The pastor who saved Rafael Cruz and baptized his son, Ted Cruz, endorsed the Texas senator’s campaign for president today.

Gaylon Wiley baptized Sen. Cruz when he was eight years old, according to a release from the campaign. Wiley was pastor of Clay Road Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.

“Ted was just like all the other kids,” Wiley said.

“Except he had the IQ of his father – he was three stages ahead. I baptized both of his parents and had the privilege of baptizing Ted and leading him and his cousin Bibi to the Lord.

“I believe he is God’s man for this hour, for such a time as this. He is the most constitutional, conservative candidate in either party. The hand of God is on him, and if God’s people rise up, he will be the man.”

“I am honored by this support from two pastors that I respect so deeply,” Cruz said in the release, also referring to his current pastor, Gregg Matte of Houston’s First Baptist Church.

“I will always be grateful for the way Brother Wiley challenged my father in 1975, leading him to redemption in Jesus Christ and paving the way for a reconciliation between my parents. Inviting Christ to rule my life with Pastor Wiley’s encouragement at eight years old is the best decision I have ever made.”

Wiley reconnected with Cruz at a campaign event in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in August. News 2 captured the emotional moment:

“I was told Pastor Gaylon Wiley was here,” he told the crowd. “I haven’t seen Brother Wiley since I was a kid.”

“When I was three years old, my father left my mom. We were up in Calgary in the oil business and he came down to Houston and he decided he didn’t want to be married anymore or be a father to his three year-old-son,” Cruz recalled during that event.

But it was at a Bible study that Rafael Cruz was challenged by Wiley and it changed his life.

“I had the privilege of talking to Rafael Cruz in the 1970s in a home just like Ted told it today,” Wiley told News 2. “And the Holy Spirit touched him so much he fell out of that chair on his knees and prayed the sinner’s prayer and changed his life and flew back to Canada and got his family back together again.”

As ABC 4 reported, “the man who baptized the Cruz family caught up with that little kid from all those years ago who is now running for president.”