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He
was born on August 12th, 1976 in the small town of Paducah, Kentucky
which is about 2 hours North of Nashville, TN.
At the age of nine, Tre' had been moved to a foster care home in
Ruston, Louisiana. He stayed there for approximately two years before
he was brought back home in Benton, Kentucky. While he was living
in this foster home, he knew that he was not born again. As he laid
in bed one night and the fear of the Lord came into his heart and
this verse came to mind, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. (PROVERBS 1:7) So he asked Jesus to come into
his heart to forgive him of his sins and save him. The journey with
Christ began at this time.
--12
to 15 years of Age--
While Tre' was in the foster home, God used his foster parents,
Randy and Lou McWhorter to teach him countless valuable principles
that he carries with him to this day. One thing that he did not
learn to use at this time, like many 12 year olds, is discipline
and persistence. Although he had a D average in school before the
foster home experience and a 3.86 GPA during the foster home experience,
there wasn't enough time to help Tre' make the changes necessary
to sustain such success without support. We he returned home with
his biological mother, there was no support of this kind.
Many things happened in Tre's life from the age of 12 when
he was released from the foster home and the age of 15 when he began
to take the Christian life seriously again. "My mother
and her boyfriend were both alcoholics. She drank Diet Coke
and Bourbon while he drank amost a case of bear each night. There
was fighting, cussing, slamming doors, etc. almost every night.
"I can remember times when I would go to bed only to
be awakened at one or two in the morning to the sounds of screaming
bouncing off the walls of the house. This became normal for me.
I thought everyone dealt with this sort of thing.
There were times when my mother would be passed out in the hallway
floor and my sisters and I would have to drag her down the hallway
and pull her up into bed. We were children, we didn't know what
to do."--Tre'
Something happened when he was fourteen
years old. He didn't know what was transpiring until years later.
One day a woman came to his house named Peggy Grey. This woman was
a long time friend of Tre's mother, Paddy. Peggy came to the house
on a hot day in June, 1990. They hadn't seen each other in
years. In a conversation that day, Peggy told Tre's mother, "I
have been praying for you and I felt certain that God wanted me
to come visit you. Now that I am here, I know why God has put you
on my heart. You are going to the hospital." Paddy, Tre's mother
responded, "No I am not!"
After arguing about it for a minute, Peggy convinced Paddy
that she was going to the hospital whether willingly or unwillingly.
When Paddy got there, the doctor discovered that her liver had shut
down and she was on the brink of death. After two months in the
hospital and rehabilitation, Paddy was free from Alcoholism. Paddy's
boyfriend, Bill Tracy came home one night with tears in his eyes
complaining to Tre' about a motorcycle he had bought against his
mother's will. "How could you go and disobey your mother when
she is lying in the hospital almost dead?" Bill said. Tre's
heart was broken. This is when things began to change. Bill got
drunk that night but has been sober since the next day for 17 years.
--15
to 21 years of Age--
It was
about this time, when Tre' met a youth leader named Gil Arterburn
from his hometown of Paducah, Kentucky. Tre' had plans to go to
a party one Friday night, but God had other plans. After years of
not living for the Lord, Tre' began to feel a tugging in his heart
to live his life differently. He and God had settled things one
night in a foster home in Ruston, Louisiana, but Tre' wasn't keeping
his part of the deal. "I knew there was something wrong
with my life. I gave my life to Christ at the age of 12 in the foster
home, but I wasn't living for the Lord. I knew I was running from
God's will for my life and didn't really know where to turn or what
to do. So I began to pray, 'Lord, I am not living for you and don't
know how. I have no Christian friends and I don't know where any
are. I need your help. I want to live for you, but I need your help.
Please send some Christian people into my life to help me serve
you."-- Tre'
It was that same week, on a Friday night where
he met up with a young man whose uncle was in treatment with Tre's
mother, Paddy for alcoholism. After talking for a minute, Tre' voiced
his desire to go to a party and invited the other young man to go
with him. "I am going to a church lock-in", the
young man responded. Immediately a light came on in Tre's heart.
"This is what I have been waiting for. I am going to this lock-in
if it kills me. I know this is God's will."-- Tre'
The
rest is history.
He is a graduate of the Heath High School class of 1994 where Steven
Curtis Chapman graduated. This is the same school where
the infamous school shooting took place. After graduating
from High School, He started his a contracting business.
At the age of 21, his business was doing very well and it was grossing
over $300,000 a year with 13 employee's. Although, he was
successful in the eyes of the world, there was something missing
in his life. It was a call to ministry that hadn't been answered.
There had many opportunities to preach in his community. Before
he surrendered to full time ministry, he preached three funerals
at the request of people in the community that didn't even attend
church.
After a funeral one day, people were standing around talking
and Tre' had been asked the question, "Are you a preacher now?
Has God called you to preach?" Tre's response was no at this
time, when Pastor Larry Davidson of Mount Zion Baptist walked up
to the crowd of people and said, "The phone is ringing, he
just hasn't picked up yet." He really began to think about
the seriousness of the call he was getting from God. He didn't feel
at all qualified to be a preacher. He was just a country boy who
loved Jesus and liked to talk about him everywhere he went.
He began doing international missions that same year
in 1997. While he was supporting himself and the ministry activity
through the business, the call to preach became so strong
that he quit his business and went on the road full time.
He has since been all over the world and preached in person to about
300,000 people and has seen over 12,000 come to a saving knowledge
of Christ. He has studied at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois
and will be starting the Doctorate of Ministry program at Liberty
University Theological Seminary in the Spring of 2008.
He and his wife Kristin and live in Lynchburg, Virginia. It
is interesting how they met. As Tre' would tell it,
"We
met in Paris , Tennessee on a Monday night at a crusade where
the Evangelist Brady Weldon was preaching. I saw her down by the
alter after the service standing with two older women. One was
her mother and the other was a member of their church. She was
down there talking, and waiting to meet Brady because her mom
wanted her to meet him. Little did they know, God wanted her to
meet ME!. There were about 4,000 people there that night and about
150 were left about one hour after the service.
I was talking with some people and looked around
from the left front corner to the altar in the center and saw
her. I thought, man she is cute! Lord, can I get her phone number?
I had been taking girls to lunch in pursuit of the “right
one” for quite some time and was sick of meeting girls,
taking them to lunch and having to call them and tell them why
I was not interested in talking with them anymore about a future
relationship.
I prayed, "Lord, can I get her phone number?" Then I
prayed, "Lord give me peace if you want me to meet this young
lady." I felt peace about it but it wasn't enough. I prayed,
"Lord if you want me to meet this girl, I want to be so sure
that it's you, that I will never be able to question it. Lord,
if you want me to meet her, then bring her and those two ladies
over here where I am standing."
There was about 75 feet between us. I turned to continue the conversation
with the person I was talking with. When about five minutes had
passed, I glanced over my shoulder, honestly looking for nothing.
I had already put my future wife out of my mind. Then, there she
was, standing two steps from me.
I thought to myself, "O.K. Lord, it is obvious
that you want me to meet this girl." So I walked over and
shook HER MOTHER'S HAND, so I wouldn't look suspicious. Her mother
and I carried on for about five minutes. Kristin later told me
that she thought I knew her mother from somewhere by the way we
were talking. I had her fooled.
We got married 8 1/2 months after our first date. The main
reason I waited THAT long was to keep everyone from thinking I
was crazy."
Kristin and Tre' now have a daughter named Hannah who is 4 months
old. He is at Liberty Theological Seminary working towards his Doctorate
in Ministry. Tre' Faulkner has been a devoted student of the word
for 16 years and has a heart for the lost to come to a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has dedicated his life to preaching
the gospel of Jesus to all who will listen and in anyplace that
will have him. Dr. Joey Anthony of Midway Baptist church says
of Tre', "I have been in ministry for many years, but I have
never heard anyone preach the gospel as clearly as Tre' Faulkner
does." For more information, or to invite him for
an event, click on "SPEAKER REQUEST."
"I pray that
you will partner with us in Winning the World to Christ."
Tre' Faulkner
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A
Little About Tre' Faulkner and what BROUGHT him INTO THE MINISTRY...
