Yet despite their nurturing, by the time he was a teenager, Vaughn was struggling with feelings he didn’ t understand.“ I had survivor’ s guilt”, he says,“ And as I got older, I wrestled with it because, you know, there were three little girls who got robbed of their Dad.”
Before he turned 18, Vaughn moved out of the Reeves’ household, determined“ to live the way I wanted to live and that didn’ t go so great,” he laughs,“ Not the way I expected. In the old Texas tradition, I was just going from bar ditch to bar ditch.” Fortunately, his life parents had grounded him with a church-going habit, so when the expectations of his young adult life began to unravel, Vaughn sought solace in a place he had always found comfort.
“ So, January of 1987, I’ m at Park Street Baptist Church at the invitation of a friend,” Vaughn says,“ Well, there was a special song that Sunday morning called“ Give Your Heart Out” – a song about giving your heart to so many things, but you’ ve never given it to God. Well, that was so true to me. I had pursued all the things that I thought would, could or should make me happy and they had not.”
After the service, Vaughn stayed behind.
“ I was the last one out of the church and the pastor was there – Dr. Dewey Davidson – and I said‘ Hey, you tell me that God loves me’. He says‘ Yeah.’ And I said‘ But you don’ t know me. You don’ t know where I’ ve been, what I’ ve...’ He said‘ Doesn’ t matter...’ Vaughn was stunned. That night he received his faith, placed his trust in Jesus and was baptized again, this time with the full spirit of the Lord in his heart.
10 GREENVILLE LIFE