Compass Game Works

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About Compass Game Works Some of the first memories I have as a child are those of my family going on camping trips, fishing and hunting with my Dad. I joined in as soon as I could walk and the outdoors has been a part of my life ever since. I gained an undying love for it’s calm, and it’s pure and natural beauty. My dream as I was growing up was to be able to buy some land and live my life outdoors, doing what I loved most. Somehow, as my life went by, my dreams seemed to slowly turn into a nightmare. My Dad was a “company man” in the oilfield and that equated to lots of opportunities to be out with him and the guys, many times on trips to go fishing and hunting. For them, it seemed an opportunity to party. I grew up with a belief that part of having a good time included consuming large quantities of alcohol. This belief carried its way into my high school years and since it was the late 60’s, drugs were also a part of that equation. This lifestyle got me in its grip and kept me from pursuing the plans I had for going to medical school. After a short marriage, I made up my mind that I would spend a few years just having a “good time”; after all, I had the rest of my life, right? The next thing I knew it was 10 years later and I found myself with nothing to show for my life but a lot of wasted years and broken dreams. Even so, I had never lost my love for the outdoors and unknowingly, that would be what would eventually lead me to my salvation and back to my dreams. I got married again in 1984, to Mary Ann, and she has somehow stuck with me through a lot of things that most women wouldn’t. It was about this time that I had my first experience with God reaching out to me, when I called out to Him, after becoming lost while hunting on a mountainside in southeastern Okalahoma. But, I just passed it off and went on with life. We had the first of our three children in 1987 and I settled down, (somewhat), to a good job and the idea that we would raise our family and begin to live a “normal” life. But I felt like a normal life included alcohol and drugs, and I found myself still trying to fill up the emptiness of the hole inside me that I just never could quite figure out. Twelve years later I had a great job, a wonderful family, and a growing sense of despair with being lost and no idea of how to find my way. I had pretty much given up recreational drugs, but had substituted prescription pills, that I had for a chronic back problem, to go along with the alcohol to wash them down. I felt as if I was spiraling downward into darkness. I had tried to fill the emptiness inside me with all those things the world tells you will make you happy, yet inside I was miserable, and so was my family. I felt as lost as I did on that mountainside. I was broken, physically, mentally, spiritually, and financially. I had to find a way out, out of the darkness, out of the despair, out of the nightmare that had somehow become my life. I finally listened to the voice inside me that had first called out to me on that mountainside, so long ago. I did what I knew I needed to do and turned my life over to Christ in the summer of 1999. My life began to change, but I was a pretty hardened character and it took several years for most of the rough edges to start to get polished off. But, we become new creatures in Christ and the things I used to do just didn’t feel right anymore, so slowly, but surely, I changed. It was during the hunting season of 1999 that out of necessity, (my back problem), I came up with the first of many versions of the “back-pack feeder” The original consisted of a five gallon bucket attached to a back-pack frame that I had from my teenage years. It was attached with a piece of bailing wire and duct tape. I used PVC tubing to make a manual drop to spread corn, and finally, I didn’t have to haul those 50-pound bags around on my shoulders anymore. As God continued to shape and mold me, He also began to build a dream. Between the trials in my life that honed my character and the trials and failures that developed the “back-pack feeder”, it was to say the least, an eventful next few years. I received a calling in January of 2004 to go into the ministry. Who could believe that? But I trusted that God would lead me where i was supposed to go, and He has. It was in November of that year that God first gave me the vision for Compass Game Works. As it began to unfold, I could see how He had so intricately touched so much of my life to bring me to where I was. I could see how the things that I believed to be “mere coincidence” at the time were so much more. They were God’s hand guiding me and leading my life, sometimes with me following, sometimes in spite of me. I had spent the better part of 46 years lost. I spent the next 4 years doing what I had always done in my life, rationalizing everything that was going on and trying to explain it. I finally gave in to the truth. The truth was, my whole life had been about my choices, mostly bad ones. The right choices, the good choices had always been there, I just chose not to make them. It seemed easier to follow what the world told me was right, rather than what my heart told me. Once I finally surrendered completely to the One who created me, the One who created the beautiful outdoors that I love so dearly, He opened my eyes to real beauty, the beauty of His Love and His Grace through His Son, Jesus Christ. God completed my calling to the ministry in June of 2007, when I was offered a position on staff at one of the fastest growing churches in America, Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi Texas. I became Pastor of Home Teams at the church that had played such a huge part in the changes that had taken place in my life and have since become campus Pastor at Bay Area Fellowship Padre Island. So now my life had come full circle. I can only imagine what He still has in store. What an awesome God that would rescue me, restore me, give me the chance to do His work in the ministry, and even do what I love, spend time in His wonderful creation while spreading seeds for eternity with the Good News of Jesus Christ. His Grace has forever changed my life and my family’s life. I simply cannot live now without sharing the joy that comes from knowing His Love and His Salvation with all those who are out there feeling just as I did for so many years,,,,,Empty and Lost! May God’s Love fill your life and bless it as richly as He has blessed mine. (By the way, my Dad accepted Christ two weeks before he was taken by cancer!) Dave Cotham Compass Game Works (Have You Ever Felt Lost?) (Directions For Life)

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