Throughout his life, from his time in the service, to working both internationally and domestically, God has led Bruce Watson to where he is today, though Watson never expected to get where he is.

Born in St. Martinville, Watson, 43, was a man who had a dream when he was young. At the age of 9, it didn’t matter what anyone told him, because he knew he wanted to be in the Navy.

“I don’t know why but I always wanted to join the Navy,” Watson said. “I’ve always liked the water.”

After graduating from high school, Watson spent four years at sea, sweating each and every day in the engine room as a boiler technician on two separate Naval deployments in 1996 and 1998.

“It was what I wanted to do,” Watson. “I really enjoyed my time in the Navy.”

Though he enjoyed his time in the Navy and at sea, his wife didn’t enjoy it so much, Watson jokes.

Watson and wife Danielle have been married for 25 years and have four children — Brittney, 24, Elizabeth, 22, Victoria, 18 and son Bruce III, better known as Trey, who is 17.

During his time in the Navy, Watson and his wife started their family. During his time in the service she was at home with Brittney and Elizabeth.

“A mom with two children living pretty much by herself while I am living here on the ship, doing what I have to do … we talked about me re-enlisting,” Watson said.

Though he loved his time in the Navy and was proud of what he did in the service, Watson said he felt it was time to move on, and through prayer and God, he was able to make the right choice for him and his family.

“I felt that God didn’t want me to leave her to raise our children,” Watson said. “It was my responsibility to raise my children. I wanted to see my children grow up and I wanted to have a family.”

Making the decision to not re-enlist, Watson worked for nine years in the oilfield for Halliburton in the Gulf of Mexico before eventually accepting a job in Angola, Africa, working 28 days on and 28 days off.

“In the time I was working in the Gulf, Danielle was pregnant with Victoria and when I started working in Angola, she was pregnant with Trey,” Watson said.

Watson was there when Danielle delivered all three of the girls but when Trey came, he was on a rig in Angola. At the time, he said, God told him it was time to come back to his family.

“Being gone for 6 months, not necessarily at once, but I would come home for a month and I would spend an entire month with my children and then I was gone for an entire month,” Watson said. “And my wife was pretty alone with our four children by herself and we didn’t feel that was fair.”

Wanting to be home more, Watson then moved to a state-side position with Halliburton for two more years before moving on to Weatherford International Drilling oil and gas wells company, working in quality control for over 4 years before getting laid off for the first time, something that took a toll on him.

“Look, God has taken us this far, He has taken care of us, and He will get us through this,” Watson said. “And pretty much two weeks to the day (since he was laid off), I started at a company called TH Hill out of Houston.”

After more layoffs and more uncertainty with work in the oilfield, Watson was looking for what was next in his life in 2015.

“I knew at that time, God was calling me to do something else,” Watson said. “There was a reason I had gone through all of these layoffs and in the process I knew I could trust God.”

With prayer and God’s directions, Watson said he felt that his next chapter was working in ministry, though he didn’t know he would end up being a pastor of a church.

As a member of the First Baptist Church in Jeanerette since 2012, Watson was approached by Rev. Wallace Millsaps to preach. Each year he would pick a different man to preach in the church on Father’s day.

“His thing was you never know if God called you to preach if you never had the opportunity to preach,” Watson said.

After Wallace died that year, the First Baptist Church was in need of a pastor and Watson’s wife said that whatever God was telling him to do, she was going to support her husband all the way.

“‘Whatever it is, I am going to support you, I am going to be there, 100 precent,’” Watson said of his wife.

Feeling that call to ministry he had for some time now, Watson was eventually given the opportunity to preach for his church in 2016 as their new pastor, but he didn’t think he should at the time.

“It can’t be me,” Watson said. “I was in denial.”

Looking through the Bible as he often does in times of need, Watson sought the words of Gideon when God called him to the ministry, though he couldn’t believe it was to preach. After the majority of his church suggested he took over, he then knew it was time back in 2016.

“I got confirmation from God,” Watson said. “And I’ve been serving ever since.”

Four years later, Watson has found the thing he was called to do, to preach the word of God. Watson said he is honored to do such and is grateful, though he doens’t know why he received that calling.

“Why did God call me to serve at that church, I don’t know,” Watson said. “But what I do know, when He called me…. He has used me in a lot of different areas and lots of different places.”