Don Wilson
Growing up in central North Carolina, Don’s early years were marked by academic failure and severe social ineptitude. When the season came, he was in the tobacco fields from morning until the day was done, learning lessons he didn’t understand or appreciate until much later. By sixteen he added pizza ovens to the work mix, and at eighteen he stepped into the U.S. Air Force — back when standards were lower in the aftermath of Vietnam and the new all-volunteer force — a move that shaped the next twenty-four years of his life.
His time in the Air Force took him from Okinawa to Texas and around the world. It was in Texas, forty-five years ago, that he met the woman who would become his wife — God’s greatest earthly blessing to him. From that point on, they traveled wherever the Air Force sent them — through Oklahoma, his remote tour in Korea, Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD), Germany, and Georgia, raising three children along the way. He eventually retired from military service at the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee. Today, they’re grateful for three children and four grandchildren.
Don first came to Christ at a young age through a small coffeehouse ministry, but drifted quickly into truly vile and unsavory things that pulled him far from Him. He doesn’t dwell on that part of his story — only that God was patient, persistent, and faithful throughout the years. Chapel communities and chaplains across the globe reminded him again and again that the Lord doesn’t give up on people, even when they wander.
After retiring from the Air Force, he worked in hospital skilled trades, industrial HVAC service and leadership, high-rise automation and environmental management, building-automation coding, and national maintenance oversight for multiple manufacturing centers. Along the way he earned a bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Phoenix.
Today, Don’s aim is simple: to serve Jesus, encourage others, and share scripture in a way that is honest, practical, and grounded in real life. This blog is where he shares what Jesus is teaching him — from a life spent working, serving, stumbling, learning, and growing.