Greetings!  I’m Brian Sepulveda and I humbly serve as the Minister of Activities and Traditionals Care here at First Baptist.  My wife, Lisa, and I will be celebrating our 33^rd wedding anniversary this December.  We were high school sweethearts and November of this year will be the 38^th anniversary of our very first date…an Arlington vs. Lamar high school football game.  By the way, Arlington won the game that night (kick ‘em Colts!) and I, too, won that evening in finding my lifelong love and partner!  But that’s a whole other blog for another time.

I was raised in a Christian home.  I have a deep Christian heritage in my family for which I am very grateful to claim.  My family isn’t perfect, by any means, but we do love Jesus, love others, we were taught to serve one another and strive to follow Him in every way possible.  I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior when I was nine years old on a Sunday afternoon.  I remember praying together with my mom at the side of my parents’ bed asking Jesus into my heart.  That evening I shared with our church, Grandview Baptist in El Paso, my decision and was baptized a few weeks later.  We moved from El Paso to Arlington a couple of years later and because my uncle was the worship leader for the Spanish congregation that met here at First Baptist, we visited the English-speaking congregation and eventually joined here.  So, except for a couple of years during college, I’ve been in this church since 1979!  This church has fed me, taught me, and impacted me in countless ways!  As a high schooler in our youth ministry, I sensed God’s call on my life to serve in full-time Christian ministry.  So many leaders in our church guided me, affirmed me, and encouraged me in that calling. I am humbled and grateful for the ways God opened the doors for me to serve Him here at First Baptist and to fulfill that calling in a way that God tailor made for me…through recreation ministry.

For the past 30 years, I’ve been blessed to serve here at First Baptist as the Minister of Activities.  In that role, I’ve lead recreation for our children’s and youth camps, led day camps, sports and music camps, basketball leagues for children, men and women, golf tournaments & leagues, family camps, craft fairs, health fairs, 5K fun runs, festivals, retreats, racquetball leagues, pickleball tournaments, ceramic classes, quilting groups, and that’s just the things I remember.  The common thread through every league, camp, tournament, etc. was a desire to provide folks a non-threatening way to be introduced to Jesus Christ and his followers here as they strive to follow Him in their daily lives.  Over the course of the last 30 years there are many examples of dads, moms, children and/or families, who chose to follow Christ, or get serious about following Him whose first contact was through one of our leagues, tournaments, or Activities Ministry events. It’s only been this last year that the church has asked me to transition my role by taking on Pastoral Care for our Traditionals (our oldest adults).  I’ll share that incredible God-led journey in a future blog post.

In closing, I’ll share that my wife and I have four children.  Maredia, our oldest daughter, is 22, and is engaged to be married next April to a fine young man named Daniel who loves her deeply.  Brianna, our next oldest daughter, is turning 21 in November, she currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee where she was recently a student at Belmont University.  She will be transferring to Middle Tennessee State University next semester to pursue a degree in Graphic Design.  Laurann, our youngest daughter, is 18 and is currently taking a GAP year. She believes she wants to pursue a music education degree and be an orchestra teacher.  She is an incredible cellist, as well as a beautiful singer.  Our son, Micah, is a freshman at Martin High School and is an incredibly brilliant young man.  He is autistic and learns very quickly.  He is extremely gifted in mathematics, music, and computers.  Who knows how God will use our children to impact His Kingdom, but He’s gifted each one of them in many ways to do so.  Obviously, they have all grown up here at First Baptist from birth to present day and just like me, our church has had, and continues to have a huge impact on each one of them!

Finally, my wife Lisa, is the Music Teacher at Wood Elementary where she is serving in her 6^th year there.  Prior to us having children, she was the music teacher at various AISD Elementary schools for 7 ½ years.  She stayed home to be with our children until her recent return.  When I’m not at church, I love to play games, watch movies and TV and casually read.  I love being with my family and try to be truly present for each one of them.

P.S. – I’d love to meet you and find out more about you!