Dave was saved at age fourteen in a small Independent Baptist church in Arlington, Texas, under the preaching of Pastor Bud Arrant. After high school, he served aboard the submarine USS Sennet (SS408) for four years. During this time, he married Grace Wilkinson, and their son, Wayne, was born. They were active in Hanahan Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina, under Pastor Hobson Wolfe. Dave held services on the Sennet while at sea, and God used that time and experience to call him into full-time ministry.

After being discharged, the Hardys returned to Arlington for a year where Dave attended Arlington Baptist College. They moved to Springfield, Missouri, in 1967, where he attended and graduated from Baptist Bible College. After working on the staff at Seminole Baptist Temple for three years under Pastor Raymon Tracy, he accepted the call to become pastor of Eastland Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Consistent growth from 55 to 600 in attendance reflects a lively, thriving ministry.

It was Dave’s desire to build a church that was pleasing to God: one that recognized God’s primary attribute of holiness and worshipped Him in spirit and truth; one that was conservative in theology and practice; and one that was sanctified. Eastland has been marked as a church that is friendly and accepting and which carries solid Biblical truths into the community and world.

While at Eastland, Dave was able to earn the Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Doctor of Ministry from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has served as adjunct professor at Baptist Bible College in Springfield and also as trustee for two three-year terms. Additional opportunities have included nine years as a Mission Field Representative and two terms as First Vice President to the Baptist Bible Fellowship International. Beginning in 1998, Dave served as professor of homiletics and/or practical theology at Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City, and served as interim Executive Vice-President of the college for one year.

Dave and Grace were married in 1962 and have one son, Wayne, who pastors Bible Baptist Church in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and one Japanese daughter, Ai Burgett, who lived with them for thirteen years before marrying Matt Burgett. Wayne and his wife, Lisa, have been blessed with three children.

Grace Wilkinson’s early childhood lacked the stability and security of a home with loving parents. She spent several years living with and being raised by her grandparents, the most stable people in her young life. At the age of eleven, events began taking place that would change her life forever.

The first line of James Mountain’s hymn, “I Am His and He Is Mine,” became very real to eleven-year-old Grace when she trusted Christ as her personal Savior in Meridian, Mississippi.

Loved with everlasting love, Led by grace that love to know. Spirit breathing from above, Thou hast taught me it is so!

She later returned to her parents’ home, and they moved to Texas where she met a boy named Dave, who sometimes came to play with her stepbrothers in their backyard. Dave and Grace attended the same church. They began dating when she was sixteen and, soon after, Dave joined the Navy. After his return home on leave from boot camp, Grace Wilkinson became Mrs. Dave Hardy.

After Dave was released from the Navy, he, Grace, and their three-year-old son, Wayne, returned to Arlington where they bought their first home. For the first time in her life, Grace enjoyed the security of a permanent home. When they were called into the ministry a short time later, however, Grace willingly gave up that stability to move to Springfield, Missouri, to begin attending Baptist Bible College. Though it was initially a time of struggle to leave her home and friends, she had learned that her security was in the Lord and not in her house or any other thing she possessed.

She surrendered to that call to serve with Dave in ministry. She served with Dave as college/career directors in Springfield, Missouri, for three years and she served along with Dave at Eastland Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for thirty years. Her philosophy of ministry came together when God showed her that “part of my responsibility was to teach and train the ladies to be laborers with me together with God. My job was to teach them to use their gifts and abilities to minister to others.” Grace has exhibited this in the Missions Intern Program at Eastland, mentoring the mission intern wives. She taught a monthly class at Eastland called “Girls with Grace,” in which young women of the church were equipped for ministry and has also taught occasional classes at Heartland Baptist Bible College. Grace is a popular speaker at women’s meetings across the nation. Her counsel is highly prized and regularly sought after.

One of her most extraordinary contributions has been her establishment and direction of the Annual Green Country Christian Ladies’ Retreat. Each year, she, along with the Eastland family, hosted over a thousand ladies who came for a time of spiritual refreshment. It has provided a myriad of opportunities for spiritual development of the families at Eastland, as well as has had impact on the ministry and effectiveness of churches across the nation.

Grace has been the ideal example of a helpmeet to her husband. She has complemented him with a “can-do” attitude and an open home, showing hospitality to hundreds of guests, making each visitor feel comfortable and special. Having a great burden for missionaries and ministry families has made her a willing and ready companion on missions trips and in traveling to her husband’s speaking engagements.

Reflecting on her ministry of over thirty years with her husband, Grace’s emphasis is on the goodness of God in leading her through a difficult childhood, in bringing her to salvation at an early age, in His choice of a husband, in allowing her to be a ministry wife, and in giving her “the most wonderful life I believe I could have ever had.”