Aulden LeBlanc, 39

Aulden LeBlanc spent the majority of his life living in southwest Louisiana. In 1975, he was born in a small, unincorporated town called Hathaway, which was part of the Jennings, Louisiana address. His dad, mom, and sister all still live in the area.

The family enjoyed camping, waterskiing at Lake Altun, which connects to the intercoastal waterway and on to the Gulf of Mexico. He was involved in 4-H and FFA and enjoyed many outdoor activities.

Aulden's dad was a welder and allowed Aulden to work with him in his shop. The family also had a small farm where he kept his 4-H animals.

In high school, he participated in Beta and FBLA.

While in high school, he volunteered for a boy's program through the Southern Baptist Church he attended.

Following his 1993 graduation from high school, he began studying at a nearby Community College. At the same time, his pastor asked him to assume the role of children's pastor with the church.

Through the influence of the music minister of this church, Aulden began working at a Christian radio station. The part-time and fill-in position soon expanded into full-time work.

Aulden remembers that pressure increased dramatically during that time period. Between classes, working at the radio station, and continuing his duties at church- he was working seven days a week and was lucky to sleep five hours a night.

Also during this time, he began to understand that, though his work at the radio station was important, he felt led to something else. He wanted to teach and be in ministry. Within one year from the time he realized he wanted to work in full-time ministry, he was actually doing it- teaching in a Christian School and acting as children's pastor at Bethel Baptist Church.

In December 1996, Aulden married his wife Timberline and the following May, he completed his bachelor of arts degree in Mass Communications from the University of Louisiana.

While in college, he had the opportunity to travel abroad twice- to China and to Uzbekistan. Both trips, though intended as ministry to others, was a time for him to learn and grow. Having minimum ways to communicate because of the language barriers, Aulden found himself communicating most with God- through prayer and Bible reading.

It was during those mission trips that Aulden feels God confirmed to him that ministry was what was in store for his life and that it would be full time.

"As a follower of Christ, everything about my life is supposed to be centered around Christ," he explained.

Having spent many years ministering through Bethel Baptist, Aulden began feeling that his time there was limited. His experience there had been very positive and going well, but he felt God intended more.

He explains that he also felt he should pursue and complete his Masters of Divinity degree.

This was all in preparation to become the senior pastor at First Southern Baptist Church in Malden.

"I didn't know Malden existed," he remembers.

The Malden church had been without a pastor for some time and Aulden was looking for God's next place for him to minister. He posted his resume' with the Arkansas Baptist Convention and with the Louisiana Baptist Convention- thinking that in those two Conventions, the family, which now consisted of four, would not move far from their Louisiana home.

First Southern Baptist- Malden, with its close proximity to Arkansas, saw his resume'. Aulden has been told that the pastoral review committee thought he was too young, too far away, and had no experience as a senior pastor. They decided to shred his resume' along with others.

As the story goes, Beth Richardson, who was given the job of shredding, could not bring herself to shred Aulden's . Instead, she asked the committee to reconsider him.

Soon, Aulden received an email from Wayne Shelton and communication began between him and members of the church and soon traveled from Louisiana to Malden.

"It took us twelve hours to get here," Aulden said, continuing, "Mapquest said it would be nine hours, but we were traveling with two little ones."

Aulden, Timberline, Camden, and Caraline soon made the move north.

Camden is now twelve and is involved in Junior Beta, Boyscouts, FCA, and the STEAL after-school program. He started with the cubscout program in first grade and has since stayed active in scouting. He is also part of the youth group at First Southern Baptist.

Caraline is nine and is interested in cheer, gymnastics, and volleyball. She is active in the kid's group at the church and is able to attend various events with them.

Both kids are able to participate in the church's children and youth group led services.

Aulden and his family got involved with the community of Malden nearly as soon as they moved to the area. Aulden became a den leader in the scouts. He is now the Scout Master for the Boy Scouts. He also is part of the Malden Lions Club, a volunteer, service organization, and is serving as secretary of the Malden Ministerial Alliance.

He enjoys helping others and is able to do so through these groups.

Aulden realizes that being able to help people with physical needs can open the door to talk to them about Christ.

Since he has been with the church, Aulden has taught Sunday School class from adults to kindergarten and fills in where needed.

During the Outreach program on Wednesday night, around 60 young people attend- many of whom come without their parents. They enjoy activity time, Bible study and music. Aulden hopes that eventually, more and more parents of the Wednesday night children will begin attending with their kids.

Aulden credits his former pastor Chris Stephens and his wife as having a positive influence on the direction his own life took. Several former teens from his youth group at the time are now in full-time ministry and Aulden feels the leadership of the Stephens helped inspire those young people to follow God's plan for them.

Aulden has a verse that guides his thoughts and he shares with any one that he emails. It is, "For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish." -II Corinthians 2:15.