Board Of Directors

Kemp Laidley

President/Founder of Beyond the Bricks

Kemp was born in Midland Texas where he grew up and attended First Baptist Church of Midland. He attended college at Vernon college and Texas Christian University on a baseball scholarship. While playing college baseball, Kemp played in Alaska for the Kenai Peninsula Oilers, where he fell in love with the state and its people.  He also had the opportunity to play for two summers with Athletes in Action the sports ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.  With Athletes in Action, they played baseball, put on clinics and shared the gospel in South America and in the US. He earned a Master of Physical Therapy from Texas Tech University and has been practicing physical therapy in a variety of settings for almost 30 years. After physical therapy school, Kemp and his wife Amy moved to Alaska where they lived for over 6 years.  He and his family have been involved in family bible camps in Western Alaska. They owned and operated a wilderness Lodge on Lake Clark in Alaska. The lodge operates during the summer to host father-son trips, church groups and pastor retreats, in hopes that away from the distractions of our culture, God would reveal Himself more clearly. They have also been involved in international missions where they served in Kenya multiple times through World Medical Missions a division of Samaritan’s Purse International relief.

Kemp has also been an entrepreneur, opening and managing MRI centers in New Mexico for 15 years where he lived after moving from Alaska.
In 2009, Kemp assisted his friend Dave Petersen, a contractor who was working with Samaritan’s Purse International relief on several short-term mission projects.  Dave was working in Liberia, helping with rebuilding efforts after a 14-year civil war had devastated most of the country.   It was out of that experience and needs seen firsthand around the world, that Kemp started Beyond the Bricks. 
Currently he and his wife of 29 years, Amy, live outside of Ft Worth, Texas. They have three children.

Dale Pond

Dale Pond has recently retired from being the Associate Pastor/Missions Minister at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas. Dale had served at GABC since 2004. In addition to Missions Ministry, Dale also served as a recreation minister and is a former university basketball and cross-country coach. Dale holds a B.A. degree in Bible Studies from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas and an M.A. in Religious Education and Recreation from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition, Dale serves as President of ENGAGE, an organization that is involved in humanitarian efforts and community development projects worldwide.

Dale’s background and his experience have both allowed him to create a unique approach to Missions and leadership. Dale has established a set of approximately 16 strategic partnership teams for the GABC Missions efforts around the world.  Each of these partnerships has a specific leader as well as a team structure focused on motivating church members to become involved in the missions work in that particular region of the world.  The GABC Missions Ministry has also developed several unique partnerships with sports mission organizations around the globe.  These sports-oriented missions groups take advantage of the world’s openness to sports activities in order to take Christ into many traditionally hard to reach people groups. 

Dale has been instrumental in the development and implementation of Christian business leader training throughout the world. This unique and openly Christian approach to business training has been very well received throughout the world in both religious and secular realms.Dale has also become a regular instructor at these and other training sessions. Also, GABC has become a regular participant in periodic training seminars for on-the-field missionaries globally.

During Dale’s tenure at GABC, the church has enhanced its rich history of mission work.  GABC is regularly listed as the top church in Cooperative Program giving among all Southern Baptist Convention churches.  During Dale’s tenure, GABC’s Pastor David Dykes received the prestigious M. E. Dodd Cooperative Program Award from the Southern Baptist Convention recognizing the outstanding contributions that Pastor Dykes and GABC have made to missions efforts throughout the years. 
Dale and his wife of 39 years, Judy, recently moved to Midland, Texas.  They have three grown children and six grandchildren.

Mike Macko

Mike was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Arlington, Texas. He received Christ as an eighth grader at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting. He played college baseball as a scholarship athlete at McLennan Community College and Texas Christian University. Mike went on to receive his Masters and Doctorate degrees in Physical Therapy from the University of Saint Augustine in Florida. He spent 25 years with Texas Health Resources as a Physical Therapist, Clinical Director for Sports Medicine, and mentor to numerous sports physical therapists and athletic trainers in the residency program.  He recently joined SandersFit Rehab & Therapy as their physical therapist, practicing in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Mike’s parents started the Steve Macko Scholarship Fund. Mike is now the President of the Steve Macko Scholarship Fund which endowed baseball scholarships at several schools and continues to support non-profit organizations that spread the gospel.
Mike and his wife Brooke reside in Fort Worth, Texas with their adopted son, Coleman Isaiah. They attend Christ Chapel Bible Church, enjoy working out, and active vacations.
Mike’s father played and worked in professional baseball for more than 50 years and was most known for being the Texas Rangers longtime equipment manager before his death in 2016. Mike’s brother Steve was an All American at Baylor University and played for the Chicago Cubs before his untimely death from Cancer at the age of 27.

Dave Petersen

Dave currently lives in Alaska where he is a self-employed contractor. He has owned his own construction company in Alaska and Colorado since 1980. Previous to starting his own business, he was a structural/civil design draftsman for Ellerbe Architects in Bloomington, Minnesota.
 
Dave has been a tent-maker missionary since 1992 when he joined Missionary Aviation Repair Center in Soldotna, Alaska. He used his building and piloting skills to fly to bush villages in Alaska to build churches for several Covenant Churches.In 2006, after a fire destroyed a large portion of the village of Hooper Bay, Dave took on the role of project manager for Samaritan’s Purse to rebuild 5 homes for needy families. He returned the following year to the same village to build a church and youth center for the Covenant Church.
Dave, along with his wife, Trudy, was sent to Liberia in 2008 to restore and rebuild a bible college that was destroyed during the country’s 14-year civil war. The next Samaritan’s Purse project was in Kapsowar, Kenya building an operating theatre for a mission hospital. After the building was completed, they returned to Liberia to continue the restoration of the college. Dave was then asked to go to Eldoret, Kenya to build a large hangar for Samaritan’s Purse planes to aid in their relief projects in Kenya and South Sudan.
Dave has returned to Alaska but continues to travel to Liberia each winter for several mission projects. His passion is to spread the word of God, and to that end he has distributed thousands of Bibles to school children and teachers and taught lessons on how to begin a life-long study of the Word. He desires to be the light of Jesus Christ wherever he goes.
At home Dave enjoys flying and spending time with his children and grandchildren.

Kyle Jones

Kyle Jones is a Family Physician now residing with his family in Tulsa Oklahoma. He currently is working in private practice.  Up until 2021, he served with his wife and four children in Kapsowar, Kenya, where they lived for 11 years. He graduated from In His Image Family Medicine Residency Program in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he says he learned how to take care of his patients in mind, body and spirit. In his missionary work he has enjoyed a fruitful ministry in the hospital and nearby communities. While in Kapsowar, he served as the Director for the Kapsowar Hospital Community Health Program and has formed a strong network of volunteers doing community development and spiritual care for their villages. He also serves as the Director for AIC Lodengo Health Center and Primary School, outreach projects he started in a rural Kenyan village.

Herb Cavenaugh

Herb grew up in Midland, Texas and became a Christian as a kid. He met Kemp in the 7th grade and they have been great friends ever since. He played football growing up and played one year in college at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls, before transferring to Baylor University. After graduating Baylor he met his wife Sally and then settled into a career with the Fire Service. They have 3 kids and Herb serves as Fire Marshal for Carrollton Fire Department. They are members of First Baptist church in Carrollton. Herb desires to grow in his faith and help others in need to find Hope in Jesus Christ.