About Brad D Nelson
As you’re aware, my name is Brad (bka, “Cabbage”) and I was born in a small town in southwestern Ohio called Hillsboro. The nickname Cabbage came about (I read your mind, Friend) because I absolutely loved it growing up (and still do)! When I was 11 years old, my mother (Bordina) and younger brother Brett (affectionately coined “Cappy” by our great-grandmother, Ms. Nannie Nelson) moved to upstate New York. I earned a full athletic scholarship to play basketball at a college in Springfield, MA called American International College, and later transferred to Binghamton University two years later to be closer to home and where I graduated from in 2000 with a Bachelor’s degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Law in May 2000. I then went on to join the Army where I served nearly 19 years between active duty and the Reserves prior to transferring to active duty Air Force in January 2019. I’m often asked about transferring to another branch of service after serving so long in another and I don’t have a rational response. What I can say is GOD DID IT! As of Feb 2025, I’m 47 years old, I reside in the St. Louis, MO area, are the proud father of two (Kiyana & Brad II), the eldest of six boys, I have two nieces and one nephew, am actively involved in my church and community, and I genuinely love to worship God and serve His people. I’m the author of Pre-Deployment Guidebook from a Christian’s Perspective, and plan to write an autobiography for my third book that will prayerfully encourage someone.
I’ve always enjoyed writing and learned in my mid-20’s that I was able to articulate my feelings much better on paper than in conversation. Additionally, through my interactions with others and personally identifying with what they were going through in many instances, I came to understand we had common experiences. James Russell Lowell said, “One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” In that vein, my hope as a writer is for the reader to leverage anything I’ve done well or learned to their benefit while avoiding the harrowing challenges, obstacles, and discomforts that precipitated the aforementioned experiential lessons learned.
One of my favorite Scriptures in the Bible is Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.” I’m inspired to win souls for Christ! I want everyone to enjoy a personal and intimate relationship with Him and to share in the love, peace, joy, goodness, mercy, and eternal life that come along with it. Moreover, I’m inspired to be me, the imperfect, fallible, quirky, fun-loving, sometimes moody, always loving me. I believe we draw people to Christ by authentically being ourselves, being vulnerable and forthright in terms of our shortcomings, and resolute in addressing those deficiencies and being and doing better. I’m inspired to serve, to help people, to point out that we’re all works in progress, and to declare that battles that seem impossible to win are winnable with God!
The better question is, “What books didn’t inspire me to write?!” As long as I can remember, I’ve had a fondness for books, the thought that goes into creating them, and their transformative capacity. The Book that has single-handedly changed and saved my life is the Bible. The biblical accounts and narratives of people functioning in their humanity just like you and I, with their successes and failures, highs and lows, faith and doubts, has enabled me to learn conceptually and not altogether in practice from these experiences. As a result, the Bible offers me wisdom to navigate life’s twists and turns with grace and resilience. My hope as a writer is for others to learn from my life experiences vicariously and in theory while foregoing the trials and tribulations if at all possible.
The best way to reach me is through the “Contact” section of the website. I’m also accessible through any of my social media platforms listed and I look forward forward to hearing from you!