more about the history and beliefs of Perimeter Church. For some unknown reason I asked my wife if she would like to attend the pot luck supper with me on Friday evening. She said OK and we did. I am not exactly sure of the moment when this occurred, but my Heavenly Father healed me of my hatred and bitterness toward my two adult children. This was a WORLD CLASS, MAJOR LEAGUE MIRACLE. If you only knew how intensely my hatred was you might then be able to understand where I am coming from. PRAISE THE LORD! One final note. Someone told me I should get permission from the people that I named in my testimony. So I called Rick and left him a message on his answering machine. He travels a lot, so I didn't hear back from him for about two weeks. When he called me back I told him my testimony and asked him for permission to use his name when I share it with people. He said anything to do with Jesus was OK with him. But he also added, "You left something out of your story." I asked him what that might be. He told me that when I had asked him about golf lessons, he knew that I needed God and not golf lessons. The golf pro that he had recommended to me was an elder at Perimeter Church. Steve Brown was right. God ran me down from behind. PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME! Hallelujah and Amen!

Other stuff about me:

I have two children, Pete and Sarah. Pete and his wife Kathy live in Marietta, Georgia and they have two children, Andrew and Sarah Jane. Sarah and her husband Bobby Jones live in Athens, Georgia.