Leadership and Staff
Elders
Andrew Callaway
LEAD PASTOR
I was born and raised in a Christian home in Long Beach, California. Like many others who are raised in a Christian home, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date of one’s conversion. While I am not sure the specific time that the Lord regenerated me, what I can say for sure is that “my justification has taken place because my sanctification currently is”.
After graduating High School in 1998, I went to The Master’s College and majored in Biblical Studies with an emphasis in Youth Ministries. I began serving as a youth pastor in my home church after I graduated in 2002. Through this time the Lord was shaping me and helping me understand my call to pastoral ministry. I soon realized I needed more training if I was going to be the most effective tool for the Lord as I could be. I could think of no better seminary than The Master’s Seminary and I enrolled in 2005. While at TMS, I began dating my wonderful wife Kim, “a lily among thorns” (Song of Solomon 2:2). We were married in 2006 and now have three adorable children.
Looking back I can see the Lord’s goodness, patience, and faithfulness throughout my entire life. In His goodness He has given me wonderful blessings and revealed His kindness to me. In His patience He has brought me through sanctifying trials and immaturity. In His faithfulness He has always led me to the people He uses to grow me, and places He has for me to serve.
As a friend of mine says, “it’s His plan and our privilege”. It is my joy to serve the Lord and His people here at Hickman Community Church.
Darryl Shakeshaft
Elder
I was born December 1940 in Montreal, Canada, and I moved to the U.S. at about 9 years of age.
I had some Christian upbringing at a young age in the Methodist Church. We moved about in my youth quite a bit, attending thirteen different schools, but never getting settled in a church.
I was called by God to saving faith in Jesus Christ at an older age, and serving Him is now my desire. Serving God for His glory and to do His will fills my time here on earth and at Hickman Community Church. Praise God for His mercy, love and saving grace.
Gary Acosta
Treasurer
I was born on October 14th 1952 in San Jose, California. My father moved our family to Hickman in 1962 and opened the doors of Simon’s Cabinets and Store Fixtures. As a young lad until I graduated from high school, I worked in the family business. My father expected his boys to do this.
Upon graduation “Uncle Sam” called me, and I proudly became an 82nd Airborne Soldier in the United States Army. Moving away from home for the first time and jumping out of air planes seemed like a good thing to do at the time. I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina for 2 ½ years where I met this “Southern Bell”, the most beautiful girl in the South, and I knew I could not come back to California without her. I asked her to follow me and she did (I don’t know why, but she did). Sylvia and I were married on July 13, 1974.
I went to school on the GI Bill to focus on police science. I was sure I did not want to become part of the family business, but God had other plans for my life. A job opportunity at a dual vocational institute opened up and I thought it would be a good avenue to get some experience in the prison system, but God had other plans for my life.
One night I was attacked and stabbed five times by a prisoner which caused me to rethink if I even wanted to pursue a career in police work. I went to work for my dad as a temporary means to meet the needs of my family and have been there for 36 years. Like I said, God had a better plan for my life.
In 2013, Sylvia and I will celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary. God has blessed us with 3 children and 8 grandchildren. If God had not set his love upon us we would not have had what it takes to commit to each other as husband and wife for a life time.
As a young child I attended the Hickman Church. In High School I attended youth group at East Side Church of Christ, in Turlock, where God planted seeds through the remnant of faithful saints. When I went into the military, and for the first 12 years of my marriage, I pushed God out of my life and lived for myself. At the age of 33 I found myself spiritually bankrupt and in desperate need of a Savior. God broke my hard heart and gave me a heart of flesh. He opened my spiritual eyes which allowed me to turn from my sin and turn to a life that would begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
My purpose in life now is to glorify God and enjoy his sweet fellowship each and every day of my life. The praise of man has lost it flavor but the words of my Savior “My good and faithful servant “ mean everything to me.
The Lord currently has me serving on the deacon board and in the food pantry ministry which is a tremendous evangelistic platform. I love to serve in this ministry because I have the opportunity to introduce lost souls to Jesus Christ.
My life verse is : Psalms 31:14-15 “But as for me, I will trust in you o Lord, I say, “you are my God” my times are in your hands: deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.”
DEACONS
Jacob Keiper
SECRETARY
Hello!
While growing up in a church-going home in Waterford, CA, I was encouraged to ask Jesus in my heart at a young age to ensure I will go to Heaven after I die and be with family forever. Eager to do so, I soon got baptized around age eight with the church youth group.
For the next 13 years my life looked exceptional to others by being respectful and polite externally. However, the truth was I was living a double-life by being a complete hypocrite putting on a show.
Just before my 22 birthday while running away from my messy life of sinful pursuits God convicted me of reality: I was living a lie. I was trusting my eternal destiny in a selfish prayer that I said as an eight-year-old boy… trusting in church attendance, and that I was a good person. The reality was that there is none who does good (Romans 8:9-20) and the one who practices sin is of the devil (1 John 3:8) and all liars, will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8). I needed Jesus Christ who died and bore God’s wrath in my place so that I may live eternally with Him in Heaven.
Since being born again by God’s grace, life has been radically different! What I once loved I now hate and what I once hated I now love. I have been a member of Hickman Community Church, growing in God’s Word, repenting of sin and desiring to live and serve my living God and Creator, Jesus Christ. Currently God has me serving the church body in a mixture of ways, but primarily in training and equipping the saints in evangelism with a love for the lost.
God has blessed me with the crown to my head, my excellent wife, Catherine whom I love and cherish. We have two children so far, our daughters Chloe May and Ariel.
Welcome to Hickman Community Church!
Music
Josh Pritchett
Music Minister
Hi, my name is Josh Pritchett. I was born in Salem, Oregon in 1974, raised in southern California, and spent my later high school and college years in the San Francisco East Bay Area. The Lord blessed me with a Christian home growing up. My home life largely centered on the church’s life, which is a principle I now instill in my own family. The Lord brought me to saving faith in Jesus Christ at a young age and gave me a love for His people. He has given me both the opportunity and ability to serve in many areas of the church in the different places I have lived, primarily in music and youth ministries. It is my joy to currently be serving as music minister at Hickman Community Church. The Lord drew me to live and serve in Hickman in 2000. He has since blessed me with a beautiful wife, Gina, and six wonderful children. I look forward to your family joining ours here at Hickman.
administration
