“Now I can just concentrate on golf, so I can get better,” he said. “Playing two spring sports made it hard to practice a lot. Now I’m just playing golf.”

“His best golf is in front of him, now that he’s concentrating on golf,” Henderson said. “He can play. He can hit it a mile.”

Stephenson will be a ministry major at Faulkner. The devout Christian plans to become a youth minister, and wants to work with kids.

“I want to go into youth ministry,” he said. “I have a great youth minister at my church, Chris Petty. I feel like I have a calling to do that, and that’s a job I think I will like. I love youth ministry. I’ve seen the effect my youth minister has had on my life, and I want to have an effect on others’ lives.”

Stephenson is currently spending three weeks in the Ukraine, doing mission work with a group from the Central Avenue Church of Christ. The group will be holding Bible school for both kids and adults in a country where Christianity is still being reintroduced, after being suppressed during decades of communist rule. The Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union from 1922-91.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a great experience,” he said before departing last Friday. “We’ve been sending people over there, and it struck me that I wanted to go. It’s a different world over there. I hope we can bring kids to Christ.”