Thanks for checking out our Web site! Corona de Tucson Baptist Church, where we've had the privilege to serve since 2010, began as a mission in 1963 and fully became its own church in 1965 when our worship center was built. The community of Corona de Tucson, about 28 miles from downtown Tucson, was originally envisioned as a retirement center for Christian workers. Many of the first streets were named for great Christian leaders and this tradition continues in the names of some of our newest streets. We participate in the national fellowship of Southern Baptist Churches.
Thank you for allowing me to introduce myself, as well. I've lived in many parts of the country, have worked in a great variety of jobs, have dealt with serious health issues, and have had many of the same trials and problems you've encountered, so I suspect we would get along pretty well! For example, four of my first five years were spent in a charity hospital for kids with Tuberculosis, so I can relate to people who've had to overcome difficult family circumstances and health issues.
My parents were not church-goers. It was not until the seventh grade that I had my first exposure to Christianity, but it was not until I was 18 that I stopped confusing being a Christian with trying to be good enough for God to love me and let me go to Heaven when I died. I stood in a baseball stadium on the night God showed me what my heart looked like in His eyes, including the ugliness of the selfish motives behind even my best acts. I then cried out to God for mercy, put my faith in what Jesus had done in dying for me on the Cross to gain my forgiveness, and asked God, "Make me like Jesus." Within two weeks there had been such a change in my attitudes toward myself and others that I could tell I'd become a new person inside and had been born-again! I also found in Jesus what I'd been looking for all my life to make sense of an otherwise pointless, dog-eat-dog world.
I started attending a Bible college in 1970 to begin preparation to become a minister and earned a Master's of Divinity degree by 1978. But or most of the years between 1978 and 2010, my jobs were in the regular work world. I've been a store clerk, a professional janitor, a car lot attendant, a laundry attendant, a delivery driver, an ice cream cart salesman, a farmhand, a house cleaner, and a security officer (corporate and industrial). My sermons deal with the issues people deal with in the work world and everyday life, because this is where I had to learn to live for the Lord myself.
My wife Loretta's path through life has been much different. She's like a Mary or a Samuel in the Bible who received nurturing to love and serve Jesus from her earliest memories and who never consciously lived in rebellion to Him. I began praying for her when she was seven, the night Jesus claimed me as His and I asked Him to prepare His mate for me. Thirty years passed, though, before it was God's timing to bring us together. Thus, I have keen memories of longing for God to fulfill unanswered prayers, during the many years He chose to keep me single for His purposes, while striving to be faithful to Him and to be all God wanted me to be for Him. The quality of love we've shared since we married in 2002 has proven God's wisdom in delaying answering my prayers for a mate until it was best for His purposes and for me!
In January of 2012, our gracious God allowed us the joys and thrills of becoming parents when we welcomed Shaina into our home. We fully embraced and adopted her in March of 2013, when Shaina was nearly 14. So, yes, we know the struggles and triumphs of raising a teenager! We have also been blessed to host several international students affiliated with CIEE for their Junior year of High School. Alexia Neamtu of Romania, age 17, is our current international "daughter"!
Our church motto is, "A small church with a big heart." If we can ever be of assistance to you in some way, please do not hesitate to call us at 520-762-1613, or you may write to us at cdtbaptist@yahoo.com.
Rick and Loretta Huff
