User:The vagabond saint

The Vagabond Saint is the pseudonym for the poet street preacher J. F. Cook born February 10, 1976 in Overton Texas. Early Life: Raised in the East Texas town of Palestine, Cook moved mercilessly around the state following the exploits of his artist father The Rev. J. R. Cook. Having lived in more than 18 separate cities by the age 15, the Cook family finally settled in the Commerce area where his father and mother attended East Texas State University now Texas A&M University-Commerce. Graduating with honors in 1994, Cook immediately set out to attend college in the small community where he lived, however, drug use and the obsessive relationship he was then involved in led Cook to Join the United States Marine Corps. in 1995. Unable to cope with the pressures of military life, Cook had a serious mental breakdown that required a stay in the psychiatric ward of a Military Hospital. Upon coming to terms with his drug use and alcohol abuse, Cook sought help in the only place he had ever felt adequate, Academia. After attending Southwestern Assembly of God University in Waxahachie Texas, Cook now further disillusioned with religion, fell outside of the Good graces of the school. The time spent in Waxahachie was not a total waste of time, for it was there that Cook, meet the then Freshman student Shekinah Quinnett. The two fell in love, in what has been described as a whirl wind romance and secretly married in February of 2000. Against his parent’s demands, Cook moved to the East Texas area of Tyler and attended the University of Texas-Tyler. Within one year the secret marriage was given legitimacy, and January 6, 2001, J.F. Cook and Shekinah Quinnett were married in a small Assembly of God Church in Conroe, Texas the home of his new wife. Within four years of their public wedding, the Cook family was expecting the first of their two children. MINISTRY: Stationed around the Houston Texas Metroplex, the current ministry is responsible for street outreach, witnessing, and evangelism. The Vagabond Saint and his wife Shekinah Gloria Quinnett-Cook(02-21-81)live and work in the Metroplex area with their two small children Orfhlaith and Kieran. Having received some early success with the publication of his poem "Maria" under the spelling Geofferey Cooke in 1999, he has watched any early success fall by the wayside as the proceeding years have brought none of that early appeal. J. F. Cook currently works as a high school English teacher in the Houston Independent School District at Contemporary Learning Center, an alternative school for students who have failed in previous academic endeavors.