About
Bud Ford
Hi
Hi,
My name is Bud Ford. Well, really it is Darrell Vincent
Ford, but I never go by Darrell – I just don’t like it for me. I sign my
official name as D. Vincent Ford and whenever I can, I sign it D. Vincent (Bud)
Ford. Confusing isn’t it!
You can call me Bud.
What Does The Lord Have Planned For You?
I don’t know what the Lord has planned for you, but I do
know there are very likely opportunities for many of you to make your dreams
come true, especially over the World Wide Web.
I also know the Lord placed within you a destiny
that must be lived out for you to be fulfilled. Believe me this is
important! He also gave you the desires in your heart.
The sad thing is, most people get stuck in just having to
make a living, so that their destiny, their dreams and their desires all get set
aside. Isn’t that a major shame!
My Experience
My life has been an interesting and challenging journey
that has taken me from having no clue about God’s destiny for me to living out
my destiny.
I came from having nothing and being nothing to a place in
life that I have great peace and joy through the change that Christ has made in
me. Life is no longer a battle.
I grew up in a very dysfunctional family. I was born in
1935 (did you know time went back that far?) and spent my teenage years in the
50’s. I lived with physical abuse, mental abuse and sexual abuse and became a
juvenile delinquent. I was the 50’s “Fonzie” of my school.
My parents were “religious” people; that is, they were
pious people at church, but at home they were always fighting, un-Christian and
abusive. But in the 50’s that was something that was kept at home and never
talked about to anyone outside the home.
I was an unwanted child born by accident during the
depression and I was reminded of that almost every day of my life growing up. I
planned to commit suicide when I was 12 or 13 years old and had worked out the
method to perfection. The day came when I was to “do it” but I realized that
those significant people in my life who I thought I would hurt by killing myself
would only be happy at my being out of the way. I decided to stay alive and make
their life miserable. That I did.
I graduated from high school 99th out of 100 and
I always wondered who that one kid was that was dumber than me. I was
rebellious, unruly and out of control. I was going to drop out of school, but
when my Dad told me I might as well because I was too dumb to graduate, I left
home and decided to stay in school and graduate.
Going From That Place
My journey has taken me from that place - through
struggling, clawing and climbing, not knowing God was with me - to a successful
career with many big, big bumps and heart-aches along the way.
I have experienced a wealth of life’s lessons in a wide
variety of different ways and have been given wisdom from my journey.
I became a high school principal after taking 10 years just
to get through college with a bachelors degree and it was fun to watch and work
with the troubled youth. They thought they were sooo cool, not knowing they were
dealing with a principal who had “been there, done that” and knew all the tricks
before those tricks even entered their minds. I was always ahead of them.
I Wouldn’t Change A Thing
As I look back, I wouldn’t change anything in my life, not
even the big bumps and heart-aches! They have all contributed to who I am
today. I have been a project engineer with a tire mold manufacturer, a high
school teacher, a high school principal in a couple different schools, a
Christian school superintendent, an assistant pastor and I am currently
president of Mission Miami Valley, a Christian ministry. And believe it or not,
I have an earned Ph.D.
All that came through determination, perseverance and
being willing to put off having things today so I could have something better
later. But most of all, it came from a wife whom I love dearly and who believed
in me when I was a rag-tag, wild, uneducated delinquent, and who stuck with me
and encouraged me daily, my wife Marilyn since June 14,1957.
I have had encouragement and I want to pay that back to
others; that is my hope for this web site.
Conflict between Good and Evil
The wisdom and lessons I have learned are reflected in this
web site. I am a no-nonsense, practical, feet firmly on the ground kind of guy.
I like what works and I like results. I have learned that the movement of
history is reflected in the movement of the conflict between good and evil, or
the conflict between God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. That applies to nations
as well as to individuals. We deal with the results of this conflict in our
everyday lives without even realizing it.
Life Was A Struggle, A Real Battle
Life was always a struggle for me; it was always one battle
after another. Even though I had achieved success in the world’s terms, I had a
big void in my life. There was always a hole in me that was never filled by
anything I achieved. I would set a goal and achieve it and then have to set
another goal because I was never able to satisfy, or fill, that hole in my life.
The End Of The Struggle
It wasn’t until November 9, 1989, that I gave up the
struggle because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit in my life. I should have
been happy by the world’s standards, but I was miserable and I told the Lord “I
give up!” I had never said that to anyone before. I told the Lord I was his
without reservation and without condition and my life has been a whirlwind every
since.
It continues to be a whirlwind today.
I am still active in ministry today, but I want to give
back what I have received and hopefully it will help someone. Both my wife and
I gave up what would have been very good retirement incomes from the public
schools in Ohio to go to a Christian school. God’s call on our lives to do that
was very strong and there was no question it was what God wanted us to do.
Marilyn is still there part time. God is still blessing us for that step of
faith to serve Him.
Practical Spiritual Warfare
I never would have dreamed I would have a web site like
this one but I have developed PracticalSpiritualWarfare.com, to make our journey
in this life easier.
The Practical side of this Spiritual Warfare represents how
our everyday lives get caught up in this spiritual conflict that we are not even
aware of for the most part.
The Spiritual Battle
I have seen the destruction first hand of this battle in
my own life, the lives of kids, of adults, of families, of churches and in
society in general. This is a totally different world than the one I grew up in
and I hardly even recognize the world anymore. Life as we knew it, even a few
years ago, is changing so rapidly it is mind boggling!
And the destruction to human lives seems to be increasing
daily – I see it in people I work with.
What Was I To Do With All I Had Learned From Life?
There are a huge number of visitors each month on this web
site and I have a very large subscription base for The REMNANT E-zine. Also,
tens of thousands of pages are read here each month and increasing all the time.
"HOW I DID IT"
This site has provided a way for me to talk about the
things I love and the things that have meaning for me. It has provided a way for
me to touch lives and to be touched by others. Readers have encouraged me and
shared their heart with me. I am deeply honored to be able to share in the hurts
and pain of many of the readers of the material on this site. Hopefully, I will
be able to pay back to visitors to this site some of the encouragement I have
received in life from my wife.
I started out saying you have a destiny placed in you by
God. I truly believe that and I pray that you find what that is. I know you need
to be doing your heart’s desire to really be fulfilled.
I found a way to fulfill my heart’s desires through this
web site. It was easy, and now it is going to provide a living for us – doing
what I dearly love.
If you would like to know HOW I DID IT, click here and I
will give you more information. Hopefully, you will be able to discover a
way to fulfill your own heart’s desires and to even earn an income along the way
if you desire.
Many Blessings to you and may you
stay in the grip of Christ in these exciting, yet turbulent days! – Bud Ford
Go FROM: Bud Ford To: Home
Go FROM: Bud Ford To: About SBI