Joe and Melissa Bradley
Oh my goodness! I have known Joe and Melissa Bradley for many years. I have known Melissa since she was like 15 or 16 years old along with knowing her mom, and her grandmother and grandpa. Her grandpa was a preacher and a teacher at Atlanta Christian College years ago and he taught Greek. Melissa brought me some of his old sermons and I felt like it was such a cool, treasured gift.
I really got to know Joe and Melissa at First Christian Church. They transitioned with me when I went from doing high school ministry to college ministry. We all went on a mission trip to Mexico together and it was during that trip that I feel like I really got to know Joe. He has quite the clever sense of humor and I also realized that he is quite the coffee connoisseur. I learned that he drinks coffee all day long. But what was really amazing on that mission trip was seeing both he and Melissa’s heart for people and their heart for the Lord. Since then it has been such an honor to watch how they have just continued to grow at Southern Hills and watching them grow into young parents, and eventually embarking on the journey of fostering. They are just both such giving people. The other night I was sitting in front of them at church and their son was singing at the top of his lungs. It was so sweet and cute as pie!
One funny story I remember about them getting married was when they asked me to officiate it and I was cutting grass that day. I was just not in a big hurry to get there. We were on our way to the church when my phone starts blowing up and they were all wondering where I was. And I guess I had just made everyone nervous because I had only gotten there like 30 minutes to spare. And I usually get there 45 minutes to an hour early.
It’s been cool to watch them grow up and see how Melissa has turned out to be such an incredible mom and she is just a sweetheart. She worked at Southern Hills managing the volunteers and working as the Preschool Pastor for several years and she did an incredible job doing that, while being a mom herself. She now has transitioned back into teaching and I’m sure is just as incredible with that. Joe has an incredible position at Tanner. He leads and serves his family well and I can tell he just loves getting to be a dad!
I helped them buy their first house, then rent their old house while they built. Then the tenant ended up buying the other house so I got to help with that process as well. It’s just been cool watching them grow and getting to be apart of different parts of their lives. They are such sweet people and solid members of our church and our community. I just love them both dearly!
For these reasons and many more I would like to honor Joe and Melissa Bradley as my “Clients of the Month”!