40
THE JOURNEY / 2014 WINTER
PREPARED TO SERVE
GOD’S CHILDREN David McGrady Born and raised in Wilkes County, David McGrady graduated from Appalachian State University in 1987. After working for 17 years in the Information Technologies departments of two different companies, David became the Executive Director of Wilkes Vocational Services in January of 2004. Married to his wife, April, since 1992, they are the proud parents of Joseph Daniel and Emily Brooke McGrady.
I
n 2002, I was at a low point in my life. After building a career with a stable company that may have caused me to seem successful to the casual observer, I was actually miserable. Circumstances in my life had conspired to bring on a severe depression like I had never experienced. Because of this, I contemplated all kinds of my own plans to alleviate my pain. I realize now that this hard time in my life was really one of the best things that could have happened to me, because it brought me to a place of surrender to God’s will, which opened up an opportunity to serve Him in a
way that I would never have anticipated on my own. It was in this time frame that a man who was like a spiritual mentor to me said, “I don’t know what it is, but God is preparing you for something.” After this, I remember very vividly going to the altar at church and saying something like this: “Okay God, I’ll give up my job if you want me to. Whatever you want me to do, I will do.” After that happened, I don’t remember exactly how long it was, but probably about a year later, I
