The Preacher Son

Lawrence Anthony Ray, a.k.a. L. A. Ray, is or was your average kid growing up in the South. His grandfather was a Baptist preacher. His father was a Baptist preacher. He has two brothers who are Baptist preachers and two nephews who are Baptist preachers, and everybody and their mama thought and expected that he would be the next preacher in the Ray family. To everyone's surprise, at the age of eighteen, he joined the United States Army. His intentions were to get away from his strong Christian upbringing and everyone's expectations of what and who they wanted him to be and go find out for himself who and what he wanted to be. He was taught that God has a plan for everyone's life, and he was on a mission to find out what was God's plan for his life as he hoped and prayed daily it was not to be a preacher.

-- L. A. Ray