My name is Jeremy Lankford. I am currently the Technology Pastor at Avon Park Lakes Baptist Church. I am extremely blessed to be born into a family with two awesome parents. My dad was a Master Chief in the Navy and my mom was a stay at home mom. I have a brother named Jason. He is two years younger than I am. I have grown up going to church with my mom. She took my brother and I every time the doors were open. We grew up going to Blanding Blvd. Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL.  When I was about 5 years old, I went forward during an easter service and professed to know Christ. It wasn’t until later though that I really came to know him. I had a pretty calm elementary school time. I loved school, church and my friends. Middle school was a completely different story. My parents transferred my brother and I to an accelerated school for middle school. Middle school was also hard for me socially. I was that, totally awkward and nerdy, kid with the big glasses. The youth group at church was my refuge. The youth group was a turning point in my life. My youth pastor was amazing and really took me under his wing as a seventh grader. My first time to youth camp at The Wilds in North Carolina, I came to know Jesus in an evening service led by Evangelist Tom Farrell. This was a major turning point in my life. I wanted to be different and learn to live for Christ. I began digging into God’s Word and becoming a leader in my youth group. Each year, I would go to camp and learn more about becoming like Christ. High school was a time of change for me. I attended Stanton College Preparatory School. It has been rated as one of the top schools in the nation for academics. At Stanton, I began learning about my giftedness with computers and communications. I was on a successful route to go to college to study media and technology. Little did I know, God had different plans. During my junior year, I went to a Camper in Training program at the Wilds. This was a two week leadership program. During this time, I turned my life over to Christ to go into full time ministry working with students. During my senior year, I planned to go to Pensacola Christian College to study Youth Ministry. Also, during my senior year, I began dating Heather. At the end of my senior year, I began working over the summers at the Wilds. The first summer, I was on the operational staff as a cleanup crew member. This was a humbling experience to say the least, but it was an awesome opportunity to get some experience in counseling. During the next two summers, I was a camp counselor. Each week for ten weeks, I had ten campers in my cabin. We went from not having known each other from atom, to getting into their lives and seeing them experience life change. After my first year at PCC, God directed me to moved back home and go to Trinity Baptist College. During the summer of 2009, I began working at a law office in Jacksonville. I gained quite a bit of knowledge about work ethic and the law. Also, during this time God led us to move from Blanding Baptist to First Coast Baptist in Jacksonville, FL. Heather and I became very involved in children’s ministry. After a couple of years at First Coast, we were very influential kid min leaders. Heather ran many of the preschool programs and I ran most of the elementary programs. In December of 2010, I married the love of my life. Heather and I were on cloud nine. We thought we were invincible and life was great. Little did we know our lives were about to change. In October of 2011, Heather was diagnosed was papillary thyroid cancer. We were only married for a couple of months and were poor and scared. God brought us through and taught us a great deal about faith under trial. Heather went through major surgery to have her thyroid removed and had a round of radiation. The doctors said Heather would be fine and we would not have to deal with this again. In November of 2012, Heather’s ultrasound came back positive for more cancer. We were once again faced with something that was huge. Over Christmas, Heather had another surgery and another round of radiation. In February of 2013, Heather was declared to be cancer free. In December of 2013, God led us to Naples, FL to be the Network Administrator of FBC Naples. After moving to Naples, we became very involved in FBC Naples Student Ministry. We absolutely love being able to minister to students. In September of 2014, Heather was diagnosed again as having a tumor in her thyroid area. The doctors in Naples referred us to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. That place was amazing from beginning to end. In October of 2014, Heather had a surgery to remove what the doctors in Naples thought was a tumor in her neck. It turned out to be several lymph nodes that had grouped together in her neck. The pathology report revealed no cancer. We were so ecstatic. God is good all the time. God has written an amazing story for our lives so far. We love each other and love Christ with all that we have.