Pastor Wayne made Jesus Christ his personal Lord and Savior in May 1989.  His daughter was very instrumental in his coming to Jesus.  He loves to tell the story of how Christ worked through his daughter because it gives him the opportunity to share Christ and his love for children.

The Lord has blessed Pastor Wayne with many interests/talents, which enhance his Bible-based preaching.  He has been a cabinet maker, a shop manager, a postal carrier, as well as a professional artist.  His artistic talents and his love for the Lord unite to make down to earth messages  both in sermons and Bible study.  Wayne has a deep seated love for learning and sharing his knowledge.  The Lord has given him an intense love and understanding of His Holy Word.

Pastor Wayne bases his teachings on the Bible first and foremost and makes them down to earth with life experiences of his own and others.  Wayne has studied with International Seminary in Florida, and with Master's Divinity School in Indiana.  The American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire's institute for the Laity certified him as a lay minister in 1994. 

He has been ordained through World Christianship Ministries.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Pastor Wayne studies and shares the Holy Bible both in word and in deed.  He makes sure people know he is fallible but striving to be the best he can be with the help of the Holy Spirit.  His heart is full of God's love and he wants to share it with as many people as he possibly can.  (Come, listen, and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.)

In May of 2012 Pastor Wayne was diagnosed with base of tongue cancer.  For six months he was unable to fill the pulpit due to the chemo and radiation and surgeries.  His treatments were done by both the VA of White River Junction Vermont as well as Dartmouth Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center and he has fully recovered.  During this time period his daughter Marie, a newlywed, came and stayed with him to help care for him.  

Pastor Wayne's greatest concern during his treatments was that The Gospel of Jesus Christ must still be shared with our community even if he was unable to do so himself.  Our head Deacon, Jeff LaLiberte, did a wonderful job of stepping in to Pastor Wayne's shoes and the ministries of Bristol Baptist continued with very little problems.  This too was a blessing for not only Pastor Wayne but for Bristol Baptist and the entire Christian community as well because through this experience Jeff has felt the call of God to enter into ministry, and he is now to Pastor of a local Church.

The Bristol Baptist Church family showed the love of Christ to Pastor Wayne and his family during this time period by making sure there was someone that would be able to drive him to his cancer treatments each and every day as Devona has a vision problem and can not see well enough to drive.  Not only did the Bristol Baptist Church family show Christ's love, but so did the ABCVNH denomination.  They were more than willing to not only pray, but to send people to help Jeff with the task of sharing Christ on Sunday mornings, and with financial support.

Pastor Wayne is also very grateful for his family that also took turns driving him to his treatments.

The only thing that really bothered him was that even though he had perfect teeth they all had to be pulled due to the affects of the radiation treatments. 

He says that even though there was a lot of pain, there was also a lot of good that came out of his having cancer.  He was able to share the love of Christ with many others that were at the cancer center going through treatments.  Several people, as well as some families, were very grateful for the hope that he shared with them and how Christ loves them.  He says the one that sticks in his mind was a young girl in her early twenties that had inoperable brain cancer.  She was alone, her family lived far away, and she was crying while she was waiting for radiation.  Pastor Wayne offered her a cup of coffee and a shoulder to cry on.  He shared with her the love of Christ and how He died on a cross for her sins so that no matter what happened she could be assured of eternal life if she accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.  They prayed together, and although she never said she accepted Christ, she did say she had a strange sense of peace come upon her. 

P.S.  Pastor Wayne also loves to fish - both for the creature and for "men".  He enjoys debating but not bashing or arguing.  He shares his sense of humor from the pulpit as well as in daily living.

Ask him about, "Maybe next year."